University of Michigan will stop issuing real letter grades for 'mental health crisis'

The University of Michigan will stop issuing real letter grades to some first-semester freshmen, replacing them with pass or no credit on transcripts in the name of student mental health.

The policy takes effect in fall 2027 at the College of Literature, Science and the Arts, the university's largest, with roughly 3,500 first-year students. Letter grades will still be tracked internally for compliance and academic honors, but they will not appear on transcripts or count toward grade-point averages. The university says the change will help freshmen "start strong and curb the mental health crisis unfolding among college-aged individuals."

Critics say the diagnosis is backwards. Rick Hess of the American Enterprise Institute called the approach "exactly the wrong diagnosis," arguing that "swaddling college students does not actually improve their mental health" and instead "creates entitlement" and "a lack of productive tension." He urged universities to ratchet up rigor and expectations instead, including minimum reading requirements and limits on campus cellphone use.

Psychotherapist Jonathan Alpert drew a sharper line. "Feeling bad isn't the same thing as being unwell," he said, warning that therapists and institutions have blurred that distinction. College, he argued, should be where young people learn that evaluation isn't always pleasant.

Harvard has moved the opposite direction, voting in May to cap A grades at roughly 20 percent per class to combat grade inflation.