University of Michigan to Hide Grades for Student Mental Health
The pilot will still give first-year students instructor grades and feedback, but transcripts will show pass or no credit instead of letters.
- Beginning fall 2027, University of Michigan's College of Literature, Science and the Arts will remove first-semester letter grades from student transcripts through its First-Semester Grade Covering Pilot Program, intended to help students acclimate to college demands.
- LSA is the University of Michigan's largest school, with 3,521 first-year students entering in fall 2025, and the program responds to what LSA reports as the mental health crisis unfolding among college-aged individuals.
- Students will still receive grades and instructor feedback in every course, but transcripts will display only pass or no credit; C- and above counts as passing while anything below receives failing grade status.
- Michigan joins MIT, which adopted similar grading in 1968, and California Institute of Technology, Wellesley College, and Swarthmore College; Johns Hopkins University ended its comparable policy in 2017 after determining covered grades delayed study skill development.
- LSA has offered optional pass/fail grading since fall 2024 for electives only, and the mandatory first-semester policy builds on this existing system, which MIT credits with easing student adjustment to increased academic workloads and teaching variations.
19 Articles
19 Articles
Taxpayer-Funded School To Hide Grades In Name Of Mental Health
The University of Michigan’s College of Literature, Science and the Art is adopting a policy to cover freshmen’s first semester grades.
University of Michigan Shields Freshmen From First-Semester Grades in Bid to Ease Mental Health Strain
University administrators at one of the nation’s largest public research universities have decided that traditional letter grades can wait. Starting in fall 2027, incoming freshmen in the University of Michigan’s College of Literature, Science, and the Arts will see only “pass” or “no credit” on their transcripts for their first semester. The change, the school says, aims to curb the mental health crisis unfolding among college-aged individuals.…
Michigan to Eliminate Freshman Grades in First Semester
University of Michigan to hide freshmen grades from transcripts in mental health move
Incoming University of Michigan freshmen will have their first-semester grades kept off their transcripts under a new policy aimed at easing academic pressure and addressing concerns over student mental health.
University of Michigan Goes Full Participation Trophy, Will Hide Grades for Student 'Mental Health'
The largest college in the University of Michigan wants to be sure flunking every course does not create negative thoughts that could disturb a student’s happy time cocoon. The College […] The post University of Michigan Goes Full Participation Trophy, Will Hide Grades for Student 'Mental Health' appeared first on The Western Journal.
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