**Harvard’s Declining Academic Standards: Grade Inflation and Campus Culture Clash**
Harvard University has faced numerous challenges to its prestige in recent years, many of which appear to be self-inflicted. A recent report by Harvard’s Office of Undergraduate Education revealed significant grade inflation, showing that more than 60 percent of undergraduate grades awarded are A’s. When everyone receives an A, merit loses its meaning — and with it, Harvard’s hard-earned reputation.
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### Grade Inflation on the Rise
The report highlighted a 20 percentage point increase in A grades since 2015. The median GPA at graduation has risen from 3.64 to 3.83 in 2025, with the median Harvard College GPA reaching an A as early as the 2016-2017 academic year. This trend indicates an alarming dilution of academic rigor.
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### The Impact of the Pandemic and Changing Selection Criteria
Several factors have exacerbated this shift. The COVID-19 pandemic, with its remote learning and testing challenges, played a role, as did an increase in social media screen time among today’s college generation. Simultaneously, Harvard has moved away from standardized testing and merit-based admissions, increasingly considering skin color, sexual orientation, and other diversity factors in its candidate selection process.
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### Faculty Concerns and Content Reduction
Harvard professors have voiced growing concerns that if they fail to meet the demands of socially conscious students, they risk poor student evaluations and diminished academic prestige. The internal report confirmed that nearly all faculty members expressed unease about the grade inflation trend.
Moreover, the report found that some instructors have reduced course content to accommodate student sensitivities. According to *The Harvard Crimson*, many humanities and social science professors have had to “trim some readings and drop others entirely,” switching from novels to short stories due to “increasing student complaints.”
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### Student Backlash Against Tougher Grading
Ironically, students have reacted with outrage to the idea of reinstating traditional grading standards and more rigorous exams. Despite learning less and receiving higher grades than their predecessors, some students appear to have grown accustomed to demanding easier academic experiences. The report noted that part of the pressure on instructors to inflate grades stems from increasingly “litigious” students.
Many students responded to the report by claiming it “missed the complexity of academic life at Harvard,” a phrase some interpret as prioritizing partying or political activism over scholarship. Several warned that stricter grading policies “could heighten stress without improving learning.” One student reportedly skipped classes and spent an entire day “sobbing in bed” after learning about the report — a reaction that some might compare to an overprivileged “grade-A snowflake” moment.
*The Harvard Crimson* also covered student concerns that harsher grading might shift their focus from learning to merely “chasing grades.” Yet the reality is academic standards are already diluted to accommodate these demands, paradoxically lowering the motivation to learn in depth.
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### Mental Health and Academic Enjoyment Debates
Some students expressed anxiety that tougher grading could “take a serious toll on students’ mental health,” with one suggesting it made her “rethink my decision to come to the school.” Another lamented that even the current inflated grades “already felt harsh” and worried that raising standards further would “erode students’ ability to enjoy their classes.” She claimed that “maximum enjoyment” of college comes not just from learning, but from an easier academic experience.
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### The Cultural and Educational Implications
Today’s students often seem wedded to a rose-colored worldview reminiscent of the 1960s counterculture mantra to “Turn on, tune in, drop out.” Harvard’s current generation might easily award Timothy Leary a high grade for such sentiments — but would graduates accustomed to “enjoying” their classes be prepared for demanding real-world challenges, such as performing complex surgeries?
Many young people have become so coddled that they are missing out on vital experiences with failure and resilience. A separate Harvard report revealed that many students choose easier courses to make time for extracurricular activities, which some claim are “integral to Harvard’s identity.”
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### The $64,000 Question for Harvard
The key challenge facing Harvard is how to define and maintain academic excellence in the coming years. Should it be based on demonstrable mastery of crucial, practical knowledge — for example, knowing precisely how many cc’s of anesthetic to administer to a patient? Or is it more important to reward students for their participation in social causes, activist rallies, or cultural celebrations?
Harvard must decide whether it will prioritize genuine academic achievement or continue to yield to pressures that may ultimately erode its prestige and educational mission.
https://www.libertynation.com/harvard-revamps-grading-integrity-students-howl/