“There’s definitely been a widespread sense of panic.”

End Times at Harvard Yard

Harvard’s decision to cap A grades has sent students spiraling. Now the over-anxious undergraduates must confront the unthinkable: an occasional B-plus

By Sage Lattman

Photo illustration by Chop Choppish Shop

While sitting in seminars, Harvard junior Adam Chiocco has seen his classmates prompt ChatGPT about their discussion topic, then read the chatbot’s answer aloud as if it were their own. In lectures, he has seen students scrolling through eBay on their laptops. “I also know that there’s, like, an 80 percent chance that that person got an A or an A-minus,” says Chiocco, a philosophy major, “which I definitely think is a problem.”

Harvard’s professors clearly agree. This week, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences voted by 458 to 201 to limit A grades to no more than 20 percent of students in a class, plus four additional A’s to accommodate smaller seminars. Among students, the news was received with the calm for which over-achieving 20-year-olds are renowned. “There’s definitely been a widespread sense of panic,” says Chiocco.