It’s Time to Standardize the A+ at Trinity

Alex Gervais ’28

Executive Opinion & Design Editor

It’s midterm season, the time of year when many of us finally begin paying attention to our grades yet again. Our lectures become impromptu in-class review sessions and our professors are peppered with nervous questions about what will really be on the midterm. No longer are we defined by participation points and reading quizzes and assignments; after the next few weeks we will have cold, hard midterm grades that will shape the rest of our semester. When these exams are handed back, a select few of us will receive the mark that we’ve been hardwired to aspire for: the elusive A+.

The A+ is not merely a grade, it’s a symbol. Yes, it can be quantified as a grade usually from 97 to 100, but it means more than the number alone. It’s a figment of our pop culture: from Ralphie in “A Christmas Story” daydreaming of an “A+++++++++” on his theme report, to Annie and Shirley vying for valedictorian one A+ at a time in “Community,” it has a true omnipresence in our cultural academic expectations. 

Yet, oftentimes at Trinity, the A+ can be inconspicuous. It is not merely elusive, but simply unattainable. Many professors will tell their students at the beginning of the year that they don’t even award an A+, in fact entire departments won’t; the political science department does not award the A+, even as its peer, public policy and law, does. The two have crosslisted classes, yet not consistent grading scales. And even if an A+ is awarded, it may be capped, only allowing one or two students in a class to be rewarded for their intellectual curiosity and excellence. A handful of students may receive the dreaded “you deserved an A+, and if I was allowed to give you one, I would’ve” email at the end of this semester. It even goes as far to make valedictorian, the apparent mark of Trinity’s best student in a graduating class, not a true competition of effort or intellect, but of which major awards an A+. This minefield of academic excellence must not be the reality for Trinity’s students. It’s time for the College to standardize the A+. 

When every student, in every major, in every class, with every professor can earn an A+, our school becomes a stronger academic community. Not every student will attain it. In fact most won’t; but for the select few who show not just mastery of the subject, but genuine intellectual curiosity, the A+ must be an everpresent beacon of aspiration. It pushes students beyond merely studying for a grade, but instead to a truer deeper level of understanding. It should be a grade held to an exclusively high standard, but not an impossible one.

The A+ also allows Trinity’s students to simply get higher grades. An A+ counts for a 4.333 against a student’s GPA, enough to offset an A- in another class while keeping a 4.0 GPA. This means that the A+ inherently rewards risk-taking; it allows for Trinity’s best and brightest to step into fields and classes they may be uncomfortable with, all without having to sacrifice an imperfect blemish on their future. While high grades are no issue at Trinity—898 students made faculty honors in the 2025 spring semester—it is still essential that we nourish the GPAs of those who learn here. In a world where graduate, law and medical school are becoming an increasingly common path, undergraduate GPA genuinely matters. It is not merely a line on a resume, but a decider of our futures. Last year, Trinity sent a quarter of the Class of 2025 off to continue their education, a statistic only poised to tick upward as a constrained labor market sends new graduates back to school. A standardized A+ can help us protect our future classes, promising an evenly graded playing field for those to come. 

While the unequal distribution of the A+ at Trinity College is the ultimate first world problem, it still puts a cap on our academic culture. It is time that Trinity adopts an A+ policy where every student can earn an A+, not just some students with some professors in some departments. It is time that we standardize.