Alma T. Barak, Wyeth Renwick, and Claire L. Simon,
Harvard students slammed a proposal to cap A grades and use raw percentage scores for internal awards, warning that the changes would intensify academic competition, misrepresent students’ mastery of course material, and harm postgraduate prospects.
If approved by faculty, the 19-page plan — released Friday by the Office of Undergraduate Education — would limit the number of A grades to 20 percent of each course, with room for up to four extra As per course. The proposal also included a new “average percentile rank” system, which uses students’ raw numeric scores to determine internal awards rather than grade point averages.
A faculty subcommittee argued that the recommendations “take critical steps towards the College’s goal to re-center academics, restoring confidence in the College’s grading system, and better aligning incentives with pedagogical goals.”
But in more than two dozen interviews with The Crimson, students overwhelmingly urged faculty to reject the proposal.
“You accept a bunch of top 3 percent students in the country and then get surprised that we’re getting all As,” Harlow W. Tong ’28 said. “I don’t understand the point of ranking against each other.”
Tong added that lowering average GPAs would reduce the value of a Harvard education.
——
In my 23 years at Harvard I’ve had to increase the proportion of A & A- grades from 25% to 65% of my large intro class (still tougher than the average Harvard class)
——
more.