Harvard: Grade Inflation, Applications, Acceptance Rates

How true is it that Harvard has terrible grade inflation?

This question was originally posted on the website Quora.com.  What follows is my response.

Since there are a number of great answers to this questions already I am simply going to update the data, most of which is 4 years old, using stats just released by Harvard this week. I will then make make a few comments about why the grade inflation at Harvard and other of the most selective colleges might well not be unwarranted.

GPAs

Arriving on campus amid concern about widespread grade inflation, grade point averages nevertheless remained high for the Class of 2018—nearly two-thirds of respondents reported GPAs of 3.7 or above, roughly the equivalent of an A- average. Just 2.4 percent of respondents reported GPAs at or below 3.0, or a B average.

The most commonly reported GPA was a 3.8, comprising 20 percent of respondents.

Nearly 6 percent of students reported having perfect 4.0 GPAs.

What GPAs do seniors have?

The Harvard Crimson | Class of 2018 By the Numbers

I am sure there is a correlation (but not necessarily a causation) between the increase in average gpa over the years and the dramatic increase in applications.

As applications have soared, the acceptance rate has decreased significantly:

If it is significantly harder for students today to gain admission it may be that the quality of the students, overall, has increased. The  number of, for example, AP classes and AP scores of 5 that the typical Harvard or any other very highly selective college  admit submits (not necessarily those who have hooks, such as athletes, low-income attending a school that does not offer great academic options) has steadily and dramatically risen. Today, there are students routinely completing well over 10 APs who are applying now.  This was quite rare 15 years ago. Whether this measures anything like intelligence is not the question or the answer. It is that students have learned to take on a tremendous amount of academic work, often while leading several time consuming groups, and doing significant service in the community.

There have always been many of “the best and brightest”, but now that Harvard and other schools compete for the top students from around the world these schools may have a bit more overall academic and other talents than it had when its reach was more limited by regional and national boundaries. A few generations ago students at Harvard would compete with students mostly from the Northeast who attended a small set of schools. Now the top students  from around the country and the world apply in part because the school can afford to cover the cost of all students who have need, and in part because Harvard (and other schools) has done outreach to many more communities and countries. 

It may be then, that the students today have indeed earned these high grades.