Last year, the average GPA for the Harvard University Class of 2025 was 3.83. That’s not a typo.
At Harvard, one of the most selective colleges in the world, the average student graduating in 2025 had a GPA of 3.83 on a 4.0 scale. That meant the average student received an A or A-minus in almost every class.
Harvard has a lot of company. Yale’s average GPA in 2023 was a similarly laughable 3.7, with nearly 80 percent of grades being A to A minus. Public universities have increased grades by 17 percent between 1990 and 2020. And in primary and secondary education, the numbers continue to rise, even though test scores have not increased.
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This phenomenon is known as grade inflation and is a major problem. Colleges claim to teach students critical, essential skills. That’s how they justify those expensive tuition bills and hefty taxpayer subsidies. But how seriously can we take such claims if they no longer set a consistent bar for student work?
This is what happens when norms and expectations collapse. A stricter assessment is not a one-time solution to this problem, but it is a healthy start.
That’s why it’s promising that Harvard is finally taking inflation seriously. Last week, a faculty committee proposed limiting A grades to 20 percent of grades per class. Since A’s make up the lion’s share of grades given out at Harvard, such a limit would be a major correction. University faculty appear to tentatively support the recommendations, which they will vote on later this spring.
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Faculty support may surprise some readers. After all, isn’t it the professors who inflate the grades? Yes, they certainly are. But what outsiders may not appreciate is that these same faculty often say they feel like they have no alternative.
The same professors who give students a grade they don’t deserve will silently complain that they feel powerless to do anything else. It’s a collective action problem: there is no incentive for any individual faculty member to try to hold the line. Doing so will result in tearful pleas from students, accusations of bias, and even angry text messages from college-paying parents. Easy grades make students happy and a professor’s life easier.
Poor ratings are also a recipe for poor ratings on student course evaluations, which can come back to haunt faculty when it comes to tenure and promotion. That’s why so many professors would breathe a sigh of relief if Harvard “forced” them to give stricter grades.
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There is reason to wonder how successful Harvard will be. Twenty years ago, Princeton University tried something similar but ultimately gave up because of student complaints that they were being handicapped as they competed with peers from rival colleges for jobs and admission to graduate school. In fact, Harvard students are already kvetching: Eighty-five percent oppose the proposal, with one student explaining, “It would create so much pressure while life wouldn’t be worth living.” It may only be feasible for colleges to tackle inflation if they act together.
Still, it’s encouraging to see Harvard finally taking the issue seriously.
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It’s no coincidence that after decades of studiously ignoring the problem, Harvard is finally taking action. While there is plenty to question about the way the Trump administration has gone after Harvard and its peers, the pressure has created a new urgency over long-ignored problems. The government’s proposed ‘compact’ proposal, released last October, had its problems, but also did much to elevate issues such as government bond inflation.
A quarter century ago, Harvey “C-Minus” Mansfield, the iconic Harvard political theorist, began giving students two grades — one he thought they deserved and another “based on Harvard’s system of high grades.” It would be a great turn of events if Harvard were to adopt strictness again, if only so that professors who want to provide honest feedback no longer feel obliged to operate in the shadows.
Greg Fournier is the Education Policy Studies Program Manager at the American Enterprise Institute.
