University of Michigan drops letter grades for first-semester freshmen

Good news for anyone planning to wing it on their Victorian lit final (there are multiple Brontë sisters btw): The University of Michigan won’t release official grades for its freshmen’s first semester. The university said that the pivot to a pass/no credit system for first semester classes is an effort to “curb the mental health crisis” among students.

The pilot program will start in the fall of 2027 and apply to the roughly 3,500 students that enter the College of Literature, Science, and Arts each year. Professors will still give students grades on assignments, and the school will internally track grades for scholarship and athletic requirements. But the letter grades won’t show up on students’ transcripts:

• The administration said the program is aimed at helping students transition to college-level work and explore courses that are more difficult without the risk that a bad grade early on would tank their GPAs.
• Critics outside the school argue the new approach creates entitlement and doesn’t do anything to improve mental health.

Whether you give it an A or a D, the idea isn’t new: Schools like the California Institute of Technology, Swarthmore College, and Wellesley College all have similar programs for first-semester grades. And MIT has been doing it since 1968.—MM