It’s an increasing trend sweeping across college campuses and even reaching some Ivy Leagues: grade inflation. Whatever the rumors were about C being average — that’s not the case anymore. Nowadays, A has become the new C. 

According to a December Washington Post article, nearly 41 percent of undergraduates obtain an A- grade or higher, while only 5 percent of undergraduates are receiving grades of C or less, nationally. It doesn’t appear problematic at first — more and more students must be working harder and challenging themselves to enter an increasingly competitive workforce and economy. 

But what this grade inflation really reflects is that colleges are losing their grasp on how to gauge students’ work. 

Even Harvard University, ranked by U.S. News & World Report as the No. 2 university in the nation, found that the median grade was an A- and the most frequently received grade was an A. One of the nation’s most rigorous schools is also one of the nation’s most lenient graders. 

So that brings about the question many colleges are faced with today: What does an A even represent anymore? And if it doesn’t reflect exceptionality, what does?

Professors at the University of Illinois are given the freedom to determine how many percentage points account for an A-, A and A+, or if they even want to include a plus and minus distinction. With more distinguishable marks, we can differentiate the achievements of students more easily, and identify their strengths and weaknesses.

But here, students can’t receive anything higher than a 4.0, which is given to a student who earns both an A or an A+. A better system is to make an A+ worth 4.333, and then cap the overall GPA a student can graduate with at 4.0. 

Think of it this way: When pluses and minuses are enforced, there is a wider range of grades students can receive — B-, B+, A. If grades can’t creep above 4.333 to match the grade inflation happening across the country, more people crowd toward the top, and everyone starts to look the same. Of course, they are not. 

In school, it’s hard to be good and even harder to be great, so why isn’t that reflected in our GPA system? 

Grade inflation crept up in universities because employers want to see A’s, and professors want to help their students get jobs. When an employer or graduate school sees a resume or transcript full of A’s, they aren’t going to consider how many other applicants also received A’s. 

An A means exceptional, and that’s all they’ll see. They’ll just see that A, which, hypothetically, was awarded to one student for her perfect fluency in Italian and another student who can only read it well.  

But the question is: What happens when a 4.333 isn’t high enough? Bumping up the GPA earned for an A+ is a temporary fix.

The real solution, and the more difficult one, is to deflate the grade nationally. Professors must give D’s and C’s to average work, and students must once again work hard for the almighty A.