Grade inflation common at Berkeley and other elite colleges

Roughly two-thirds of all undergraduate grades at UC Berkeley in 2022 were A’s or A-minuses, a stark increase from a decade ago, as the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

UC Berkeley data shows that while grade inflation accelerated during the pandemic, it has been a long standing trend, with average grades at Berkeley rising higher every year.

The surge in A’s can be chalked up to changes in the school’s grading policies during the pandemic, according to Oliver O’Reilly, vice provost for undergraduate education and a mechanical engineering professor at Berkeley,  the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

It should be noted that grade inflation is not unique to Berkeley. Nearly 80% of grades at Yale University were A’s last year, up from 67% in 2011. At Harvard University, a hefty 79% of undergraduate grades in 2020-21 were A’s in 2020-21, compared with 60% a decade earlier.