这一提案位于更广泛的全国趋势之中：美国高校平均GPA在30多年内上升了0.5分以上，而且自2020年以来每个学年哈佛本科成绩中的A都占多数。耶鲁据报更进一步讨论校园全局平均GPA目标为3.0。哈佛去年毕业生需要3.989 GPA才可获summa cum laude荣誉，传统上仅给一名学生的最高GPA奖项也出现了54人并列。支持者认为，绩点膨胀削弱了雇主和研究生院对学生成绩可比性的判断；保守派则将高A率上升视为高教偏离绩效导向的象征。
反对声音同样明显。2月学生政府的调查显示，近85%的哈佛本科受访者反对A等级限制，学生担心压力加剧、竞争更激烈，并使部分学生避开难度较大的专业课程；一些受访者称已有学生因此倾向选修更容易的课程。历史经验也提示结果复杂：普林斯顿于2004年在各系实施35%上限，2014年取消；在后十年，A和A+比例大致翻倍至46%。威尔斯利在实施15年后于2019年取消多数基础课平均不得高于B+的规则，随后straight A数量显著上升。内部报告显示，普林斯顿总体未见明显毕业去向受损（ROTC属于例外），而Wellesley的研究却提示种族差距在成绩上扩大。
Harvard faculty are set to begin voting on Tuesday, with results expected on May 20, on a proposal to cap undergraduate A grades at 20% of class size plus four students per course. In the 2024-25 academic year, roughly 60% of Harvard undergraduate grades were As—more than double the share in 2006—and that figure fell to 53% in the fall semester after administrators pushed stricter grading. If approved, the policy would take effect in fall 2027. A separate faculty petition option would allow selected courses to be graded only as “satisfactory/unsatisfactory,” with limited “satisfactory-plus,” and a third motion would replace GPA-based awards with average percentile ranking.
This proposal sits within a broader national trend: the median U.S. college GPA has risen by more than half a point over just over 30 years, and since 2020 every academic year at Harvard has seen a majority of undergraduate grades at A. Yale is reportedly considering an even stricter approach by discussing a campus-wide mean GPA target of 3.0. At Harvard last year, graduating students needed a 3.989 GPA for summa cum laude, and an award once given to one student became a 54-way tie at the top GPA. Supporters argue grade inflation weakens employers’ and graduate schools’ ability to compare students, while conservatives see high A rates as a symbol of a drift away from standards.
Opposition is substantial. A February student-government survey found nearly 85% of Harvard undergraduates opposed A limits, warning that it would increase stress, intensify competition, and discourage students from demanding majors; some students reported already favoring easier classes. The policy record is mixed. Princeton introduced a 35% departmental cap in 2004, then ended it in 2014, and in the following decade A and A+ rates roughly doubled to 46%. Wellesley ended a 15-year rule in 2019 that kept many lower-level classes from averaging above B+, after which straight As rose sharply. Prior findings were uneven: Princeton found little broad harm to post-graduation outcomes except in cases such as ROTC, while Wellesley-era research reported wider racial gaps in grading.