In Part I, we unpacked the incentives that keep Harvard’s grades inflated. This week, we turn to what it might take to change them.

Part II: Breaking Free From a Prisoner's Dilemma

At Harvard, grade inflation benefits nearly everyone in the short term.

Students avoid hard classes that might lower GPAs; instructors risk poor evaluations if they grade rigorously; tenured faculty worry about shrinking enrollments; and departments fear losing concentrators and funding.

The rational choice is to go along with inflation, even though many know it erodes educational value: a classic prisoner’s dilemma.

The same dynamic exists beyond Cambridge. Yale’s average GPA was 3.70 in 2022-23, with 79% of grades in the A range. During the same period at Brown, 62% of grades were A’s, with another 23% as “satisfactory” (for pass/fail courses). 

What It Might Take To Break The Cycle

Fixing inflation is about restoring grades as a meaningful signal of learning and excellence. That starts with building momentum within departments through clearer expectations, shared grading norms, and coordination among faculty (especially for large, foundational courses like introductory economics or government). 

  • Departments need to align rubrics and standards so “A” carries a consistent meaning within each field.

  • Graders need to be properly trained as many teaching fellows and junior instructors have never graded independently and need guidance beyond a written rubric.

  • Non-tenured faculty should be insulated from evaluations backlash while standards recalibrate.

Sustainable reform depends on credibility as much as policy. This means:

  • No rigid quotas. Princeton tried a 35 % cap on A-range grades to curb inflation. It gained a reputation for rigor but left students ultracompetitive with one another on campus and feeling disadvantaged next to peers at Harvard and Yale. Princeton also tried to mitigate these risks by sending letters and FAQ booklets to graduate schools and employers. Despite these efforts, Princeton saw little evidence that other Ivies followed its lead. The policy ended after faculty concluded quotas failed to ensure fairness and that departments should instead focus on “clear and meaningful evaluative rubrics.” GPAs have since risen, though not to Harvard’s levels. 

  • Helping employers and graduate programs recalibrate. If Harvard restores rigor, it must help graduate schools and employers interpret grades accurately through outreach and transparent rubrics.

For elite schools where grade inflation is the norm, employers and graduate programs already treat high GPAs as a given; if Harvard deflated alone, its students could appear weaker even when they’re not. This is a problem Princeton faced when Harvard, Stanford, and Yale used its deflation policy to recruit against it.

Reversing grade inflation will take coordination, patience, and sustained institutional will. But if reform is possible anywhere, it’s at universities with the reach and credibility to make it stick. In Part III next week, we’ll turn to why Harvard, in particular, is uniquely positioned to lead that change. 

Ask 1636

Send us your Harvard and higher education questions!

Q: In HLS professor Larry Lessig’s podcast about HBS professor Francesca Gino’s tenure revocation, did he prove Gino did not commit research fraud?

1636’s Take: That’s not quite the point. Lessig’s podcast gives Gino the chance to tell her side of the story after years under a gag order during the investigation. Lessig believes Gino was wrongfully accused, but wants readers to decide for themselves once they have a fuller picture. The podcast is still underway (three episodes in, with more to come) and can be found here.

Events

  • Cambridge, MA — October 14 from 7-8:30 p.m. ET: The MIT Civil Discourse Project hosts Harvard professor Danielle Allen and University of Florida professor Brandon Warmke for, “Do universities need radical reform?” Register here.

  • New York, NY — October 28 from 6:30-8:30 p.m. ET: This Harvard College Fund reception will include updates from campus and research from biology professor Fei Chen and bioengineering professor Sriya Stinivasan. Register here.

  • Cambridge, MA — November 6 from 7-8:30 p.m. ET: The MIT Free Speech Alliance’s Fall 2025 debate, “Are U.S. Colleges too Dependent on International Students?” will feature former Crimson Education COO David Freed (AB ‘16, AM ‘16), Boston College professor Chris Glass, James Fishback, and Nathan Halberstadt, moderated by MIT professor and edX founder Anant Agarwal. Register here.

  • Los Angeles, CA — November 6 from 6:30-8:30 p.m. PT: This Harvard College Fund reception will include updates from campus and research from biology professor Erin Hecht and earth and planetary sciences professor Brendan Meade. Register here.

  • Cleveland, OH — November 13 from 6:00-7:30 p.m. ET: Harvard Divinity School (HDS) and the Harvard Club of Northeast Ohio are hosting a reception with HDS Dean Marla Frederick. Register here.

If you find our newsletter valuable, please consider making a tax-deductible donation to support 1636 Forum’s mission.

FYIs

School of Engineering and Applied Sciences Lays Off 16% of Staff

  • Harvard’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) is laying off 40 staff, citing a projected drop in operational and facilities support, expected changes to federal grant distribution, and the new 8% endowment tax.

  • SEAS has previously frozen raises, paused capital projects, and cut spending like student conference sponsorships. It’s also exploring new revenue sources like expanded professional education.

  • Over a third of SEAS revenue comes from federal grants, second only to the School of Public Health. 

Hoekstra Says FAS on “Stronger Footing,” Echoes Need To Recenter Academics

  • Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) Dean Hopi Hoekstra told faculty Tuesday that FAS is “on stronger footing” following recent cost-cutting and administrative changes.

  • A task force launched in April is finalizing recommendations for workforce changes, including potential reorganization and reductions. Hoekstra said the goal is to “serve students and faculty more effectively and efficiently.”

  • She also acknowledged ongoing concerns about declining undergraduate academic engagement, as outlined in the Classroom Social Compact Committee report and echoed in recent coverage by The Atlantic and The New York Times. “[R]ecentering academics will be a defining feature of the year,” Hoekstra said.

Deming Cites Free Expression in Declining To Review Student Article Echoing Hitler

  • College Dean David Deming (PhD ’10) said he would not take a position on a Harvard Salient article that echoed a 1939 Hitler speech, citing the absence of any formal complaints. Though the piece drew student backlash, it has not been reported as a rule violation.

  • One line, “Germany belongs to the Germans,” was similar to Hitler’s phrasing: “France to the French, England to the English, America to the Americans, and Germany to the Germans,” spoken to the Reichstag in defense of the expulsion of Jews from Germany.

  • “If a student violates a College rule, then that’s something I want to know about,” Deming said. “But beyond that, students have a right to express themselves, and students have a right to be outraged at the expressions that others give.”

  • In 2024, Harvard instituted an institutional neutrality policy, which discourages official statements on public controversies unrelated to the University’s mission.

  • The Salient said any resemblance to Hitler’s rhetoric was unintentional and defended the article as a meditation on cultural preservation in an era of global homogenization.

MIT Rejects White House’s University Compact Tied To Preferential Federal Funding

  • MIT has declined the White House’s offer of preferential access to federal funding in exchange for adopting the terms of its draft “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education.”

  • In an open letter to Education Secretary Linda McMahon, MIT President Sally Kornbluth said the Compact’s premise “is inconsistent with our core belief that scientific funding should be based on scientific merit alone,” and warned that certain provisions “would restrict freedom of expression and our independence as an institution.”

  • Kornbluth noted that MIT’s values and practices already “meet or exceed many standards in the Compact,” citing its reinstatement of standardized testing in 2022,  tuition-free policy for families earning under $200,000, emphasis on STEM degrees, and cap on international undergraduate enrollment at about 10%.

  • Since the White House circulated the draft to nine schools last week, other university presidents such as Dartmouth’s Sian Beilock and UVA’s Paul Mahoney have voiced concerns with its implications for academic freedom, though none have yet formally rejected the Compact’s premise. 

  • Conversely, Marc Rowan, chair of the Wharton Board of Advisors at Penn and a contributor to the Compact’s “initial formulation,” wrote in a New York Times op-ed that “without government involvement, reform will be difficult” since many schools have “archaic governance structures that make self-reform all but impossible.”

More News

More News at Harvard:

  • Chronicle of Higher Education: “Trump’s Imperfect Compact Is a Perfect Opportunity” — by Harvard University Professor Danielle Allen

  • New York Times: “Harvard Seeks Assurances as Talks Restart in Washington” 

  • The Crimson: “Harvard Custodians Open Contract Negotiations With Wage and Benefit Requests”

  • The Crimson: “Harvard PSC Hosts Vigil to Mourn Two-Year Anniversary of War in Gaza”

  • Harvard Gazette: “Lauren Williams awarded MacArthur ‘genius grant’”

  • The Crimson: “Diana Eck, Harvard’s Leading Scholar of Religious Pluralism, Discusses ‘Pivot to Pluralism’ in Higher Education”

  • New York Times: “The Harvard ‘Die-in’ That Set Off a Debate Over Protest and Punishment”

  • The Crimson: “Construction Underway for Economics Department’s Pritzker Hall” 

  • Wall Street Journal: “Microsoft Tries to Catch Up in AI With Healthcare Push, Harvard Deal”

  • The Crimson: “Security Guards Present Wage, Leave Proposals at First Bargaining Session”

  • The Crimson: “A Rare Piece of Good News at Harvard” — editorial by The Crimson Editorial Board

  • The Crimson: “I’m a Non-Citizen Professor. Here’s Why I Testified Against Trump.” — op-ed by philosophy professor Bernhard Nickel

  • Boston Globe: “A new era for conservative students at Harvard” — op-ed by Carine Hajjar

  • The Crimson: “Harvard’s Commitment to Free Speech is Half-Baked” — op-ed by M. Austen Wyche (AB ‘27)

  • The Crimson: “Since When Does Trump Care About Grades?” — op-ed by Benjamin Isaac (AB ‘26)

  • The Crimson: “Speak on Principle, Not for What It Gets You” — op-ed by Allison Farrell (AB ’26)

  • The Crimson: “Harvard Is a Liberal Arts School. Our Courses Don’t Reflect That.” — op-ed by Khadija Khan (AB ’28)

More News Beyond Harvard:

  • The Princetonian: “U. to require SAT or ACT scores for applicants starting fall 2027, dropping test-optional policy”

  • Cornell Daily Sun: “Presidential Institutional Voice Task Force Draft Report Says University Should Practice ‘Restraint’”

  • Yale Daily News: “Law School gradually removed legacy preferences, professors say”

  • Yale Daily News: “Admissions office may ramp up fact checking after first-year removal”

  • The Dartmouth: “SVP for campus life says parts of Trump compact ‘may go against policies and missions’ around academic freedom”

  • Bloomberg: “Stanford Football Program Gets $50 Million From Former Player” — feat. donation from HBS alum Bradford Freeman (MBA ‘66)

  • Chronicle of Higher Ed: “Trump Says Signing a New ‘Compact’ Will Benefit Colleges’ Finances. It Could Also Do the Opposite.”

  • Wall Street Journal: “The Trump 'Compact' Tells Colleges to Protect Speech and Freeze Tuition” — podcast episode discussing the merits of the federal government’s proposed University Compact

  • Higher Ed Dive: “Trump’s higher ed compact draws condemnation from faculty and college unions”

  • Higher Ed Dive: “Higher ed groups sue over Trump administration’s $100K H-1B visa fee”

  • New York Times: “Nearly 20 Percent Fewer International Students Traveled to the U.S. in August”

  • Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions: “Chair Cassidy Sounds Alarm on Stanford Allegedly Forcing Student to Pay Union Dues to Fund Radical Left Ideology”

  • ABC News: “Newsom signs law aimed at fighting antisemitism in schools”

  • New York Times: “Academia Is Broken. Trump’s University ‘Compact’ Can Help Fix It.” — guest essay by Penn Chair of the Board of Advisors Marc Rowan

  • Imperfect Information: “The Compact” — by Columbia/Barnard professor Rajiv Sethi

  • MSNBC: “Trump sent a 'compact' to our universities. They should reject this devil's bargain.” — op-ed by Dartmouth professor Brendan Nyhan and Vanderbilt professor Lisa Fazio