One of the nation’s most selective institutions is sounding the alarm about grade inflation. According to a new report, A’s account for about 60 percent of all grades awarded in 2025 at Harvard College, which houses the university’s undergraduate program. That’s a big jump from 2005, when less than a quarter of grades were A’s. The report has provoked a frenzied response, validating for critics the notion that “elite” colleges aren’t all they’re cracked up to be, and that Gen Z students are delicate snowflakes who can’t handle tough grading. The truth, of course, is more complicated. But the report provides a fascinating portrait of how Harvard views its own role as a sorter of talent, and it shines a light on universal debates over grading that extend far beyond Cambridge, Mass.
Related Reading

What’s Up With Grade Inflation? (College Matters podcast)  

The Great Campus Charade: Students Are Learning and Studying Less — Yet Grades Go Up (The Review) 

Why Does the Trump Compact Talk About Grading? (The Chronicle)

Guest
Beth McMurtrie, senior writer at The Chronicle of Higher Education

For more on today’s episode, visit chronicle.com/collegematters. We aim to make transcripts available within a day of an episode’s publication.