Harvard Tests Cap on A Grades

Harvard faculty are voting on a plan to limit 'solid A' letter grades to 20% of a class plus four extra A's per course, change honors to percentile averages, and permit new satisfactory/satisfactory‑plus marks; if approved the rules would start in fall 2027 with a three‑year review. The move is explicitly pitched as a modest fix for long‑running grade inflation and to protect small seminars while altering how excellence is computed. — If enacted at Harvard, the policy would be a high‑visibility experiment in reining in credential inflation and could prompt similar reforms at other elite universities, changing admissions, honors, and labor‑market signaling.