How Harvard helps its richest and most arrogant students get ahead.

[compmom]

I know for a fact that Harvard gives B’s and C’s That would make an A average impossible.

One of my kids teaches at a public university and has run into the same thing. But if it happens at Harvard, it fits a preexisting narrative that the public doesn’t fit.

Curious about the title of this thread: was the student involved wealthy and did the student offer money? How is “wealthy” relevant? And was the student “arrogant”?

Sometimes grad TA’s are inexperienced and don’t achieve credibility with students. Often this is not the case, but when it is, the grade might be questioned- at any school.

[gibby]

@preppedparent wrote: There have been other recent studies that showed the average grade at Harvard is an A.

@compmon wrote: I know for a fact that Harvard gives B’s and C’s.

This NY Times article gives a nice overview of grades at Harvard over the past 20 years: https://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/12/10/as-have-been-harvards-most-common-grade-for-20-years/?_r=0

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.

So, just to be clear: while an A (or A-) is the MOST COMMOM grade at Harvard, it is NOT the average grade. If you look at the graph for 2008 (the most recent data listed), you’ll notice many students receive B’s, C’s, D’s and F’s.

• Approximately 42% to 43% of Harvard students receive A's
• Approximately 33% to 32% of Harvard students receive B's
• Approximately 15% of Harvard students receive C's
• Approximately 5% of Harvard students receive D's and F's.

[preppedparent]

I stand corrected. The most common grade at Harvard is an A.

[Sue22]

^^Using a 4.0 scale, not accounting for plusses and minuses, that would make the average GPA at Harvard a 2.97-3.02, depending on whether that 5% received a D or F.

These are kids who for the most part earned straight 4.0’s in high school. I don’t see a B average as all that out of line. A lot of the kids getting B’s or C’s at Harvard may have received higher grades at a less competitive school.

[Enneract]

@gibby @Sue22 I think you misread the graph. While the article is indeed about Harvard, the graph instead shows the nationwide grade distribution over time. Harvard’s grade distribution unfortunately is nowhere indicated in the text, as far as I can tell.

[Sue22]

@Enneract, I couldn’t access the article so I was relying on @gibby’s post.

[gibby]

@Enneract: Thank you for the correction. Here is a Crimson article with data pertaining only to Harvard: http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2013/12/9/stats-grade-inflation/

First, let’s clarify what it means for the most common grade to be an A. It does not mean that most Harvard students mostly receive A’s, that the average grade is an A, or even that the majority of grades are A’s. It means that the most frequent grade, compared to all others, is A. A thought experiment: A class has 100 students, where ten students get A’s, nine get A-minuses, nine get B-pluses, nine get B’s, and so on through D-minuses. Although 90 of the 100 students do not get A’s, the most frequently awarded grade is still an A. The pervasiveness of this mark, which represents 10 percent of the given grades, is much different from the idea that more than 50 percent of grades are A’s.

Eight years ago, 48.3 percent of grades were in the A range.

Eight years ago if 48.3 percent of the grades at Harvard were in the A range, 51.7 percent were in the B, C, D and F range. More current figures do not seem to be available.

[Enneract]

@gibby: No problem, thank you for searching for the new data.