College Data Reveals Rise in Average Grades Over Past Two Decades

With grade inflation taking an increasingly central place in higher education discourse in recent years, Swarthmore students have stood steadfastly behind their school’s unofficial motto: “Anywhere else it would have been an A.” However, amid rising concerns that grade inflation may be affecting the college after all, a group of faculty members organized to request grading data from the past twenty years from the Provost’s Office. The report found at least a 0.15 point increase in the mean grade given in courses across all three of the college’s academic divisions. 

The Phoenix has obtained a copy of the data outlining the changes in average grades given across academic divisions between 2005 and 2024. The college’s average grade point given in 2024 sat at 3.62, approximately a 6% increase from its 3.42 average in 2005. Faculty grade students on a letter scale; these figures are the result of conversions to the numbers that students use when calculating their grade point averages (GPAs). The highest average yearly grade given in the time period — 3.68 — was in 2020, a year influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic. During all twenty years, the humanities division has always given the highest average grades, followed by social sciences and then natural sciences, though the average grade given across all divisions has increased by roughly the same amount in all three divisions. Further, the report revealed an increase in the mean grade given across nearly every academic department. 

Department Chair and Professor of Mathematics and Statistics Lynne Schofield was unsurprised to see empirical data reflecting grade inflation. In email correspondence with The Phoenix, Schofield highlighted that Swarthmore “is not immune from the pressures of the outside world — many of which have led to the grade inflation that we are seeing across the education sector (both K-12 and high education).” She went on to mention that conversations with students and other faculty had provided her with baseline anecdotal evidence of grade inflation occurring at the college. 

Likewise, in a Phoenix poll of the faculty from Fall 2025, 73% of respondents agreed that there had been grade inflation at Swarthmore in recent years, and 70% were at least somewhat concerned about it. At the beginning of the 2025-26 academic year, the political science department established a new grade distribution policy for introductory classes. The policy was partially in response to grade inflation even before empirical data was released to faculty, suggesting many faculty members were concerned about the possibility of such a trend, even if only anecdotally. 

Schofield also noted that while she had suspected grades were increasing prior to 2020, the pandemic seemed to accelerate the process because professors had to determine how to assess students’ learning in many different environments equitably. 

While the departments were anonymized in the data, further observations were provided by a faculty member who wished to remain anonymous. Across the humanities and social science divisions, nearly every department awarded a higher average grade point in 2025 than in 2019, with many notable spikes. The natural science division includes some departments that have returned to pre-COVID grade levels. 

In 2024, there were at least seven departments that gave an average grade point of 3.8 or higher. Two of those departments had an average of 3.9 or higher, though, it’s possible that in small departments, one professor with a tendency to give A+’s could be skewing an otherwise-tough department’s average.

Swarthmore’s average grade point still remains lower than schools in the Ivy League that have recently come under scrutiny for the high grades given to students. In October, Harvard University released a report revealing that 60% of the grades currently awarded at the institution were A’s, a 240% jump compared to 2005. Dean of Undergraduate Education Amanda Claybaugh reported that the median grade point average of the Class of 2025 at graduation was 3.83.

In 2023, Yale University released similar numbers: the college’s mean GPA was 3.70 for the 2022-23 academic year, and a New York Times article revealed that 80% of grades given were A’s or A-’s, a portion that has risen steadily since being 67% in 2011-12. 

Smaller liberal arts colleges are not immune to the trend either. Both Williams and Amherst Colleges’ student papers reported that more than 75% of all grades awarded at the colleges in recent years were between A- and A+. The Williams Record estimates that the average GPA for the 2023-2024 school year was “somewhere above 3.65,” a number that puts the schools’ grading tendencies in close proximity to Swarthmore’s 3.62 average.

Swarthmore has historically distinguished itself from these peer institutions and has even been associated with having grade deflation. Another faculty member provided data from 1980 and 1993, in which the average grades are much lower. In 1980, the college-wide average grade was 2.88 and was under 3.0 in all three divisions, and in 1993, the college-wide average grade given was 3.15, though the methodology for these calculations could have been different than those used for the most updated numbers. 

Additional data provided to faculty by the Provost’s Office revealed that the percentage of A+’s awarded has had a net increase in all three divisions over the past twenty years. The average portion of A+’s among all college grades was 2.2% in 2005, but has jumped to 8.1% in 2024. On the departmental level, in 2024, more than 10% of the average grade awarded by at least ten departments were A+. In contrast, there were zero departments with A+ rates over 10% in 2005, and only two in 2019. 

Prior to The Phoenix’s receipt of the data, department chairs were given the opportunity to view the results of the analyses, leading them and others who heard of the data to speculate as to why grade inflation has occurred. While it’s impossible to determine the actual causal factors from the current data, some faculty worry that their newer colleagues are being pressured to give higher grades relative to more senior, tenured professors.

Alba Newmann Holmes, assistant professor of English literature and director of the Writing Associates Program, explained that the college has increasingly relied on visiting professors. These professors will need to reenter the job market to search for permanent positions after their contracts at Swarthmore expire, and many academic jobs require student recommendations. Newman Holmes recalled hearing anecdotally that junior faculty might feel obligated to give higher grades to students “to build goodwill … so that students will evaluate them positively.”

Other faculty members pointed to possible fears of disappointing students who face pressures to succeed in the job market themselves, citing an increasingly widespread belief that A-’s or B+’s will prevent students from becoming competitive. Charles and Harriett Cox McDowell Professor of Philosophy and Religion Peter Baumann speculated, “Perhaps the student is seen much more as a customer who should feel satisfied these days? This could push towards nicer grading.”

Susan W. Lippincott Professor of Modern and Classical Languages Sibelan Forrester offered a different perspective: an increase in the average grade given could be a result of more high-achieving students. “I believe data also support the increasing excellence of students admitted to Swarthmore: look at the test scores, look at the high school GPAs, and look at our one-digit admission rate!”

Newmann Holmes noted that she has only awarded two A+’s in her eleven years of teaching and believes this aspect of the trend has a more concrete solution. “If we want the A+ to signify extraordinary contributions to a course, then we should make that expectation more clear to faculty and students. I am strongly opposed to the kind of bell curve grading that Harvard has contemplated returning to … but I think it would be fine to limit A+’s.”

In general, however, faculty seem to have differing opinions about what grading should look like and what role it should play in higher education. Many professors would prefer to give purely evaluative feedback and always grade students on a credit/no-credit basis. 

However, Schofield notes a drawback of students all being given similar grades: differences in content proficiency will be masked. “This could be problematic for students attempting to show themselves as being *the* person to get the job, get the slot in a graduate program, effectively lead in some setting, etc. If everyone gets an A, what does an A mean?”

Whether and how Swarthmore should combat grade inflation is also an unresolved issue. In response to its increasing average grades, Harvard’s Office of Undergraduate Education has proposed a strict grade cap on all of its classes in which roughly 20% of class grades will be an A. A final vote on whether this policy will be adopted is scheduled for May. 

A similar policy seems unlikely for Swarthmore — at least in the near future. Peter Baumann stated, “It is hard to imagine how [a college-wide grading policy] could be done.” 

“Of course, we can all remind ourselves of our high standards … There is a question about how to do this in a non-arbitrary way: what’s the relevant time frame? What is the correct distribution? Also, imposing such a policy poses the risk that faculty will not only look at the quality of the work done by students but also try to meet the expected distribution (even if that diverges from their judgment about quality).”

While the present data reveals how grading trends have played out in recent years, more information is needed in order to determine conclusively whether current students’ work merits those higher grades. It is also uncertain whether inflation has impacted Swarthmore students’ ability to compete in the job market and apply to graduate schools.

Editor’s Note: This article was updated on 4/11 to more accurately reflect which faculty members were given the opportunity to review the data from the Provost’s Office.