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Updated on: May 20, 2026 / 5:48 PM EDT
/ CBS Boston
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Harvard University faculty members voted to cap the number of A's awarded to students in an effort to make the grades more meaningful. By a vote of 458 to 201, faculty approved a measure that caps the number of A grades to 20%, plus four additional per class, the university confirmed Wednesday. There is no limit to the number of A-'s or other grades that can be given out. Another measure that would have allowed courses to opt out of the cap was rejected, 364 to 292.The new policy, which only applies to undergraduate students, goes into effect in the fall of 2027 and will be reassessed after three years.In a statement, members of the Subcommittee on Grading said it was a critical policy for students because "[a] Harvard A grade will now tell them, as well as employers and graduate schools, something real about what a student has achieved.""Today the Harvard faculty voted to make their grades mean what they say they mean. For decades, grade inflation has been a collective-action problem: everyone saw it, but no one faculty member could fix it alone. The faculty have now taken a major step to fix it together," the subcommittee said.Harvard began considering the change after the subcommittee found that too many students were getting A's. They said employers and graduate school admissions offices said Harvard transcripts "no longer provide them useful information." According to a university report, A's accounted for 60% of the grades awarded to undergraduate students in 2025. That was up from 40% in 2015 and 20% in 2005.
