In American universities almost 45% of graduates now get the top grade, compared with 15% in 1960.
In terms of influence, Adam Smith might rate the top grade, with perhaps Keynes one lower at number eight.
Six schools--Harvard, Dartmouth, Carleton College, Middlebury College, the University of Vermont and the University of Washington--earned an A-, the top grade in 2008.
Mr Howard wants exam boards to stop using "criterion referencing", introduced by his party in the 1980s, which allows more than a set percentage of candidates to achieve the top grade.
David Cameron's pledge would go further than this by including all meetings (not just hospitality) for special advisers and - significantly - by also covering permanent secretaries, the top grade of the civil service.
But today's top-grade services go further, customizing over-the-top trips for you and yours.
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In countries like Japan, top-grade tuna is already on its way to becoming the next caviar.
The Canada Report newsletter, which is offered by Forbes Newsletters, has been advising readers about top-grade Canadian stocks since the beginning of 2008.
An increase in traditional freight-train traffic was slowing up rail service, so potatoes that were top-grade when they were loaded in Idaho were mashed--and not by design--when they arrived in Philadelphia.
Eugene figures he will sign up 60, 000 medical patients, change Canadian law, learn to grow top-grade pot, sell to many countries and corner a market now occupied by one agricultural company and scores of furtive growers.
There is the further issue of the quality of coal, since the majority of the world reserve is of lower thermal quality than the top-grade anthracitic coal, and will yield less energy per tonne either burned directly or in the form of syngas in ICGC plants.
At its launch on July 26, Malaysia Street founding partner Yeoh Keat Seng said he believes individual investors will become a formidable force on the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange with the power to move stocks, once they have access to top-grade advice at low cost thanks to the Internet.
Someone like Coca Cola Hellenic would expect to have an investment grade, and at the top end of the investment grade as well, rating.
The Northern Ireland secretary's decision to re-imprison Adair was based on a six-point police intelligence report which was marked "top secret, high grade, reliable and accurate".
Increasingly, they are flexible in nature, allowing enrolled participants the ability to hold onto that big career while building the credentials now required to cut the grade in top management.
"It was an extremely difficult rescue, this was at the top - it was A grade, " said Sgt Tony Russell.
Shares of many companies that are fundamentally sound and ranked as top-quality investment-grade are now selling at bargain prices, he notes.
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Two international ratings agencies have downgraded the country's credit grade from the top level AAA, warning about the government's fiscal policies.
He suggested the sub may have been spying on a top secret consignment of military grade plutonium, shipped from the French port of Cherbourg to Japan on board a British nuclear transport vessel.
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Some investment funds enforce restrictions on debt that is below investment grade, while some require two out of the three top ratings agencies to have given the country an investment grade.
Since its inception in 1992, Deutsche's no-load Fixed Income Fund, the larger of two with a 7.83% compound annual return after expenses ranks in the top 6% of all investment-grade funds with average maturities of five to ten years, says fund-tracking service Lipper Inc.
The 52-year-old Mr. Corbat is hoping to instill the right incentives through the use of score cards that will grade the 50 or so top executives based on a set of weighted goals from five categories: capital, clients, costs, culture and controls.
"I was on top of six kids, " one sixth grade teacher said, working her way across the rubble.
Five of the top-15 tenants are rated investment-grade versus three years ago and was about 34% of overall revenue on a pro forma basis now coming from investment-grade.
In 2011, Castellano finished as one of the top five jockeys in the nation, with 11 Grade 1 victories, more than any other rider that year.
The sport's overall score of 92.5 points equaled its top mark in 2010, and racial hiring received an A grade for the fifth straight year.
He said she had raised her grade to an A this semester, one of the top in the class, he said.
Mr. Weiner said she had raised her grade to an A this semester, one of the top in the class, he said.
Even those with low numbers of grade AAB students will get involved in the bidding war for those with top grades - because they will be seen as a kite mark of an institution's success, he added.
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