University of Michigan to switch to pass/fail grades for first-semester students

School said it is pivoting away from letter-grading system to ‘curb the mental health crisis’ among college students

The University of Michigan will pivot to a pass-or-fail-style grading system, instead of letter grades, for first-semester students in an effort to “curb the mental health crisis unfolding among college-aged individuals”.

The school said in a notice on Tuesday that its goal was “to help first-year students acclimate to the demands of college and allow intrinsic motivations to guide personally meaningful academic journeys” and foster “a culture of connection and collaboration – rather than competition”.

Under the pilot scheme, which applies to students in the College of Literature, Science and the Arts (LSA), transcripts will show “pass or no credit”.

The move comes after a mental health study across 135 US colleges and universities published last year showed lower rates of depressive and anxiety symptoms and suicidal ideation reported by students.

The 2024-2025 Healthy Minds Study said symptoms of severe depression had dropped to 18% – down from 23% in 2022 – and suicidal ideation had fallen to 11%, down from 15% over the same period.

Rosario Ceballo, dean of the University of Michigan, told the University Record that the decision to drop the grade system “has the potential to not only address the alarming rates of stress, depression and anxiety among our students, but to deliver on our core promise as a liberal arts and sciences college”.

Timothy McKay, LSA associate dean for undergraduate education, also told the paper that the program “would provide LSA students with a smooth on-ramp as they accelerate from high school into a rigorous college education; a chance to refine their academic skills and build early momentum”.

A number of universities, including the California Institute of Technology, Swarthmore College, Wellesley College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, are also offering similar grade-covering initiatives, according to the Wall Street Journal .

The changes come as universities fight to maintain standards among both students and faculty staff.

In May, Harvard faculty members voted to impose a roughly 20% cap on A grades in an effort to curb decades of grade inflation that, it said, degrades the value of top-tier academic achievement at the college.

The changes at Michigan come as math and science professors at the University of California in June called on regents to reinstate college-entrance exams. Students taking first-semester calculus at UC Berkeley showed “severe preparation deficits”, they said.

“Basic mathematical fluency is analogous to literacy; without it, success in university-level Stem becomes structurally unattainable for students,” they wrote in an open letter warning that academic standards were eroding.

The University of California San Diego found that the percentage of students needing remedial math classes before they could take precalculus increased to 8.5% in 2025 from 0.5% in 2020.

“We now observe preparation gaps so severe that instructors must reteach middle-school mathematics while simultaneously teaching the material students need for sciences, engineering, economics and other quantitatively demanding fields,” they added.

Kenneth Lowande, a former University of Michigan political science professor, told the Journal he doubted that dropping the grading system for first-semester students would make later grading any more relevant.

“Grades have lost their value as an indication of quality or excellence,” he said.