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< Back to front page Text size – + Connect to Harvard HARVARD Follow @YCHarvard on Twitter Report: Harvard dean says A- is median Click here to follow Your Campus Harvard on grade at university, raising concern Twitter. over lenient grading ADVERTISEMENT Posted by Matt Rocheleau December 3, 2013 07:52 PM

Comments () Other Boston Area Campuses 7 18 0 0 E-mail story Boston College Print story Facebook Twitter Pinterest Share Share Boston University Brandeis Emerson By Matt Rocheleau, Town Correspondent Harvard MIT The median grade for undergraduates studying at Harvard University is an A- while Northeastern Suffolk most commonly-awarded grade is an A, campus officials told the Harvard Crimson Tufts student newspaper Tuesday, raising concern that the university is more lenient in Wellesley grading students than many rival schools. UMass Boston Simmons The Crimson reported that dean of undergraduate education Jay M. Harris released the Berklee Babson grade statistics Tuesday afternoon during a monthly meeting of the Faculty of Arts and Bentley Sciences.

Harvard government professor Harvey Mansfield reportedly told Harris during the meeting: “A little bird has told me that the most frequently given grade at Harvard Recent blog posts College right now is an A-. If this is true or nearly true, it represents a failure on the Taste Test on the 23rd floor of a Boston University dorm part of this faculty and its leadership to maintain our academic standards.” Video: Mission Hill man talks about life with Bobby the Pig Keeping Campus #BUSafe Harris stood, hesitated and looked toward fellow dean Michael D. Smith before Report: Harvard dean says A- is median grade at university, raising concern over lenient grading answering. After 'joke' campaign leads to victory, Harvard student government's vice president-elect won't resign after all “The median grade in Harvard College is indeed an A-,” Harris said, according to the Crimson. “The most frequently awarded grade in Harvard College is actually a straight ADVERTISEMENT A.”

The student newspaper reported that after the meeting, Harris said that the grading data came from fall 2012 and several prior semesters. Get Updates

Mark Schiefsky chair of Harvard’s classics department told the Crimson he was My Yahoo concerned about how high the grade stats were. RSS Feed “I don’t know what should be done about it, but it seems to me troubling,” Schiefsky Learn about RSS told the publication. “One has a range of grades to give and one would presumably expect a wider distribution.”

Matt Rocheleau can be reached at [email protected]. Looking for more coverage of area colleges and universities? Go to our Your Campus pages.

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