Princeton University students have graduated with too many "A" grades over the past 20 years, faculty and administrators say.

With that in mind, the university announced Monday it has successfully decreased the number of "A" grades from 46 percent in the 2003-04 academic year to 40.9 percent in the 2004-2005 academic year.

The initiative, announced last year, ultimately aims for the proportion of "A" grades to not exceed 35 percent.

"This has been recognized across academia as a problem," Princeton spokesperson Cass Cliatt said. "[We] actually found in doing a study … Princeton is not alone in grading inflation."

According to Cliatt, Princeton conducted a study of its peer institutions — including all Ivy League schools, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Chicago and Stanford University — and found across those schools that A's accounted for, on average, 44 to 55 percent of the grades.

"There was a time, of course, when 'A' was looked at as exceptional work," Cliatt said. "'A' does not equate to average. 'A' is supposed to equate to outstanding."

Princeton senior Chas Ballew said the university's new policy was a "huge deal" when it was first announced last year, but said in the months since, the student body eventually came to terms with it.

"I've been in a couple of classes where I really felt I should've got an A-, [but] I got a B+ just because that's the grade that's not regulated," Ballew said. "The impression around campus is that if you're doing good work, you'll be rewarded with good grades, but it's been a bit harder to coast by."

Cliatt said the new policy was greeted with "some trepidation" from students concerned about the negative effects this may have on their transcripts, but she said the university has not found it to be a problem thus far.

Ballew said he will be applying to law school this fall and is concerned about the difference in his grades from a student at a university such as Harvard, where he said grade inflation is rampant to the point where 75 percent of students graduate with straight A's.

"The university in good faith has professed that it will try as hard as possible to make sure it doesn't end up being a detriment to Princeton students," Ballew said. "I couldn't tell you about the psychology of it — whether [law schools] are actually going to pay attention to it and discount the grade."

Princeton mathematics professor Elias Stein said the new stress on assigning fewer A's has changed the way he grades "just a little bit," and said he has not heard any complaints from students about the new policy.

"I think it's OK to rein in the grades a little bit," Stein said. "I would guess that in mathematics, there was possibly a slight decrease in the average, but not very much. … I don't think it's been a very big thing."

According to Ballew, reactions from professors have varied, but he said the new policy has "invariably" affected larger introduction classes and has had little effect on smaller, more focused classes.

"Some professors think it's great. It makes their job easier if they have the curve set now and they can just grade everything relatively," he said. "[Others] think it's just crap and they refuse [and] just grade however they want and have no plans to come into compliance."

Steve Ritter, a sophomore at Stanford — one of the peer institutions named in Princeton's study — said the grade inflation at his school is significantly different from the 44 to 55 percent figure suggested in Princeton's study.

"The attitude at Stanford is that it's very easy to get a 'B,' but it's exceptionally difficult to get an 'A,'" Ritter said. "Grade inflation is in existence as far as almost everybody has at least a 2.7 [grade point average], which is a B-."

When asked if the downward shift in A's at Princeton subsequently increased the number of C's or D's, Cliatt said their report looks at "A" grades specifically and has no data to indicate whether that was the case.

Gary Sandefur, UW Dean of the College of Letters & Science, said the university is "on target" as far as how its grades are distributed, and he added UW is not "anywhere close" to 44-55 percent of its grades being A's.

"This is my personal opinion — I don't believe [in] caps on the number of A's," Sandefur said. "I think if you establish a standard for what an 'A' is and lots of people meet that standard, then it's appropriate to give them all A's."