According to a recent Wall Street Journal article ('A Harvard Cap On A's Has Students Smarting', p. A3, April 4):
"For years, Harvard has been handing out A's in abundance. Now, a proposed cap would pump the brakes-and students are up in arms. Harvard's faculty is set to vote next week on a proposal to cap the number of A's per course, which now make up more than half of undergraduate grades after years of inflation. The plan also suggests getting rid of GPA as an internal metric, instead using percentile rank to calculate honors like cum laude recognition."
There's nothing wrong with Harvard capping the A's as their overuse doesn't make the school look elite, as it purports to be. There's also nothing amiss in using percentile rank - say for honors calculation - which is also what the SAT and GRE exams use, i.e. one may place in the 92nd percentile in the verbal section and 90th percentile in math.
Yet to read the reactions of the Harvard students polled you'd think they were being asked to flunk every course. Especially when one reads:
"Student-made memes depict the administration as 'Gandalf from Lord of the Rings saying 'You shall not pass!"
Talk about drama queens! Of course you will pass, just not get an automatic A anymore. Hint: a D is - or used to be a pass mark - and an A used to be reserved as a superlative. But these snowflakes regard a 'D' the same way as being branded with a scarlet letter for 'failure'.
The WSJ piece goes on:
"A frenzied debate has gripped campus, with students protesting that the changes would increase stress, fuel competition and discourage academic exploration."
All of which is errant twaddle. Look, kiddies, stress has been part of college life since the year dot. If you're just coasting through courses with no stress then either the courses are way too easy, or the instructors way too generous (and perhaps intimidated by student evaluations).
As for fueling competition, wasn't that the hurdle you crossed to make it into Harvard in the first place? You had to compete with tens of thousands to snag that acceptance, in terms of SAT scores, academic average at your HS and the number and stature of the clubs you joined - as well as how many European study ventures you went on to expand your cultural horizons.
Discouraging academic exploration? That's more poppycock. If you are truly interested in trying new courses outside your specialty (say astronomy instead of business), the risk of getting a B or even C should not matter. After all, Intertel's Dr. Stephen Mason had noted university education:
"teaches a person to live - not to earn a living" - and that living encompasses an incentive for learning for its own sake"
But, of course, learning for its own sake is alien to these whiners. This is given all of these kids fancy themselves ultimately getting into the top 1 percent of this country, so anything that might dent a perfect 4.0 graduation average is anathema.
The administration's proposal follows a report showing that grade inflation at Harvard has grown dramatically over the past two decades. In the 2024-25 school year, roughly 60 percent of all undergraduate grades were A’s, a sharp increase from just 25 percent in the 2005-06 academic year. This prompted Amanda Claybaugh, the dean of undergraduate education, at Harvard, to tell the Journal:
“We have to do what’s in the interest of preserving the reputation of Harvard, and they all benefit from that.”
Ah yes, but try drilling that into the little lumpkins' craniums. A survey conducted by Harvard’s undergraduate student government found overwhelming opposition to the proposed A-grade cap, with approximately 94 percent of respondents disapproving. I'd wager this stat shows the preponderance of the entitled snowflake students, who would likely take a jump in the river if they got a C. "It would kill my chance of acing professional career!"
Whatever, kid.
But it also shows me exactly why this bunch at Harvard are furious over the proposed change, given they've been getting fat off the grade gravy train for so long. They're so used to it by now most probably don't have to study even an hour a night, if that. I mean, hell, we're looking at a change that could limit the number of A grades faculty can award in undergraduate courses, a move administrators say is necessary to curb rampant grade inflation. And as I have written before, the prevalence of grade inflation means a university's reputation craters - as well as its academic awards like 'Summa cum laude'. It can't be otherwise.
When a school "doles out A's like peas" to use the Bajan expression, it signals that it regards excellence as little different from mediocrity. If so many undergrads (3 out of 5) at Harvard have been getting A's the past two years then either: a) the courses were too easy, or b) the faculty are being intimidated by student evaluations.
One former Physics prof (William J. Veigele) writing
in a 2020 issue of Physics Today (August, p. 12, 'Teacher
Harassment and Loss of Respect'), wrote:
“One protocol I've always disliked
was the written student evaluations of professors."
Adding:
"A strong correlation holds between students earning low marks
in physics and the ones submitting unfavorable remarks."
And let's face it, if this correlation applies in one academic course domain it is bound to apply in others.
The Harvard vote needs to fulfill that 20 percent cap in A's to retain respect for the institution. This would bring the number of A’s back down to the levels Harvard had in 2011. Hopefully also, the proposal won't be scuttled like Princeton did after implementing its own cap on A's in 2004, then repealing the policy in 2014. According to the report in the WSJ:
"It had added a large element of stress to the students' lives"
Awwww...And these are the little puffkins who plan to run the world? Shape the universe? Try attending a really competitive Chinese university for a year. But then the Chinese are the ones who very soon will be the dominant movers and shakers.
See Also:
Thanks To Grade Inflation University 'Cum Laude' Honors Are Now Meaningless
And:
Brane Space: WHAT was that Harvard Twit Thinking?
And:
Brane Space: "Free Students From The Grading Curve"? - That Depends
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