The University of Michigan has paused a controversial policy that would have hidden freshmen’s first-semester letter grades, just weeks after announcing the initiative as a way to support new students’ mental health.
The pilot, announced in August, was scheduled to begin in fall 2027 for first-year students in the College of Literature, Science and the Arts, the university’s largest undergraduate college. Under the policy, students would have received pass (P) or no-credit (NC) designations for their first semester instead of having traditional letter grades appear on their external transcripts or count toward their GPAs.
