06 October 2026

College Grade Inflation Leaves Grades Meaning Nothing

On Monday I had a post about the economics of college collapsing. One of the reasons for that is grade inflation. Ivy League’s Big Three 'A'rms race leaves top grades increasingly meaningless

If everyone gets an "A," why bother working hard?

Yale awarded more than 80 percent of its undergraduate grades in the A range in 2024-25, while Harvard reported an even higher share and Princeton approached two-thirds.

If everyone in a class gets an "A," and professors who remain committed to minimum standards are fired, what does that grade even mean?

At Yale University, an A officially means “excellent.” But in the 2024-25 academic year, more than four out of every five undergraduate grades fell in the A range.

There is a chart about Yale. The increase in grades over COVID is astonishing. Not that inflation wasn't underway before that. Click thru for more on the COVID-era insanity.

When the overwhelming majority of students at America’s most historically selective universities receive grades intended to signify exceptional performance, the distinction those grades are supposed to convey becomes increasingly difficult to preserve.

Hat tip to Glenn Reynolds at Instapundit.

2 comments:

  1. Getting this word out is important. As more and more people doing the hiring get the impression that Ivy League schools are fake, the mystique goes away. Imagine if instead of hiring interviewers wanting your college courses and grades they wanted your SAT scores and high school classes.

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    1. College in general is becoming a joke. Unless you are getting an engineering degree or getting ready for med school... And even then... NYU fired Maitland Jones Jr., 84, a chemistry professor, because after he taught the same class for 25 years, it was suddenly too hard for the kids. You need chemistry for med school, pharmacology, and drug research. I think we are doomed as a society.

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