A Harvard University faculty committee is drafting a working proposal designed to reduce grade inflation and change the honors system -- a plan that has many students worried.
The draft report said professors feel pressure to round grades up to an A-minus to award their students, the Harvard Crimson reported.
Nearly half of the grades granted at Harvard last year were A's or A-minuses, while less than 5 percent were C's.
Among the changes the Educational Policy Committee proposed is a revision of the way grades are assigned. Grades are currently given on a 15-point scale, where an A-minus is worth 14 points and a B-plus is worth 12 points.
The revised system would reduce the scale to eight points and eliminate the gap between letter grades.
Other possible reforms include a measure to reduce the number of students graduating with honors and the inclusion of the median grade for each class on a student's transcript.
Dartmouth adopted a policy of making the median grades for each class available in May of 1994. The median grade at the College has risen from a B in 1976-77 to a B-plus last year.
The Harvard recommendation remains a work in progress, Harvard spokeswoman Andrea Shen said, adding that the final recommendation will not be known until later in the spring.
The faculty may vote on the proposal, if it is ready in time, at their annual meeting in May.
Shen noted that the awarding of grades and honors has been an issue for several years.
"Whether there would be any consequences for the graduate schools, I don't know," she added. "That would be far in the future, I would imagine."
The Committee on Undergraduate Education reviewed the ECP proposal in a closed session, the Harvard Crimson reported last Thursday.
Student reaction to the proposal was mixed.
Though many Harvard students contacted by The Dartmouth said they were concerned their grade point averages would fall if the faculty approves the reforms, not all students were worried.
"If there was a danger of a lower grade, I think I'd work harder," sophomore Peter Bryce said.
"I guess most people do give thoughts to their GPAs, but I don't think about it that much," junior Jonathan Thomas said.
Were the numerical grading system changed, "people would be slightly more content with a B-plus instead of an A-minus," freshman Meghan Donohue said.
"People on the outside make a much bigger deal [about grade inflation] than we do here," Donohue said.
Bryce shared a similar view, saying, "I think it exists, but I don't think its that big of a deal."
Donohue proposed that Harvard adopt a system similar to that at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. So that students accustomed to A's in high school are not shocked by lower marks, she said, "give us a year of pass-fail" classes.
The proposal to include median grades on student transcripts was unpopular with some students.
"The idea to show the percentage of A's given per class is terrible," sophomore David Stein said, adding that "91 percent honors is a bit ridiculous."
Stein also said he doubted students would play much of a role in the final version of the faculty's proposal. "They don't talk to us about anything," he said.
Regardless of the proposed changes, high marks do not come easily at Harvard, according to students.
"If you get an 'A' paper, you have to be brilliant," Donohue said.
