The Most Frequently Assigned Grade at Harvard Is an ‘A’
“You get an A! And you get an A!” (Image Credit: Associated Press)
The most frequently awarded grade at Harvard College is an A, the Crimson reports this week, and the median grade is an A-. While these particular stats are new, the knowledge that inflation exists at Harvard, and most everywhere else in higher education, is not.
The data came out of a monthly faculty meeting, when Government Professor Harvey Mansfield asked Dean Michael Smith whether it was true that the most frequently assigned grade at Harvard College was an A-. It wasn’t true, but in fact, slightly more egregious.
“I can answer the question, if you want me to,” Harris said reluctantly, according to the Crimson. “The median grade in Harvard College is indeed an A-. The most frequently awarded grade in Harvard College is actually a straight A.”
Periodic stories about the rampant grade inflation at Harvard set off a round of debates with some regularity. And already, the national media is descending on this statistic to bemoan a generation of trophy-hoarding softies. But while it might inspire outrage and derision, it doesn’t really move the battle lines of the debate. Tepid defenders of the status quo will point out that Harvard undergrads overcame a 5.9 percent acceptance rate to earn admission. Many of them are A students, and handing out a majority of C’s might not be representative of their talent. Game theorists will note that it’s difficult for just one college to reverse the trend, making their students look worse than the competition from other schools when competing for jobs outside industries that understand the differences between a Harvard GPA and a Princeton one. Princeton, by the way, has implemented quotas, limiting the number of A’s its professors can dole out. It hasn’t been entirely well received by students or faculty. Already, the school says it’s reevaluating the policy. Clearly, there’s no answer here that satisfies all.
Still, the idea that a grade at Harvard is more likely to be an A than anything else seems a bit outrageous. And it creates a high-pressure system of its own. When you so limit the range of grades people are receiving, you basically set up a system of “pass and varying ranges of fail.” It means that if you take a class with someone who doesn’t ascribe to the current grading standards, and receive a B-, meaning you did about average in the class, it has an outsized influence on your transcript.
Still, don’t necessarily bet that a solution arises out of this incident. In 2001, it seemed equally outrageous that 91 percent of Harvard undergrads graduated with honors, a statistic reported in one of these periodic flare-ups. Harvard took measures to fix that statistic, but it doesn’t seem to have addressed the root issue. So will this be the round of mocking that forces the school to find a solution that sticks? They are, after all, a leader in higher education. If they announce that from now on, employers should interpret a wider range of grades from their graduates as something other than the declining intelligence of their students, a lot of graduate programs and employers will know about it. Then again, some schools might even imitate it.
