Average GPA at Harvard by year from 1889 - 2022: pic.twitter.com/FH8P8dUOkg
— The Rabbit Hole (@TheRabbitHole84) March 16, 2024
Also, note that student quality at Harvard has probably declined in this decade due to SAT/ACT no longer being mandatory. So the recent grade inflation is even worse than it looks.
Grade inflation, which has surged again in the 2020s due to COVID and George Floyd, necessitates standardized tests. If high schools and colleges had more rigorous grading, then admission to the next level could rely less on testing and more on GPA. But GPA is increasingly a joke, so tests are critical.
