New Delhi: Freshmen entering the University of Michigan’s College of Literature, Science, and the Arts won’t see letter grades on their transcripts during their first semester. Starting in fall 2027, LSA will mark first-semester courses as pass or no-credit instead.
The university calls this “grade covering,” describing it as an effort to help students adjust to college life and curb what it calls “the mental health crisis unfolding among college-aged individuals.”
The grades themselves don’t disappear — professors still assign them, and students still get feedback throughout the semester. They just won’t show up on external transcripts or count toward GPA.
The university will keep those grades on internal record for advising, scholarships, and awards, as well as for internship applications or majors outside LSA. New transfer students won’t be eligible for the pilot. Grading returns to normal the following semester.
LSA is the largest single college for incoming freshmen at Michigan. Of the approximately 8,200 students who began their first year at the university in 2025, more than 3,500 enrolled in LSA.
Every one of them will be automatically placed in the pilot; there’s no opting out. The university’s website states the reasoning directly: “If covered grades are optional, covering an individual’s grades will inadvertently become equated with them not doing well in a class. If the policy is the same for all students, it is equitable across the board.”
Michigan isn’t breaking new ground here. MIT has used a pass/no-record system for freshmen since 1968. Caltech, Wellesley, and Swarthmore run similar programs.
A Mixed Reaction
The reaction has been mixed. Student body president Summit Louth told the New York Times the transition to college life had been stressful – “you’re just figuring out how to be an adult and live on your own,” he said, “it gets extremely stressful having to balance that with also wanting to be a straight-A student.”
Louth, 20, said he earned all A’s and one B in his own first semester, and doubts he would have worked as hard under a pass/no-credit system – but thinks he would have learned more without the pressure of chasing high marks.
Ryan Fewins-Bliss of the Michigan College Access Network called it “cutting edge” and said it’s responsive to what students have been asking for.
Others are more skeptical. Rice University professor Kenneth Lowande, who used to teach at Michigan, told the Wall Street Journal that “grades have lost their value as an indication of quality or excellence.”
Neetu Arnold of the Manhattan Institute raised a different concern to the Chronicle of Higher Education: Michigan doesn’t require SAT or ACT scores for admission, which she argued may be masking preparation gaps this pilot won’t fix.
LSA leadership plans to hold town halls this fall, giving students and faculty a chance to ask questions and weigh in before the program launches.
(Edited by Maryam Hassan)