May 24, 2026
Harvard has long been regarded as one of America’s most prestigious universities, but rising concerns over grade inflation have put the Ivy League school under increasing scrutiny.
Grade inflation is the practice of giving higher grades for the same level of work over time. For example, a student who receives an A on an essay today might’ve earned a B ten years ago, raising concerns that grades no longer reflect the same level of academic achievement they once did.
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According to a paper published by Missouri Medicine, in 1950, the average GPA at Harvard was estimated at 2.6 out of 4. By 2003, it had risen to 3.4. And in 2025, it stood at 3.8.
Because of the controversy surrounding grade inflation, Harvard faculty recently voted to put a cap on the amount of As awarded to students per course. According to the FAS Current, “nearly 70 percent of voting faculty approved the grading cap — which would limit A grades to 20 percent of the undergraduates in any course plus an additional four students, with no limit on A-minuses.” The new policy will take effect in the fall of 2027.
Harvard psychology professor Steven Pinker spoke to the New York Times, emphasizing his agreement with this new policy: “Grade inflation forced a race to the bottom in which any professors who held the line with challenging material and standards would see their enrollments plummet. It turned universities into national laughingstocks.”
Pinker even suggested that more could be done, such as capping the number of A-minuses.
It’s not just a Harvard problem
Although Harvard has made national news by addressing grade inflation, it’s happening at universities and colleges all over the country.
According to the National Center for Education Statistics, the average college GPA was 3.15 in 2020 — up from 2.81 in 1990.
But why, and how does this happen? It’s hard to say for certain, but it could be that some schools want to boost grades to improve retention rates, and individual professors may even want to boost grades to improve their chances of getting positive reviews from students.
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A study from the University of Groningen found that student evaluations influence faculty behavior, potentially rewarding lenient-grading instructors.
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What it means for students in the grand scheme
With all this in mind, it’s worth wondering what’s really at stake, beyond universities’ reputations.
A study by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) took a look at the long-term impacts of grade-inflation. While this study was focused on the effects of practicing grade inflation in high school, it is likely that the outcomes would be similar for students who experience it in post-secondary education.
Using administrative high school data from Los Angeles and Maryland, the NBER found that grade inflation has a long-term impact on students, influencing their postsecondary enrollment and labor market outcomes.
According to the study, “the cumulative impact of higher grade inflating teachers is economically significant. A teacher with one standard deviation higher mean grade inflation reduces the present discounted value of lifetime earnings of their students by $213,872 per year of teaching.”
Harvard’s new policy may make top grades harder to earn, but with research like this in mind, restoring academic rigor could better prepare students for the workforce while preserving the value of a Harvard degree.
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Em Norton is a Content Specialist at moneywise.com. They have been with the company since 2022.
