“It’s frustrating—and appalling, to be honest—because I think a lot of people here have worked more than enough to get some sort of honors,” says Bravo. “It was a great experience—it’s frustrating now that I might not get anything for it.”

THE PRINCETON EXPERIMENT

While the graduating Class of 2005 has been the guinea pig for the College’s caps on honors, they have been spared concrete policies mandating a less skewed distribution of grades.

But Princeton seniors have not been so lucky.

Last spring, in the first move by a top-tier university to address grade inflation, Princeton faculty approved plans for a non-binding 35 percent cap on the number of A-level grades given within departments.

But the bold initiative, which went into effect last fall, is less of a restriction than a plea.

“Caps is not the right word, nor is quota—the language we use is ‘expectation,’” says Princeton Associate Dean of the College Hank Dobin. “The expectation is no more than 35 percent of grades in courses will be in the A-range and that no more than 55 percent on independent work—that means junior papers and senior theses—[will be] in the A-range.”

The onus is entirely on the faculty within individual departments to attempt to meet these expectations.

Grades are not out yet, but Princeton’s Undergraduate Student Government (USG) President emeritus Matthew J. Margolin—an opponent of the cap—says the policy’s first year has already led to counterproductive consequences.

“I have witnessed students who jump around from one precept—our small [teaching assistant-led] class—to another in order to find the one with the most freshmen because they are concerned about the competition for A grades,” Margolin writes in an e-mail. “I have witnessed people who are more stressed about their theses and junior independent work. I have witnessed people who are unwilling to share notes about a class because of the need to maintain their own standing within the class given the very specific number of ‘A’ grades.”

While professors are given some leeway to award more ‘A’ grades than the set 35 percent, they are required to account for the breach at a meeting and in writing.

Margolin says he doubts that teaching assistants, who are responsible for most undergraduates’ grades, would hassle their superiors simply to give a deserving student an ‘A.’

Dobin says the new measure is an attempt to return to traditional standards.

“We have said that the 35 percent range resembles the percentages that were given at Princeton even as early as 1990,” he says.

But Margolin says the rationale for grade deflation—that it will cause students to work harder and improve the quality of their education—is suspect.