In higher education, grades are notably rising across the board. Higher GPAs have been attributed to a broad range of factors, including increased academic preparation among students, stronger incoming cohorts, and evolving teaching and grading practices. Still, faculty and administrators at institutions are questioning what higher averages mean for academic standards, student learning, and the value of transcripts. Oberlin is not immune to these shifts. 

In the 2024-25 academic year, 64 percent of all grades awarded in the College of Arts and Sciences were in the A range, according to a report from the Registrar’s Office. Across more than 21,000 grades awarded, A-range grades accounted for the overwhelming majority, followed by 15.9 percent in the B range and just 2.5 percent in the C range. Grades of D or F were rare, each comprising less than one percent of all grades. Pass/No Pass accounts for the remaining 16 percent of grades. The average GPA across departments was 3.68. This figure, though somewhat lower than the highest concentrations reported by other universities, aligns with broader national trends at selective institutions, where A-range grades have become increasingly common. 

At Harvard University, for comparison, 66 percent of grades were A’s in 2024-25, and 18 percent were A-minuses, according to a faculty report. The median GPA was 3.83. At Yale University, recent data shows approximately 79 percent of grades are in the A range, with average GPAs around 3.7. While comparable department-level data is limited at peer liberal arts colleges, national datasets tracking grade inflation show that a small number of private colleges, including selective liberal arts institutions, report GPAs that are roughly 0.2 higher than public universities, indicating similarly high concentrations of A-range grades. By contrast, grading patterns at large public universities tend to be less top-heavy: data places the average GPA at U.S. four-year institutions around 3.1–3.2. 

Recently, proposed grading guidelines sparked campus-wide discussion about grade inflation and academic standards, as previously reported by the Review (“Proposed Grading Guidelines Sparks Conversation on Grade Inflation,” The Oberlin Review, Feb. 27, 2026). While that debate centered on whether grading practices should be standardized, the data shared with faculty in September 2025, which the Review has now obtained, offers a quantitative picture of how grades are actually distributed across the College.

At Oberlin, longitudinal data indicates an increase in grades over time. According to the report, the College’s passing grade-point average, a measure of average grades excluding failing marks, has risen from 3.39 in 2005-06 to 3.72 in 2024-25. While grade increases accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic, they have remained elevated in subsequent years.

The percentage of A-range grades varies across departments, from 42.8 percent in Economics and 47.2 percent in Chemistry to more than 85 percent in fields such as Comparative Literature and Philosophy and over 90 percent in language programs such as Russian and Arabic. These differences highlight substantial variation in grading patterns across disciplines. 

Faculty across departments emphasize that these disparities could be attributed to a number of factors. 

“As far as grade inflation in Comparative Literature courses is concerned, I don’t think we are an outlier within the humanities, since we grade for the quality of ideas and writing rather than for correct answers,” Professor Stiliana Milkova of Comparative Literature wrote to the Review. “This doesn’t mean that it’s easier to get an A in our courses since we teach highly complex texts from interdisciplinary and cross-cultural perspectives, drawing on different artistic mediums, theoretical frameworks, genres, and chronologies. But students who take Comp Lit classes are often already strong readers and writers…So they are also very likely to perform well in our courses and receive high grades.”

In smaller language programs, faculty suggested high grades might reflect the nature of instruction and student engagement.

“The high number of A’s may be due to [Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies]’s relatively small number of Russian language students, who tend to be very committed (Russian is a very difficult language) and receive a great deal of individual attention, thus resulting in higher grades,” Chair of Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies Sheila Miyoshi Jager wrote to the Review.

At the same time, grading structures themselves may shape how these differences appear. The report notes that many departments make significant use of Pass/No Pass grading. Writing and Communication recorded more than 20 percent of all grades as “Pass.” Within the sciences, Biology recorded more than a quarter of grades as “Pass,” possibly reflecting most lab courses being structured as P/NP.

Associate Professor of Writing and Communication Cortney Smith said that in the Writing and Communication department, the data may reflect the current use of P/NP for all classes taught by one particular faculty member, who has followed this grading practice since the 1980s. Beginning next year, the department will shift to an A-F scale overall while retaining P/NP as a future option for individual courses.

Because P/NP grades do not factor into grade-point averages, their widespread use may further compress visible grade distributions, effectively removing lower or mid-range performances from the letter grade system. As a result, the high proportion of A-range grades may reflect not only how students perform, but also how performance is categorized.

“I assume [the choice to use the P/NP option] might be similar to why I used a contract grading system, because it allows for students to take risks with their work, listen attentively to feedback, and sort through it in meaningful ways,” Smith said.

At the departmental level, grading practices are often determined individually rather than collectively. While conversations about grading have taken place, they have generally remained non-prescriptive.

“Each instructor in our department has total academic freedom in their grading practices … We do not have a set of universal grading standards or metrics that we apply consistently across the department,” Chair and Associate Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry Lisa Ryno wrote.

Differences in grading practices can shape how students experience courses, evaluate their performance, and plan their academic paths. Some students suggested they hold themselves to standards that exceed what their transcripts reflect, expressing dissatisfaction with the disparity between their academic performance and received grade.

“I’ve basically only ever gotten A’s in STEM courses,” College fourth-year Solomon Chang wrote in an email to the Review. “I think that I’m generally a pretty good student, but there are some A’s I’ve received that probably should have been A-’s or B’s… In writing-based classes (especially my Politics classes), I am often deeply unsatisfied with the papers I produce despite basically always receiving satisfactory (often excellent) grades. Not a very motivating predicament. Last semester I got an A- in a history class and was pleasantly surprised.”

Other students expressed a desire for greater transparency and more consistent grading practices across departments, particularly when it comes to how final grades are determined and communicated. For some, the lack of uniform expectations between courses makes it difficult to understand how performance translates into grades.

“I think departments should be more transparent about how students end up with their final grades,” College third-year Arya Nade said. “There are some departments where professors lay out a specific structure of what present assignments are going to be and what exactly you need to do in order to get an A, whereas in some other departments, they are usually a little vague about how much stuff is worth and how it all comes into play.”

Students also emphasized that grades are only one part of their educational experience and that intellectual curiosity and engagement with material often outweigh strategic considerations.

“While I think approaches to grading might influence which professor I take a class with, it overall is pretty low on my list for priorities for a course,” College fourth-year Selena Frantz wrote in an email to the Review. 

Chang agreed, highlighting the benefits of using alternative grading systems. 

“I actually enjoy labor-based grading for this reason, because I think it gives professors room to actually challenge their students while avoiding the perception that they will kill peoples’ grades,” he wrote. 

At the institutional level, this data arrives amid ongoing conversations about grading policy. In December, the Educational Plans and Policies Committee circulated a draft of College-wide grading guidelines aimed at addressing grade inflation and grade compression, prompting broader faculty discussion about grading practices and philosophy. At present, there has been no report of formal guidelines being adopted, and departments continue to operate with significant autonomy. For students navigating these differences, and for institutions beyond Oberlin interpreting their transcripts, the meaning of any single grade may depend heavily on context.