Skip to content
ADVERTISEMENT
Sign In
  • Sections
    • News
    • Advice
    • The Review
  • Topics
    • Data
    • Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion
    • Finance & Operations
    • International
    • Leadership & Governance
    • Teaching & Learning
    • Scholarship & Research
    • Student Success
    • Technology
    • Transitions
    • The Workplace
  • Magazine
    • Current Issue
    • Special Issues
    • Podcast: College Matters from The Chronicle
  • Newsletters
  • Virtual Events
  • Ask Chron
  • Store
    • Featured Products
    • Reports
    • Data
    • Collections
    • Back Issues
  • Jobs
    • Find a Job
    • Post a Job
    • Professional Development
    • Career Resources
    • Virtual Career Fair
  • More
  • Sections
    • News
    • Advice
    • The Review
  • Topics
    • Data
    • Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion
    • Finance & Operations
    • International
    • Leadership & Governance
    • Teaching & Learning
    • Scholarship & Research
    • Student Success
    • Technology
    • Transitions
    • The Workplace
  • Magazine
    • Current Issue
    • Special Issues
    • Podcast: College Matters from The Chronicle
  • Newsletters
  • Virtual Events
  • Ask Chron
  • Store
    • Featured Products
    • Reports
    • Data
    • Collections
    • Back Issues
  • Jobs
    • Find a Job
    • Post a Job
    • Professional Development
    • Career Resources
    • Virtual Career Fair
    Upcoming Events:
    A Culture of Cybersecurity
    Opportunities in the Hard Sciences
    Career Preparation
Sign In
Grade Inflation

Who Needs an A, Anyway? A Lot of Folks on Campus Do

By Beckie Supiano August 8, 2014
Grade inflation doesn’t just affect GPAs: As Princeton’s report on its grading policy notes, coaches, admissions directors, and competing institutions all have a stake in the matter.
Grade inflation doesn’t just affect GPAs: As Princeton’s report on its grading policy notes, coaches, admissions directors, and competing institutions all have a stake in the matter.Chronicle photograph by Lawrence Biemiller

Back in 2004, Princeton University took a stand against grade inflation with a policy recommending that academic departments’ classes award grades in the A range no more than 35 percent of the time. The policy was intended to standardize grading across departments and give students a better sense of the distinction between “their ordinarily good work and their very best work.”

To continue reading for FREE, please sign in.

Sign In

Or subscribe now to read with unlimited access for as low as $10/month.

Don’t have an account? Sign up now.

A free account provides you access to a limited number of free articles each month, plus newsletters, job postings, salary data, and exclusive store discounts.

Sign Up

Back in 2004, Princeton University took a stand against grade inflation with a policy recommending that academic departments’ classes award grades in the A range no more than 35 percent of the time. The policy was intended to standardize grading across departments and give students a better sense of the distinction between “their ordinarily good work and their very best work.”

Now we’ve gotten a glimpse of how it all worked. A faculty committee assembled to review the policy has issued a widely discussed report describing the ways the anti-inflation plan has played out—and recommending some big changes.

Among the committee’s findings: Around the time that the faculty was discussing grade inflation, the distribution of grades changed, as the graph below illustrates. Not surprisingly, the fraction of A-range grades dropped, and the fraction of B-range grades grew. Most grades at Princeton, though, continued to be A’s and B’s.


Image taken from Princeton University’s “Report From the Ad Hoc Committee to Review Policies Regarding Assessment and Grading”

So, mission accomplished: The university stopped awarding so many A’s. But now the Princeton committee advocates removing the 35-percent target. Why? In part because the committee found that the grading policy also had a number of unintended consequences.

When an institution decides to take on grade inflation, who exactly is affected? Let’s have a look at what the Princeton professors found.

The Losers

The admissions office: To the outside observer, Princeton doesn’t seem to have much trouble in this department. We’re talking about a place that admitted just 7 percent of its applicants and saw close to 70 percent of those it admitted decide to enroll. Even so, the grading policy is apparently a concern among prospective students and their parents, putting the university at a competitive disadvantage.

What the report says: “Janet Rapelye, dean of admission, reports that the grading policy is the most discussed topic at Princeton Preview and explains that prospective students and their parents see the numerical targets as inflexible.”

The athletics department: Prospective students’ fears are of particular concern for the coaching staff.

What the report says: “Coaches find the perception of the grading policy a significant obstacle to recruitment, making it more difficult for them to attract the best student-athletes.”

Engineering majors: While the policy was intended to standardize grading across departments, there’s a wrinkle. Some departments have more large introductory classes than others. If those departments give out grades lower than A in introductory classes, they have more of a cushion to award A’s to their own majors in upper-division classes.

ADVERTISEMENT

That phenomenon may be a double whammy for engineering majors, the report explains. Those students are likely to find themselves in large introductory physics and mathematics classes, exactly the type of courses in which many non-A grades will be handed out. Their own department, meanwhile, doesn’t offer the big intro classes that pull in lots of nonmajors. That means fewer A’s to go around in their engineering classes.

What the report says: “Our view is grades within departments need to be meaningful in providing accurate feedback to students but that this does not require identical grade distributions across departments.”

Students’ sanity: The committee found that the grading policy adds to student anxiety, “in perception at least.” Student responses to a survey also suggest that the policy makes the classroom environment more competitive and less collaborative.

What the report says: “One of the negative side effects of the grading policy has been its contribution—in perception at least—to the anxiety about grades and indeed about themselves that many students experience while at Princeton.”

ADVERTISEMENT

Members of the Reserve Officers Training Corps: New military officers commissioned through this program receive their first assignments based in large part on their college grades. Those first assignments set the stage for their military careers. For them, the difference between A’s and B’s could be pivotal.

What the report says: “While it would be unreasonable for Princeton to change its grading policy as a result of a choice made by only a small number of students in each graduating class, ROTC comprises a special group of students whose issues deserve to be taken seriously.”

Faculty members: While the Princeton committee’s report did not delve into the issue, a recent journal article—this one evaluating Wellesley College’s somewhat different policy to curb grade inflation—said that students evaluated their professors in affected departments less favorably after the change was made.

What the Wellesley study found: “It is the case at Wellesley that students in courses with higher average grades also tend to have higher evaluations of the quality of their professors’ instruction, but this correlation cannot be taken as evidence that higher grades yield higher evaluations.”

The Unaffected

Graduate- and professional-school applicants: Aspiring Ph.D.’s and medical doctors may see the grading policy as a detriment to their chances at graduate-school admission. However, the committee found, “it is not evident that Princeton’s grading policy has any effect.”

ADVERTISEMENT

What the report says: “While departments sometimes make first cuts in their applicant pool based on such factors as GPA, we have no reason to believe that Princeton students are failing to gain admission to Ph.D. programs.”

(Most) job applicants: Some employers ask job applicants for their GPAs—and not full transcripts. Some even have strict GPA cutoffs. For the rest, the Princeton name may carry the day.

What the report says: “While it is possible that a few different Princetonians would get jobs at, say, Goldman Sachs if grades were higher, the committee heard evidence that the actual number of Princetonians in such jobs would be the same.” Further, looking beyond the very top of the class, “Princetonians appear not to have unusual difficulty convincing potential employers to hire them for jobs at companies that are a notch below the most elite.”

The Big Winner

Other colleges: If Princeton—along with its allies in the war on grade inflation, Wellesley and Boston University—has been harmed at all, it has been only by making other colleges, like those in Cambridge and New Haven, more competitive.

What the report says: “The committee was surprised to learn that students at other schools (e.g., Harvard, Stanford, and Yale) use our grading policy to recruit against us.”

We welcome your thoughts and questions about this article. Please email the editors or submit a letter for publication.
Share
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Facebook
  • Email
Supiano_Beckie.jpg
About the Author
Beckie Supiano
Beckie Supiano is a senior writer for The Chronicle of Higher Education, where she covers teaching, learning, and the human interactions that shape them. She is also a co-author of The Chronicle’s free, weekly Teaching newsletter that focuses on what works in and around the classroom. Email her at beckie.supiano@chronicle.com.
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT

More News

Illustration showing two professors outside a university building sunk down in a large canyon, looking up at an unreachable outside world above them.
Stagnant pay
Professors Say They Need a Raise. They Probably Won’t Get One.
Photo-based illustration depicting a basketball scene with a hand palming a quarter, another hand of a man wearing a suit sleeve, and a basketball goal made from a $100 bill and the Capitol building.
Sports shakeup
A New Normal Looms in College Athletics. Can Trump Help Shape It?
Illustration showing three classical columns on stacks of coins, at different heights due to the amount of coins stacked underneath
Data
These 35 Colleges Could Take a Financial Hit Under Republicans’ Expanded Endowment Tax
Illustration showing details of a U.S. EEOC letter to Harvard U.
Bias Allegations
Faculty Hiring Is Under Federal Scrutiny at Harvard

From The Review

Solomon-0512 B.jpg
The Review | Essay
The Conscience of a Campus Conservative
By Daniel J. Solomon
Illustration depicting a pendulum with a red ball featuring a portion of President Trump's face to the left about to strike balls showing a group of protesters.
The Review | Opinion
Trump Is Destroying DEI With the Same Tools That Built It
By Noliwe M. Rooks
Illustration showing two men and giant books, split into two sides—one blue and one red. The two men are reaching across the center color devide to shake hands.
The Review | Opinion
Left and Right Agree: Higher Ed Needs to Change
By Michael W. Clune

Upcoming Events

Ascendium_06-10-25_Plain.png
Views on College and Alternative Pathways
Coursera_06-17-25_Plain.png
AI and Microcredentials
  • Explore Content
    • Latest News
    • Newsletters
    • Letters
    • Free Reports and Guides
    • Professional Development
    • Virtual Events
    • Chronicle Store
    • Chronicle Intelligence
    • Jobs in Higher Education
    • Post a Job
  • Know The Chronicle
    • About Us
    • Vision, Mission, Values
    • DEI at The Chronicle
    • Write for Us
    • Work at The Chronicle
    • Our Reporting Process
    • Advertise With Us
    • Brand Studio
    • Accessibility Statement
  • Account and Access
    • Manage Your Account
    • Manage Newsletters
    • Individual Subscriptions
    • Group and Institutional Access
    • Subscription & Account FAQ
  • Get Support
    • Contact Us
    • Reprints & Permissions
    • User Agreement
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Privacy Policy
    • California Privacy Policy
    • Do Not Sell My Personal Information
1255 23rd Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20037
© 2025 The Chronicle of Higher Education
The Chronicle of Higher Education is academe’s most trusted resource for independent journalism, career development, and forward-looking intelligence. Our readers lead, teach, learn, and innovate with insights from The Chronicle.
Follow Us
  • twitter
  • instagram
  • youtube
  • facebook
  • linkedin