University Of Michigan Will Switch To Pass/Fail Grades For Most First-Semester Students

Michigan Advance

August 12, 2026

As part of a new pilot program starting fall 2027, many first-semester students at the University of Michigan will no longer receive letter grades on their transcripts.

According to a post on the website of the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts — by far the largest college at the university — final letter grades for first-semester freshmen will be replaced with a designation of either “pass” or “no credit.”

“We believe that covering grades will help students start strong and curb the mental health crisis unfolding among college-aged individuals,” the post reads. “Our goal is to help first-year students acclimate to the demands of college and allow intrinsic motivations to guide personally meaningful academic journeys — core elements of a liberal arts and sciences education.”

The Healthy Minds Study — co-based at U-M — is a survey assessing the mental health of students at colleges and universities across the country. While the most recent findings show improvement, 32% of college students still experience “moderate to severe” anxiety symptoms. Many experts feel that de-emphasizing grades could reduce the pressure that contributes to those symptoms.

Rosemary J. Perez, an associate professor in the University of Michigan’s Center for the Study of Higher and Postsecondary Education, said the university’s high-pressure environment — which she sees reflected in her own students — isn’t always conducive to actual learning.

“You hear from somebody like, ‘if I don’t get an A in this class, I’ll never be able to —’ and fill in the blanks with a hundred different things — ‘get into this next course, get the internship, get into graduate school, get this job I want,’” Perez said. “They’re already feeling that if they make one misstep, it’s just going to knock everything down.”

Matthew Kaplan is the associate vice provost for learning and teaching at the university. He was consulted in the development of the pilot, and said he hopes students use the flexibility it offers to explore subjects outside of their comfort zone.

“There’s so much such richness in the curriculum in LSA and, in fact, across the university,” Kaplan said. “Freeing students from worrying about their grades — letting them experiment in that first semester — might open them up to ideas that they hadn’t thought about.”

Kaplan also pointed to a concept in higher education called “early momentum” — the link between meeting academic milestones early in college and both on-time graduation and earning a degree. He said he feels the change in grade reporting could help students build long-term confidence.

All first-year students will be automatically enrolled in the program in Fall 2027, but new transfer students will not be eligible.

Students will still receive grades and feedback from their instructors, but they will not be recorded or impact a student’s overall GPA. The university will maintain internal records of the grades for advising, scholarship and internship applications, and certain other purposes.

LSA already allows first-semester students to drop courses late without penalty. Kaplan said many in the field of higher education are focusing on improving learning quality and shifting toward more flexible systems of assessment. He pointed to the recent replacement of curved grading at the Ross School of Business and an increasing number of instructors who are already using alternative grading approaches.

“It’s part of a larger movement around student success,” Kaplan said. “How do we make sure that students can succeed here, fulfill their goals as well as the university’s goals for them?”

College leaders plan to hold public engagement sessions before implementing the program next fall. U-M spokesperson Chris Sebastian wrote that the full details of the pilot have not yet been finalized.

“The first-semester grade covering pilot program, designed to help first-year students better acclimate to the demands of a University of Michigan education, is still in its development phase,” Sebastian wrote. “We will have more details to share this fall, as faculty, staff and students in the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts continue to inform the design, development and implementation of a pilot program.”

Editor’s note: The University of Michigan holds Michigan Public’s broadcast license.

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