Harvard Crimson -Student Reaction to Grade Inflation Report

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:About a quarter of students at Harvard are prepared for the rigor. They are not admitting kids who are academically prepared.

DEI (diversity), athletes, donor kids, celebrities' kids, legacies etc. make up about 70% of the class. Rest were admitted on merits.

Athletes have a higher GPA than the rest of the school combined.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:About a quarter of students at Harvard are prepared for the rigor. They are not admitting kids who are academically prepared.

DEI (diversity), athletes, donor kids, celebrities' kids, legacies etc. make up about 70% of the class. Rest were admitted on merits.

Athletes have a higher GPA than the rest of the school combined.

Do you actually believe that, lol?

[Anonymous]

High schools are not preparing students for college. Period. Everyone always says "Oh, but MY kids' school is different. MY kids' school has real rigor." It's bullshit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:High schools are not preparing students for college. Period. Everyone always says "Oh, but MY kids' school is different. MY kids' school has real rigor." It's bullshit.

In the past several years, parents and kids game the system. How to get the highest GPA possible to get in ivies. Strategically avoid rigorous courses. So many on dcum advised that Calculus BC is not needed. Taking multi variable calculus is insane. Results: snowflake who cried the whole day and skipped classes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's surreal to read this.

The students' reaction: Hysterical

"The whole entire day, I was crying," 'I Was Just Sobbing in Bed': Mentally unstable

"any effort to crack down on grade inflation 'attacks the very notion of what Harvard is.'": Come on

I asked my freshman son about this and he said that The Crimson must have sought out the most hysterical reactions they could possibly find. None of his friends reacted this way. They are all studying hard, prioritizing their classes and enjoying the ECs on the side. They knew what they were signing up for.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's surreal to read this.

The students' reaction: Hysterical

"The whole entire day, I was crying," 'I Was Just Sobbing in Bed': Mentally unstable

"any effort to crack down on grade inflation 'attacks the very notion of what Harvard is.'": Come on

I asked my freshman son about this and he said that The Crimson must have sought out the most hysterical reactions they could possibly find. None of his friends reacted this way. They are all studying hard, prioritizing their classes and enjoying the ECs on the side. They knew what they were signing up for.

Easy grades?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's surreal to read this.

The students' reaction: Hysterical

"The whole entire day, I was crying," 'I Was Just Sobbing in Bed': Mentally unstable

"any effort to crack down on grade inflation 'attacks the very notion of what Harvard is.'": Come on

I asked my freshman son about this and he said that The Crimson must have sought out the most hysterical reactions they could possibly find. None of his friends reacted this way. They are all studying hard, prioritizing their classes and enjoying the ECs on the side. They knew what they were signing up for.

Easy grades?

My son has one class that he’d consider easy and that’s because it’s somewhat of a retake of a HS class. He’s in the library nightly and works thru the weekend (makes time to party at night).

The class of ‘29 had to submit SATs… they should be prepared for whatever Harvard throws at them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:High schools are not preparing students for college. Period. Everyone always says "Oh, but MY kids' school is different. MY kids' school has real rigor." It's bullshit.

In the past several years, parents and kids game the system. How to get the highest GPA possible to get in ivies. Strategically avoid rigorous courses. So many on dcum advised that Calculus BC is not needed. Taking multi variable calculus is insane. Results: snowflake who cried the whole day and skipped classes.

Well my kid at Harvard took bc calc in 10th grade (with a 5 on exam) multi variable in 11th , and linear algebra in 12th…..believe what you want about kids being unprepared …kid isn’t crying at college but it’s challenging and As aren’t easy …their math progression also seems fairly typical among many other first years

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's surreal to read this.

The students' reaction: Hysterical

"The whole entire day, I was crying," 'I Was Just Sobbing in Bed': Mentally unstable

"any effort to crack down on grade inflation 'attacks the very notion of what Harvard is.'": Come on

I asked my freshman son about this and he said that The Crimson must have sought out the most hysterical reactions they could possibly find. None of his friends reacted this way. They are all studying hard, prioritizing their classes and enjoying the ECs on the side. They knew what they were signing up for.

Easy grades?

My son has one class that he’d consider easy and that’s because it’s somewhat of a retake of a HS class. He’s in the library nightly and works thru the weekend (makes time to party at night).

The class of ‘29 had to submit SATs… they should be prepared for whatever Harvard throws at them.

Ah yes, their simplified SAT with their grade inflated academic profiles. They’d cry if they had any actual rigor thrown at them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's surreal to read this.

The students' reaction: Hysterical

"The whole entire day, I was crying," 'I Was Just Sobbing in Bed': Mentally unstable

"any effort to crack down on grade inflation 'attacks the very notion of what Harvard is.'": Come on

I asked my freshman son about this and he said that The Crimson must have sought out the most hysterical reactions they could possibly find. None of his friends reacted this way. They are all studying hard, prioritizing their classes and enjoying the ECs on the side. They knew what they were signing up for.

Easy grades?

My son has one class that he’d consider easy and that’s because it’s somewhat of a retake of a HS class. He’s in the library nightly and works thru the weekend (makes time to party at night).

The class of ‘29 had to submit SATs… they should be prepared for whatever Harvard throws at them.

Ah yes, their simplified SAT with their grade inflated academic profiles. They’d cry if they had any actual rigor thrown at them.

Well, one did cry (the one in the article).

My ‘29 son was able to see his Harvard admissions file and based on what I’m seeing, AOs are putting a great deal of emphasis on teacher recs and alumni interviews. With the four criteria of academics, personal qualities, athletics and ECs being weighed evenly, a teacher rec that stands out either positively or negatively can move the needle. Same for the alumni interview. Maybe this is new for the class of ‘29 and needs tweeking, though as I said in an earlier post, I think that the crimson sought out the most dramatic responses to the grading memo.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What's going on with the bashing of Harvard on here? Is it just a few folks?

The people being interviewed sounds sad.

This was not our experience with the hard working kids we know at Harvard.

Well, Harvard is the easy school to attack. Because, Harvard. No one is punching down when it comes to Harvard.

But I do think there's an increasing sense that Harvard undergrad is very mediocre - whether due to grade inflation or all the hooked students. The best and brightest go elsewhere these days. And yet Harvard remains on top of the pedestal. So that bothers some people. I know that at my kids high school, an app to Harvard is regarded as pretentious and "striver" for lack of a better word. These are kids going for the brand rather than the education and experience. And people judge accordingly.

In what world is Math 55, physics 16, etc "mediocre"?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:About a quarter of students at Harvard are prepared for the rigor. They are not admitting kids who are academically prepared.

DEI (diversity), athletes, donor kids, celebrities' kids, legacies etc. make up about 70% of the class. Rest were admitted on merits.

Athletes have a higher GPA than the rest of the school combined.

They have a higher grade point *average* than the rest of the school "combined"? Were you a student athlete yourself?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What's going on with the bashing of Harvard on here? Is it just a few folks?

The people being interviewed sounds sad.

This was not our experience with the hard working kids we know at Harvard.

Well, Harvard is the easy school to attack. Because, Harvard. No one is punching down when it comes to Harvard.

But I do think there's an increasing sense that Harvard undergrad is very mediocre - whether due to grade inflation or all the hooked students. The best and brightest go elsewhere these days. And yet Harvard remains on top of the pedestal. So that bothers some people. I know that at my kids high school, an app to Harvard is regarded as pretentious and "striver" for lack of a better word. These are kids going for the brand rather than the education and experience. And people judge accordingly.

Where are the best and brightest going?

There aren’t too many places that can beat Harvard Square for the traditional college experience. Unless kids would rather stay at basic campuses with new apartment style dorms and more mall like and suburban.

The kids at Harvard won’t be having any problems. They still have the top companies recruiting there. I know two young guys recruited right out of the MBA program from Fidelity. I doubt any school is free from students who end up not being able to keep up with the work. There doesn’t have to be finger pointing, the student should transfer out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Mean IQ at MIT could be as high as 30 points above that of Harvard( undergraduate school)

Probably. But that’s all that MIT students need, super brains. Harvard students don’t all need overly high IQs. For example they might need to have great personality skills, good listeners, good communication skills, mediation skills, empathy, knowledge of cultures around the world for government majors. The skills needed for some of the majors are more important than a 140 IQ.

[Anonymous]

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.