By Catherine Rampell, New York Times
In the last few days, reports that Harvard’s most common grade is an “A” have now gone viral . But despite the shocked-shocked! tone of some of the coverage, this is actually very old news.
Harvard’s most common grade is an “A” Photo: Jeffery Coolidge/ Corbis
The last time A-range (that is, the combination of A and A-) grades or their equivalent were not the most common grades awarded at Harvard was 20 years ago. That’s according to Stuart Rojstaczer, who tracks and aggregates grading data at colleges, including some data going back to prewar times. (You may recall he previously answered your questions on grade inflation here).
He used the term “equivalent” because Harvard converted from a 15-point grading system to a conventional A-F system in the 2000s. Harvard defined its “15″ as an A and its “14″ as an A-, Dr. Rojstaczer explained in an email.
Dr. Rojstaczer wrote that as of the 1989-90 academic year, A- was the grade most commonly awarded to undergraduates at Harvard. By 2000-01, A- was very close to being replaced by A (within 1.3 percent) as the modal grade (that is, the grade that appears with the most frequency). The A-range combination of A/A- became the modal grade (in comparison to B+/B/B-) in the 1994-95 academic year.
Clutching your pearls yet? Bear in mind that nationally, the A/A- combination has been the most common grade awarded nationwide at colleges since 1997.
“So Harvard was only about three years ahead of its time,” Dr. Rojstaczer wrote.
Read the full article by Catherine Rampell from New York Times.
