University of Michigan Hides First-Semester Grades to Address Student Mental-Health Concerns

The College of Literature, Science, and the Arts (LSA) at the University of Michigan will grade incoming freshmen on a pass/no-credit basis for their first semester, beginning this fall. Letter grades will be omitted from transcripts, which will instead note that all first-semester courses were automatically pass/no-credit. Internally, instructors will still record true grades for purposes such as academic awards, scholarships, internships, advising, professional opportunities, and major changes outside LSA. Students’ grades will be reflected in their GPA starting in the second semester.

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The college, which enrolls nearly 20,000 students, said the change aims to reduce competition, support well-being, and allow students to focus on learning rather than grade anxiety.

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The University of Michigan joins a small group of institutions—Massachusetts Institute of Technology, California Institute of Technology, Swarthmore College, and Wellesley College—that have experimented with grade-hiding or pass/no-credit models to mitigate student stress.

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• “We’ve gotten to the point where normal stress is being treated like a mental health problem. Getting a bad grade is disappointing. It can be embarrassing. It can make you anxious. But that doesn’t make it psychologically harmful,” — Psychotherapist Jonathan Alpert, the author of “Therapy Nation,”

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