Harvard Crimson -Student Reaction to Grade Inflation Report

[Anonymous]

What a bunch of miserable parents! There are way more academically qualified kids these days then when you were applying. Education is more accessible than ever. DD’s a frost at a well known LAC- there’s students coming in having already taken Differential Equations, combinatorics, Real Analysis, etc. The only person she knows who hasn’t done calc 2 is an art major who took calc 1…and also has her own studio. Her college is permanently test optional, and the professors say the parents/alum have pressured the school more than the actual students and interested prospective, because having a 1600 isn’t some interesting feat when you have so many talented people around.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What a bunch of miserable parents! There are way more academically qualified kids these days then when you were applying. Education is more accessible than ever. DD’s a frost at a well known LAC- there’s students coming in having already taken Differential Equations, combinatorics, Real Analysis, etc. The only person she knows who hasn’t done calc 2 is an art major who took calc 1…and also has her own studio. Her college is permanently test optional, and the professors say the parents/alum have pressured the school more than the actual students and interested prospective, because having a 1600 isn’t some interesting feat when you have so many talented people around.

That's a lot of copium. Striver tech immigrant parents non-sense.
No, my son is in one of SWAP, he and his friends never took Calculus in high school.
They don't want robots, they want interesting and fun individuals.
They want sociable kids, you are not getting in by taking Calculus. Dream on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What a bunch of miserable parents! There are way more academically qualified kids these days then when you were applying. Education is more accessible than ever. DD’s a frost at a well known LAC- there’s students coming in having already taken Differential Equations, combinatorics, Real Analysis, etc. The only person she knows who hasn’t done calc 2 is an art major who took calc 1…and also has her own studio. Her college is permanently test optional, and the professors say the parents/alum have pressured the school more than the actual students and interested prospective, because having a 1600 isn’t some interesting feat when you have so many talented people around.

That's a lot of copium. Striver tech immigrant parents non-sense.
No, my son is in one of SWAP, he and his friends never took Calculus in high school.
They don't want robots, they want interesting and fun individuals.
They want sociable kids, you are not getting in by taking Calculus. Dream on.

Sociable doesn't need to mean drunk frat boys with rich dads.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What a bunch of miserable parents! There are way more academically qualified kids these days then when you were applying. Education is more accessible than ever. DD’s a frost at a well known LAC- there’s students coming in having already taken Differential Equations, combinatorics, Real Analysis, etc. The only person she knows who hasn’t done calc 2 is an art major who took calc 1…and also has her own studio. Her college is permanently test optional, and the professors say the parents/alum have pressured the school more than the actual students and interested prospective, because having a 1600 isn’t some interesting feat when you have so many talented people around.

That's a lot of copium. Striver tech immigrant parents non-sense.
No, my son is in one of SWAP, he and his friends never took Calculus in high school.
They don't want robots, they want interesting and fun individuals.
They want sociable kids, you are not getting in by taking Calculus. Dream on.

So kids who take Calculus have no social skills. What kind of nonsense is this. Btw, the most popular majors at Williams are Econ, Psychology and CS. Nothing so different from other schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What a bunch of miserable parents! There are way more academically qualified kids these days then when you were applying. Education is more accessible than ever. DD’s a frost at a well known LAC- there’s students coming in having already taken Differential Equations, combinatorics, Real Analysis, etc. The only person she knows who hasn’t done calc 2 is an art major who took calc 1…and also has her own studio. Her college is permanently test optional, and the professors say the parents/alum have pressured the school more than the actual students and interested prospective, because having a 1600 isn’t some interesting feat when you have so many talented people around.

That's a lot of copium. Striver tech immigrant parents non-sense.
No, my son is in one of SWAP, he and his friends never took Calculus in high school.
They don't want robots, they want interesting and fun individuals.
They want sociable kids, you are not getting in by taking Calculus. Dream on.

This might be the dumbest thing I've read here. Absolutely every kid I know has taken calculus. It's not a particularly remarkable thing. It's generally expected of every student going to a good university. You are making a very good argument for why students at the SWAP schools are often fragile, delicate, and academically mediocre. When the SWAP parents are judging students who took calculus in high school and calling them striver tech immigrants it confirms everything I need to know about the SWAP colleges today. Just weak with a hard dose of racism. Taking calculus is a very normal thing for normal students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What a bunch of miserable parents! There are way more academically qualified kids these days then when you were applying. Education is more accessible than ever. DD’s a frost at a well known LAC- there’s students coming in having already taken Differential Equations, combinatorics, Real Analysis, etc. The only person she knows who hasn’t done calc 2 is an art major who took calc 1…and also has her own studio. Her college is permanently test optional, and the professors say the parents/alum have pressured the school more than the actual students and interested prospective, because having a 1600 isn’t some interesting feat when you have so many talented people around.

That's a lot of copium. Striver tech immigrant parents non-sense.
No, my son is in one of SWAP, he and his friends never took Calculus in high school.
They don't want robots, they want interesting and fun individuals.
They want sociable kids, you are not getting in by taking Calculus. Dream on.

I think it’s concerning that you think someone ahead of mathematics is a robot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What a bunch of miserable parents! There are way more academically qualified kids these days then when you were applying. Education is more accessible than ever. DD’s a frost at a well known LAC- there’s students coming in having already taken Differential Equations, combinatorics, Real Analysis, etc. The only person she knows who hasn’t done calc 2 is an art major who took calc 1…and also has her own studio. Her college is permanently test optional, and the professors say the parents/alum have pressured the school more than the actual students and interested prospective, because having a 1600 isn’t some interesting feat when you have so many talented people around.

That's a lot of copium. Striver tech immigrant parents non-sense.
No, my son is in one of WASP, he and his friends never took Calculus in high school.
They don't want robots, they want interesting and fun individuals.
They want sociable kids, you are not getting in by taking Calculus. Dream on.

Which WASP? DS goes to Pomona and there’s a ton of international students/quality private school students who are way ahead in mathematics. His TA got call 3 competed in IMO and actually did pretty well (for an lac~100) in Putnam. Math culture everywhere- it’s a top 3 chosen major!

[Anonymous]

Social engineering leads to mediocrity at best and when you throw in a bunch of snowflakes you wind up with what you have now a clown show.

The student body today is a reflection of their recent past president Claudine Gay.

I hope that they can turn it around but Garber has a tough task ahead.

[Anonymous]

South Asian SLAC alum (humanities major) here and need to respond to the nasty “striver tech immigrant” comment. I’m trying to imagine how I would feel if the parent of any one of my Ivy or SLAC classmates said that about me, about my “striver immigrant” classmates or about our “striver immigrant” parents. I’m impressed with ANYONE who has done advanced math.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:South Asian SLAC alum (humanities major) here and need to respond to the nasty “striver tech immigrant” comment. I’m trying to imagine how I would feel if the parent of any one of my Ivy or SLAC classmates said that about me, about my “striver immigrant” classmates or about our “striver immigrant” parents. I’m impressed with ANYONE who has done advanced math.

Ignore that person, who does not understand that our country was founded by striver immigrants and is a great country for precisely this reason. If their kid wants to avoid intelligent and hard working students, there are plenty of schools where their kids can go and just focus on perfecting their outfit of the day, or on the hazing plan for the next great keg party.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:1. Harvard had admitted more unqualified candidates in an effort to diversify and now we are seeing remedial math as a course option.
2. Many “highly qualified” on paper candidates are underprepared for failure. They worked hard in HS and got straight As and cannot fathom why the same isn’t happening in college. Witnessed this first hand with DC at different school and it took the whole first year to normalize to the different standards/grading of college.
3. Many top students were driven by parents micromanaging every aspect of their lives in HS and now. They are struggling to juggle work and life on their own with their parents.
4. Grade inflation in HS is very real and sometimes candidates look far better on paper than what they actually are capable of doing IRL.
5. This is a very dramatic generation of kids who obsess about mental health/focus on their levels of victimhood. DD is constantly “stressed out” and how life is so hard. I think she’s finally starting to grow up a little and has toned that down, but HS/freshman year of college was tough in terms of her perception of her personal hardship level.
6. Many expect to get to Harvard to network. They’ve worked hard in HS and the big hurdle was just getting in. Their perception of expectations is different than reality and that can be quite a shock.

Thank you so much for taking the time to share this. I really appreciate it.

Can anyone recommend a YouTube video that walks kids through this? Like something a kid could watch over the summer, before they start at a T20 school?

I relate to much of what PP posted. I was woefully underprepared for the experience of going to a T10 college with such smart and driven kids. It took me a full year to adjust due to a mix of immaturity (mostly) and cluelessness. It was rough on both my mental health and GPA, but it forced me to grow up and develop resilience that has served me well ever since!

Thankfully, DS knows this story and won’t be caught unaware if he winds up at a college that challenges then beyond what he’s experienced in high school. Even so, he likes to be as prepared as possible for things, and I know he’d rather hear it from someone other than his father.

Ideal: A 20 minute YouTube video narrated by a smart, relatable college kid. Something like, “Guide to first year in college: What I wish I knew then”.

Check out Harlen Cohen’s videos on insta He also has a book called The Naked Roomate. Lots of good tidbits and takeaways.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just read the report. The numbers are astonishing:

- the median GPA went from 3.29 in 1985 to 3.49 in 2005 to 3.83 in 2025!
- the percentage of A grades went from 25 in 2005 to over 60 percent in 2025.

Well in the 80s , 30 percent of applicants were given admissions offers: now it’s like 3 percent. The number of AP courses has also gone up.

My freshman college student is definitely way more prepared entering college than I was (I didn’t go to Harvard )- they are much more prepared and should be getting more As than I did


Whoever thinks high school in the 80s and 90s was better preparing kids for college is crazy

Where did you get the Harvard admissions number from the 80s?? It's completely inaccurate and overinflated. It was more in the teens. Students are definitely less prepared for college and have many, many more distractions.

Yes. Your number is off. My graduation year of high school 1990 acceptance rate at Harvard was 11%. Not 30%. 30% were some of the other ivies.

Yep. When I applied in 1987, acceptance rate was 10%.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Harvard never had MA5 remedial math until recently. Why? Because they discovered that many recent admits lack the foundational math skills.

And the argument is not about whether or not high schools today as a whole prepare kids better or worse than in the 80s.

The issue is Harvard is admitted more and more academically underqualified students than ever.

MA 5 is calc 1. Not remedial at most schools.

MA5 is not remedial contrary to the blithering of some on this forum. Same material with additional instruction hours for those who need a bit more attention.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Social engineering leads to mediocrity at best and when you throw in a bunch of snowflakes you wind up with what you have now a clown show.

The student body today is a reflection of their recent past president Claudine Gay.

I hope that they can turn it around but Garber has a tough task ahead.

Claudine gay was an officer for 6 months and was not dean of admissions, so…no.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Harvard never had MA5 remedial math until recently. Why? Because they discovered that many recent admits lack the foundational math skills.

And the argument is not about whether or not high schools today as a whole prepare kids better or worse than in the 80s.

The issue is Harvard is admitted more and more academically underqualified students than ever.

MA 5 is calc 1. Not remedial at most schools.

MA5 is not remedial contrary to the blithering of some on this forum. Same material with additional instruction hours for those who need a bit more attention.

According to the Harvard Maroon, it was "a new introductory course aimed at rectifying a lack of foundational algebra skills among students". So yes, I'd say remedial. And meeting 5 days a week, that's a lot more attention, not a bit more.