Beginning in fall 2027, the University of Michigan’s College of Literature, Science, and the Arts will assign pass/no credit grades rather than traditional letter grades during the first semester for all incoming students.
LSA students will still receive grades and instructor feedback in all their first-semester courses, but final letter grades will not be recorded on their external transcripts, and calculations of their GPAs will not include first-semester letter grades. Instead, the external transcripts for LSA students will state that all grades in the first semester have been automatically designated as P/NC.
The initiative is designed to help students “establish early momentum." The college claims that the introduction of a “covered grade” policy will enable students to “start strong and curb the mental health crisis unfolding among college-aged individuals.”
“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,” according to the college. “For example, they can explore a subject that may not come easily to them or take a course in a new field without the fear that a low grade may have long-term consequences. LSA is investing in students’ well-being and growth by fostering a culture of connection and collaboration—rather than competition.”
The policy may also be a response that’s partially aimed at curbing grade inflation, which is perceived to be a growing problem at many leading public and private universities.
The pilot will apply only to first-year students enrolled in U-M’s College of LSA. New transfer students will not be eligible, nor will new students in other colleges at the university. Still, the program involves a substantial number of students. LSA is the largest of the university’s 19 colleges, with more than 18,000 students enrolled and some of the institution’s largest majors, like economics, computer science, and psychology. The college offers more than 80 majors and sub-majors and over 100 minors across 41 academic departments.
First-semester grades for LSA freshmen will still be maintained by the U-M Registrar and used for several internal purposes such as calculations for athletic eligibility, compliance reporting, degree progress, and eligibility for financial aid, academic honors and other awards.
While the University of Michigan is not the first university to experiment with grade covering or shadowing, the practice has never caught on at many campuses. Dozens of colleges resorted to pass/fail grading during the Covid-19 crisis, but have since retuned to traditional grading.
Johns Hopkins University introduced a grade covering policy many years ago, but later repealed it. MIT assigns Pass or No/Record grades during the initial fall semester before switching to letter grades in the first spring semester, a policy the university maintains “is designed to ease your transition to MIT by giving you time to adjust to factors like increased workloads and variations in academic preparation and teaching methods.” The California Institute of Technology, Swarthmore College, and Wellesley College all have their own versions of a first-semester grade-covering policy.