By J. Sellers Hill and John N. Peña

The Harvard Class of 2025 looks a fair bit older than it did four years ago. Then again, so does the Harvard classroom.

After a freshman year of masked classes and thrice weekly Covid-19 testing, graduating seniors were among the first Harvard students to navigate the rise of artificial intelligence in classrooms.

Seniors also witnessed Harvard’s split from shopping week, which was phased out in favor of a previous-term course registration model in May 2022. And the last two years of their time at Harvard was marked by renewed conversations about grade inflation and the rigor of University coursework.

Before College

Many of this year’s graduates were first offered admission to Harvard in 2020, just before the Covid-19 pandemic upended higher education. Roughly 22 percent of senior respondents took a gap year before matriculating at Harvard as many students looked to avoid beginning their Harvard experience via Zoom.

More than 90 percent of the class matriculated to the College in 2021, compared to 8 percent who did so in 2020 or earlier. Just under 1 percent matriculated in 2022 or later.

Prior to attending Harvard, 60 percent of respondents attended public non-charter high schools, 26 percent attended private non-religious schools, 10 percent attended private religious schools, and 4 percent attended public charters.

First-generation college students made up 16 percent of responding seniors. About 71 percent of respondents said they had no relatives who attended either Harvard or Radcliffe College, while 19 percent had at least one alumni parent. About 11 percent of the class had a sibling who attended Harvard.

Concentrations

Economics remained the most popular concentration this year, accounting for more than 16 percent of surveyed seniors. The top three concentrations remained unchanged from the Class of 2024, with Computer Science and Government making up 12 percent and 10 percent of respondents, respectively.

Neuroscience and Social Studies rounded out the top five in a tie for fourth place, with 6 percent of students concentrating in each.

The number of students completing a double concentration jumped 5 percentage points for a second consecutive year, to 14 percent of respondents. The figure has steadily increased since the Faculty of Arts and Sciences first approved double concentrations in 2022. Meanwhile, 10 percent of the Class of 2025 reported pursuing a joint concentration.

A majority of respondents found their concentration somewhat or very difficult, while about 20 percent said their concentration classes were easy.

GPA

Roughly 21 percent of graduating seniors reported a GPA that rounded to a 4.0, in line with grades from the classes of 2023 and 2024. Seniors graduating with at least a 3.7 GPA, which rounds to an A-, made up 82 percent of the class.

The grade distribution among graduating classes is unlikely to ease concerns about grade inflation at the College. A 2023 faculty report found that Harvard College grades have steadily risen over the past two decades, and Harvard updated its guidelines for grading in General Education courses to combat grade inflation last October.

Academic Integrity

ChatGPT gained popularity in late 2022, during the Class of 2025’s sophomore year, prompting policy clarifications from professors and administrators.

But the survey suggested use of the technology remains widespread, as 30 percent of respondents said they had turned in AI-generated work as their own — in line with the share reported by the Class of 2024.

The share of students who reported cheating in an academic context at Harvard was 30 percent, a marked decrease from the 47 percent reported by the Class of 2024.

Of those who said they had cheated in an academic context, 93 percent said they had done so on a problem set or homework, while 61 percent said they had cheated on a paper, take-home test, or project. One-quarter of students who reported cheating at Harvard said they had done so on an in-person exam.

Only 5 percent of responding seniors said they had been before the Administrative Board or Honor Council for a disciplinary hearing.

House and Student Life

For the second year in a row, Lowell House residents reported the highest rate of satisfaction with their living arrangements, with 94 percent of responding Lowellians saying they were either very satisfied or satisfied. Winthrop House and Cabot House were the next two most highly rated Houses, making gains from last year when they ranked 8th and 7th, respectively.

Notably, while an ongoing renovation of Adams House temporarily shuttered some of the house’s spaces, resident satisfaction appeared unchanged compared to previous years. Reported satisfaction with Leverett House tumbled the furthest; the House ranked last among the 12 undergraduate houses this year, compared to fourth in 2024.

When it comes to blocking groups — the groups of up to eight people that freshmen select to be sorted into a House with — bigger remains better, according to seniors. Blocking groups of six or more comprised 66 percent of responses. Nearly 30 percent of respondents reported forming groups of eight, which has been the most popular size for years.

Roughly 50 percent of responding seniors reported that their groups did not remain together through the end of college, and 69 percent of responding seniors said they would feed at least one of their blockmates to the Harvard Square turkeys.

Social Life and Final Clubs

In keeping with the past year, seniors again rated extracurricular organizations as their most important source of social connection, with 90 percent saying clubs were important, somewhat important, or very important for their social lives on campus.

Off-campus venues like restaurants and bars were rated, on average, the second-most important factor in seniors’ social lives, with 75 percent of respondents rating them so. Final clubs were rated by far the least important factor among responding seniors, with only 40 percent saying the clubs had been important to their social experience.

At the time of the survey, 65 percent of respondents said they had attended a final club party at some point during their four years. A slim majority of respondents—55 percent—said they had a somewhat or very unfavorable opinion of the male final clubs. Just 40 and 37 percent of respondents said the same about female final clubs and co-ed social clubs, respectively.