University of Michigan to shield freshman LSA grades from transcripts starting fall 2027
The University of Michigan will stop listing first-semester letter grades on official transcripts for incoming freshmen in its College of Literature, Science, and the Arts beginning fall 2027, replacing them with pass…
Key takeaways
- The University of Michigan will stop showing first-semester letter grades on official transcripts for incoming LSA freshmen starting fall 2027, using 'P' (pass) or 'NC' (no credit) instead.
- The policy is part of a university mental health initiative and applies only to incoming freshmen in the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts, not the other 18 colleges.
- Letter grades will still be assigned and tracked internally for purposes like advising, scholarships, athletic eligibility, and financial aid, but will be excluded from GPA calculations and the external transcript average.
- There is no opt-out or opt-in option, as officials said an opt-in structure would defeat the purpose of easing students' transition and supporting well-being.
- Michigan joins a small group of schools with similar grading policies, including MIT, Swarthmore College, and the California Institute of Technology.
The University of Michigan will stop listing first-semester letter grades on official transcripts for incoming freshmen in its College of Literature, Science, and the Arts beginning fall 2027, replacing them with pass or no-credit notations as part of a university mental health initiative. The LSA, the largest of the university's 19 colleges, serves approximately 19,700 undergraduates. The first affected cohort arrives in fall 2027.
How the policy works
Letter grades will still be assigned throughout the semester and tracked internally for a defined set of purposes: academic advising, awards, scholarship consideration, internship and professional applications, athletic eligibility, compliance reporting, degree progress, and financial aid determinations. What disappears from the external record is the final average. Transcripts will show a "P" for pass or "NC" for no credit instead.
The covered grades will also be excluded from GPA calculations. Michigan officials said the change gives students room to explore courses outside their comfort zone without a poor mark following them. There is no opt-out option. The university stated that an opt-in structure "would defeat the purpose of facilitating students' transition to campus, supporting mental health and well-being, and bolstering intrinsic motivations for learning."
The case against
Psychotherapist Jonathan Alpert, author of "Therapy Nation," pushed back directly. Speaking to Fox News Digital, Alpert said the policy risks teaching students that discomfort is dangerous. A bad grade, he argued, is not a mental health emergency but can be "the wake-up call a student needs." He described the approach as "therapy culture invading the classroom," where normal stress gets reclassified as a health condition. College, he said, should be where young people discover they are tougher than they think.
Where Michigan fits
Michigan joins a small group of schools with comparable grading policies, including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Swarthmore College, and the California Institute of Technology. The change applies only to incoming freshmen enrolled in the LSA. Students in the university's other 18 colleges are not covered.
Filed via foxnews.com