By Jo B. Lemann and Tyler J.H. Ory

Harvard’s academic environment has changed significantly since the Class of 2026 first walked onto campus. From the proliferation of large language models their freshman year to rising concerns about grade inflation, graduating seniors have been forced to adapt to new pressures inside and beyond the classroom.

Earlier this month, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences adopted a proposal to cap A grades in each Harvard College course to 20 percent of the course’s undergraduate enrollment, plus four students. The proposal drew opposition from the vast majority of seniors who responded to The Crimson’s survey.

Before College

Before coming to Harvard, 57 percent of graduating seniors reported attending a public high school, while 4 percent attended charter schools. Another 25 percent went to non-religious private schools and 12 percent attended a religious private school. Only 1 percent were homeschooled.

Most came to Harvard without any family ties, with 76 percent of seniors reporting having no relatives who attended the College. About 15 percent of seniors have at least one alumni parent, and 10 percent have a sibling who went to Harvard. While the majority of seniors have no legacy connections, only 21 percent reported being first-generation college students.

Grades & Grade Inflation

Just less than 21 percent of graduating seniors reported a GPA rounded to 4.0, tracking with respondents from the classes of 2025, 2024, and 2023. Nearly 85 percent of respondents reported GPAs greater than or equal to 3.65 — the highest fraction yet among a graduating class surveyed by The Crimson, but in line with a trend of elevated grades since the Covid-19 pandemic. Each year since the Class of 2021, more than 80 percent of graduating seniors have reported GPAs of 3.65 or above.

Only one-tenth of graduates this year reported receiving GPAs below 3.55.

Seniors in Arts & Humanities concentrations received the highest grades, with more than 28 percent of respondents earning 4.0 GPAs — compared to 26 percent in Science concentrations, 19 percent in Social Science concentrations, and 12 percent in concentrations in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

The five most popular concentrations among survey seniors all had high median GPAs. The median GPA for seniors in Economics, Computer Science, and Applied Math was 3.8, the median GPA for seniors in Government was 3.9, and the median GPA for seniors in Social Studies was 4.0. The median GPA among all surveyed seniors was 3.9.

During the Class of 2026’s time at Harvard, top College administrators released two reports on the compression of grades into an ever-smaller range, the latter of which concluded that grade inflation was “damaging the academic culture of the College.” The cap on A grades passed with 70 percent of the faculty vote, with professors heralding it as a way to restore students’ focus to the classroom, but seniors have greeted it with anxiety — even though it will not take effect until fall 2027.

Nearly three-quarters of respondents either somewhat or strongly opposed the grading cap, with only 18 percent in favor.

Despite the overwhelming opposition to the proposal, seniors were split on whether grade inflation is prevalent at Harvard: 45 percent of graduates said they believe students systematically receive inflated grades, while 39 percent believe they do not.

Roughly 48 percent of respondents felt they had personally received a higher grade than they deserved in a course, while 41 percent said they had not.

One thing is for sure: Though Harvard students in the Class of 2026 maintained significant obligations outside the classroom, academics were still their number-one time commitment. The median respondent reported spending 40 hours on academics in a typical week, compared with 20 hours on social life, 15 hours on extracurriculars, 15 hours on varsity sports, and 11 hours on paid employment.

The median respondent reported sleeping seven hours per night while at Harvard.

Academic Integrity

The share of students who reported cheating in an academic context declined to 25 percent, in line with rates in 2023 and earlier, and significantly down from its peak of 47 percent among the Class of 2024.

Of those who reported cheating, nearly 93 percent did so on a problem set or homework assignment. Nearly 64 percent reported cheating on a take-home assignment, essay, or project, while fewer than a quarter reported having done so on a live exam.

When students in the Class of 2026 first stepped foot on campus, ChatGPT had not yet been released to the public. But by graduation, 64 percent of seniors reported using artificial intelligence multiple times a week or daily, with only 11 percent of respondents having never used AI.

Seniors remain split on their view of AI’s effect on their education. A plurality — 43 percent — said AI had harmed their education at Harvard, while 33 percent said AI had improved their education. About 21 percent said AI had neither harmed nor improved their education, and 1 percent said they were unsure.

The share of students who reported using AI for an assignment against instructor permission remained steady at 33 percent, largely unchanged from previous years. Still, only a handful of students who illicitly used AI received punishment: 93 percent said they were not discovered at all, 4.5 percent were detected but faced no disciplinary action, and only 2.6 percent were disciplined.

Courses of Study

Economics continues to be the most popular concentration — accounting for 16 percent of respondents — and Government remained the second-most popular, accounting for 12 percent of respondents.

The share of students completing a double concentration increased to 17 percent from 14 percent among the Class of 2025, continuing a rise in the option’s popularity since its introduction in 2022. About 9 percent of students completed a joint concentration.

Just over half of respondents said they wrote or plan to write a thesis. But participation was not equal across concentrations, ranging from 81 percent of Arts and Humanities concentrators to only 45 percent at the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

At the time they completed the survey, about 43 percent of respondents who submitted a thesis said they had not yet received their grades. Among respondents who had received thesis grades, more than 45 percent said they had received either a summa cum laude or summa cum laude minus.

About 10 percent of respondents to the Class of 2026 survey said they had taken time off from Harvard. Students who took time off were largely happy with their decision: 93 percent said they did not regret hitting pause.