Harvard Faculty Approves 20 Percent Cap on A Grades

Harvard faculty voted to limit the share of A grades awarded in each class to 20 percent, with an additional 4 percent allowed at the professor's discretion. The vote passed with 69.5 percent support after a week of balloting. The new rules apply only to A grades and leave A-minus grades unaffected.

The faculty also approved a separate measure to base student honors and awards on percentile rankings rather than GPA. An earlier proposal that would have allowed professors to opt out of the grade limits was rejected. Implementation begins with the 2026-2027 academic year.

A faculty committee released a 19-page report in February 2026 that examined rising grade inflation at the university. The report followed a study showing that just over two-thirds of students received A grades in 2025, up from one-third in 2010. Nearly 80 percent of students received either an A or A-minus that year.

The original report combined the grade cap and percentile honors system into one proposal. Faculty later split the measures for separate votes. Students had expressed opposition in a February survey, with roughly 85 percent disapproving of the recommendations.

Faculty had already begun reducing A grades before the vote. The share of A grades awarded in the fall semester fell from 60.2 percent in the 2024-2025 academic year to 53.4 percent in the most recent fall term. National data show similar trends at other universities, with the average U.S. college GPA rising from 2.81 in 1990 to 3.15 in 2020.