Breaking

Brown Class Average Falls From 96 to 48 After Final Moved In Person

July 8, 2026 at 22:17 EDT

Education
Policy & Regulation

At Ivy League Brown University, economics professor Roberto Serrano switched a final exam to an in-person format over suspected large-scale AI cheating, and the class average dropped from 96 out of 100 on the midterm to 48. The case in the upper-level mathematical economics course ECON 1170 was first reported in detail by El País on June 28, 2026, and later followed by Ars Technica and Futurism, among others.

Brown University · ECON 1170 · Academic Integrity

The Take-Home Exam Averaged 96. Under Supervision, It Fell to 48.

Suspecting large-scale AI cheating on a take-home midterm, an economics professor switched the final to an in-person format. The class average collapsed by nearly half — the lowest on record.

Class Average, Same Course · Same Semester

Midterm

take-home

→

Final

in person, supervised

Course historical average: 65–80. The in-person final was the lowest on record.

perfect scores of 100 on the take-home midterm (of 86)

22 / 27

final absentees who had scored a perfect 100 on the midterm

failures among the 59 who sat the in-person final

Routine AI Use at Brown

56%

of undergraduates use AI routinely

67%

of graduate students use AI routinely

AI has made deception "easier and more rewarding than ever." Take-home exams will be abolished next year; across the Ivy League, Princeton is reviving in-person exams for the first time in 133 years.

The Professor's Case

Graders flagged passages matching ChatGPT outputs; the evidence was called "overwhelming." The case was submitted to the Academic Code Committee.

The Caution

A score drop alone isn't proof — the shift could fall within statistical variance, and in-person cheating remains possible. No official Brown statement confirmed.

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