The University of Michigan will replace traditional letter grades for some first-semester freshmen with a pass/fail-style grade, to more gently ease new students into academic life.
The plan will go into effect in the fall of 2027 at the university’s College of Literature, Science and the Arts. It is intended to relieve pressure on freshmen and help them “start strong and curb the mental health crisis unfolding among college-aged individuals,” the university said in a statement.
Under the plan, first semester letter grades will still be recorded internally by the school for things like compliance reporting and eligibility for academic honors, the university said. Student transcripts, however, will reflect either “pass” for each course or “no credit.” First-semester grades will not factor into grade-point averages.
The new grading plan is similar to how the Massachusetts Institute of Technology records grades. First-semester freshman grades at M.I.T. are reported as either pass or no record, to allow students time to get accustomed to an increased college workload and different teaching methods, the M.I.T. Registrar’s Office explains on its website.
The University of Michigan said the point of the change “is to help first-year students acclimate to the demands of college,” and to allow students to set their early academic path with less grade pressure. “For example, they can explore a subject that may not come easily to them or take a course in a new field without the fear that a low grade may have long-term consequences,” the school said in its statement.
The policy faced immediate criticism from people who have argued that making academics easier for students does not ultimately help them. Rick Hess, a senior fellow and director of education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, said the policy is “exactly the wrong diagnosis.”
“It turns out that swaddling college students does not actually improve their mental health,” he said. “It creates entitlement. It creates a lack of productive tension.”
Mr. Hess urges the opposite approach. He called for “ratcheting up rigor” in coursework and “ratcheting up expectations” on students, with things like robust minimum reading requirements and curbs on cellphone use on campus.
Jonathan Alpert, a psychotherapist and author, agreed that a bad grade can feel awful and make students anxious. “But feeling bad isn’t the same thing as being unwell,” he said. “I worry that therapists and institutions have blurred that distinction.”
“College should be one of the places where young people learn that evaluation isn’t always pleasant,” he said. Students might get a C or worse, hear criticism from a professor or fail to get the internship they wanted. “Those experiences can hurt, but learning that you can tolerate them and move forward prepares you for adulthood,” he added.
Other prominent schools, such as Harvard University, have taken the opposite tack with grades — making them more competitive. The Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences voted overwhelmingly in May to restrict the number of A-grades professors may award in undergraduate classes. The school capped A’s at roughly 20 percent of the grades in a class after extensive study and debate over how to address grade inflation.