University of Michigan to Replace Letter Grades for First-Semester Students in Mental Health Push
Starting in fall 2027, the University of Michigan's College of Literature, Science and the Arts (LSA) will replace letter grades with a pass/no credit system for all first-semester students. The initiative, called the LSA First-Semester Grade Covering Pilot Program, will automatically mark first-semester grades as either passing or no credit on official transcripts. These designations will not factor into students' GPA (grade point average), the standard numeric measure of academic performance used by most U.S. colleges.
The university will still keep internal records of first-semester grades for compliance, academic advising, awards and scholarships, and applications for internships or majors outside LSA. Beginning in their second semester, students' grades will appear on transcripts and count toward their GPAs as usual.
LSA Dean Rosario Ceballo said the change could address "alarming rates of stress, depression and anxiety among students" and fulfill the college's core promise as a liberal arts and sciences institution. Timothy McKay, LSA's associate dean for undergraduate education, said the program would give students a "smooth on-ramp from high school into a rigorous college education and a chance to build early momentum."
The university said the pilot aims to help first-year students adjust to college life and build a culture of connection and collaboration rather than competition. The program is part of U-M's campus-wide Student Success Initiative, which identifies early momentum as its most important goal. LSA is working with faculty and staff across campus to design the details.
The policy follows a mental health study spanning 135 U.S. colleges and universities published the previous year. The 2024-2025 Healthy Minds Study found that symptoms of severe depression among students dropped to 18 percent, down from 23 percent in 2022. Suicidal ideation fell to 11 percent, down from 15 percent over the same period.
The broader context here is a fractured national landscape on grading philosophy and academic preparedness. Michigan's move places it among institutions adopting structural accommodations for first-year students. According to the Wall Street Journal, several universities, including the California Institute of Technology, Swarthmore College, Wellesley College, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, are offering similar grade-covering initiatives.
Michigan's approach, however, diverges from actions at peer institutions. In May, Harvard faculty voted to cap A grades at roughly 20 percent to curb grade inflation, the gradual rise in average grades that critics say devalues academic achievement. In June, math and science professors at the University of California called on regents to reinstate college-entrance exams, citing preparation deficits among students taking first-semester calculus at UC Berkeley. UC San Diego found that the share of students needing remedial math before precalculus rose to 8.5 percent in 2025, up from 0.5 percent in 2020.
Under LSA's existing pass/fail grading policy, a student may choose to take a course on a pass/fail basis, and neither grade enters the GPA. Instructors are not told when a student elects this option and report grades as usual (A+ through E). An unfinished course marked Incomplete lapses to ILF, which also has no GPA impact. The new pilot extends a similar mechanism to all first-semester students automatically, though it replaces the Fail notation with No Credit on the transcript. LSA's design process for the pilot remains collaborative and ongoing.
