Weeks after the University of Michigan made headlines with its plan to keep letter grades from appearing on the transcripts of some first-year students or affecting their GPAs, the decision continues to stir debate — with critics accusing the prestigious school of shielding students from reality and warning the move could backfire. The Wall St. Journal even published an op-ed with the title “ Coddle U. ” But on a recent day on the Ann Arbor campus, students expressed cautious optimism. They said they agreed that transitioning to college can be hard but were uncertain if they wanted “pass” and “no credit” to replace traditional letter grades on their transcripts.Students will still know what grade they received in a given class. U-M says the idea of withholding the letter grade from transcripts and preventing it from affecting grade point averages is to “foster an environment where college students can acclimate to the demands of a University of Michigan education and pursue new academic challenges.”
It’s still working out all the details of the pilot program, slated to start in fall 2027 with first-year, first-semester students in the College of Literature, Science and the Arts. LSA is the largest of U-M’s schools and colleges, accounting for more than half of undergraduate enrollment on the Ann Arbor campus.Tim McKay, associate dean for undergraduate education at LSA, told Bridge there are two main goals for the program: encouraging academic exploration and improving student mental health.
