Harvard Students Shocked, Depressed To Find Out School Supposed To Be Hard

Harvard College released a report Monday warning that its grading system is “failing to perform the key functions of grading” and “damaging the academic culture of the College.” Harvard undergraduates reacted to the report with dignity and composure. Right?

The 25-page report, obtained by the Harvard Crimson and circulated among faculty and students, inspired nothing less than a complete emotional meltdown among certain undergraduates. 

The Crimson interviewed more than 20 students who “said the report missed the complexity of academic life at Harvard.” 

Read: ‘What about my feelings?’

“The whole entire day, I was crying,” undergraduate Sophie Chumburidze told the Crimson. “I skipped classes on Monday, and I was just sobbing in bed because I felt like I try so hard in my classes, and my grades aren’t even the best.”

“The whole entire day, I was crying. I skipped classes on Monday, and I was just sobbing in bed.”

Sounds like this person specifically should be grateful for grade inflation because without it they’d fail out. https://t.co/3jUKHgxQdv

— Ben Dreyfuss (@bendreyfuss) October 30, 2025

“It just felt soul-crushing,” Chumburidze added.

Skipping class is a sure-fire way to bring up those grades. Harvard might consider making their students go to class. Or at least penalizing them for skipping it.

“[O]nce they get in, many of its students skip class and fail to do the reading, according to the Classroom Social Compact Committee … Rampant grade inflation allows them to coast through anyway, it concluded,” The New York Times reported Oct. 6.

Chumburidze offers her tears as evidence of the report’s illegitimacy. Recall Helen Andrews’ aptly timed essay, “The Great Feminization,” in which Andrews argues institutions increasingly cater to feminine priorities: “empathy over rationality, safety over risk, cohesion over competition.” Case in point, the Crimson quotes students who believe their emotional toil is somehow relevant to the issue of grade inflation. (RELATED: We’ve Now Seen Why Women Can’t Have Nice Things)

Harvard, by its own admission, is handing out grades that misrepresent their students’ grasp of the material.

Dean of Undergraduate Education Amanda Claybaugh reportedly urged the restoration of “the integrity of our grading” to “return the academic culture of the College to what it was in the recent past.”

One can’t help but suspect the integrity of Harvard’s grading has declined in accordance with the integrity of their undergraduates. 

But it’s tough to say which is more valuable: Admitting the nation’s brightest and most talented undergraduates, or increasing the share of Latinx freshmen? (RELATED: Poll Once Again Confirms That Hispanics Hate The Term ‘Latinx’)

Undergraduate Kayta A. Aronson told the Crimson that Harvard’s report makes her “rethink” her “decision to come to the school.”

“I killed myself all throughout high school to try and get into this school. I was looking forward to being fulfilled by my studies now, rather than being killed by them.”

Ah, the entitlement of a person who Didn’t Earn It (DEI). 

There’s an obvious solution to the concerns levied by Aronson and the other students profiled by the Crimson.

They should have gone to an easier school. 

I can barely believe these people exist. https://t.co/zdcpALqiK2

— Jeff Blehar is *BOX OFFICE POISON* (@EsotericCD) October 30, 2025

Elite endeavors are supposed to exceed the capacities of most people. Most aren’t qualified to play in a professional baseball league. Even if they really want to. Even if they try their best. Who cares?

Harvard student Zahra Rohaninejad complained that she “can’t reach my maximum level of enjoyment just learning the material because I’m so anxious about the midterm, so anxious about the papers, and because I know it’s so harshly graded.” (RELATED: Self-Sabotage Or Sucking Up? Harvard’s Cold War With Trump Takes Dramatic Turn)

“If that standard is raised even more, it’s unrealistic to assume that people will enjoy their classes.”

Good point. Who cares if your heart surgeon knows where the heart is? Just so long as they’re having fun. 

That’s not to say enjoyment is irrelevant to education. 

A good orator accomplishes three items, according to Cicero: “Docere, delectare, et movere.” To teach, to delight, and to move. But that which might’ve delighted and moved the Harvard undergraduate of 1955 may be met with looks of utter confusion by the Harvard undergraduate of 2025. 

So Rohaninejad is probably right that it’s “unrealistic” to assume the majority of Harvard’s current crop of undergrads will enjoy tougher classes. Harvard should probably invest in smarter undergrads. The sort capable of enjoying and mastering the material at hand.

Follow Natalie Sandoval on X: @NatSandovalDC