University of Michigan Drops Freshman Grades Citing Mental Health

The University of Michigan has named student mental health as the reason for changing how it grades first-year students, and the decision says something about where campus mental health treatment demand currently sits.

Starting in fall 2027, one college in the UofM system will stop recording first-semester letter grades on freshman transcripts in one of its undergraduate colleges.

What the Policy Does

First-semester students in the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts will receive a designation of pass or no credit on their transcripts rather than a letter grade, according to reporting by The Wall Street Journal on August 11.

The college enrolls roughly half of Michigan’s approximately 8,000 first-year students.

The university said the goal is to help students adjust to the demands of college and to let internal motivation guide their academic choices, and described the aim as an effort to “curb the mental health crisis unfolding among college-aged individuals.”

The scope is narrow and worth stating plainly. This is a pilot in one college at one university.

It does not apply to the university’s other undergraduate colleges, and it does not apply to any other institution in Michigan.

Several other details matter for anyone reading this as a mental health story. Grades will still be assigned internally and retained for academic advising, scholarships and awards, internship applications, athletic eligibility, degree progress, and financial aid.

First-semester designations will not factor into grade point average. Normal grading resumes in the second semester.

There is no opt-out, which the university said would defeat the purpose. A university spokesman declined to discuss how the decision was reached.

Reactions Are Split

Kenneth Lowande, a political science professor who left Michigan for Rice University, told the Journal he doubted the change would matter much, arguing that grade inflation has already reduced what grades signal.

Michigan’s student body president, Summit Louth, supported it. Louth said he spoke with around 50 classmates who were either pleased or wished the policy had existed when they were first-year students, and said academic stress and anxiety are closely tied to poor mental health among students.

Neither view resolves the underlying question, which is whether reducing a stressor changes outcomes or moves them.

Academic Stress and Co-Occurring Conditions

Anxiety and depression are among the most common reasons college students seek mental health treatment and behavioral health care, and the first semester away from home concentrates several risk factors at once, including loss of routine, new social environments, and sleep disruption.

The connection to addiction treatment is direct. Anxiety and depressive disorders frequently occur alongside alcohol and other substance use disorders, and in a campus setting drinking and stimulant misuse are often functioning as attempts to manage academic pressure or social anxiety.

A student who is struggling academically and drinking heavily may be presenting one problem with two components.

Understanding Dual Diagnosis

Co-occurring disorders, also called dual diagnosis, means a mental health condition and a substance use disorder are present at the same time.

Treating them separately tends to fail, because each one keeps reactivating the other.

Someone treated for alcohol use without their underlying anxiety being addressed often relapses when the anxiety returns unmanaged.

Integrated treatment addresses both conditions in the same program with a coordinated team, which is why facility screening for dual diagnosis capability matters more than the label on the door.

Mental Health Treatment Options by Level of Care

Campus counseling centers handle short-term needs and typically operate on session limits. When a student needs more, several levels of care exist.

Outpatient therapy is the usual starting point. Cognitive behavioral therapy and dialectical behavior therapy both have strong evidence for anxiety, depressive disorder and emotion regulation, and DBT skills training transfers well to students managing distress without effective coping tools.

Intensive outpatient programs and partial hospitalization offer several hours of structured treatment on most days while a person continues living at home, which can allow a student to stay enrolled.

Residential treatment centers apply when symptoms or substance use make daily functioning unsafe or unmanageable.

Medication management may accompany any of these levels when a prescriber determines it is appropriate.

Finding Comprehensive Treatment

If you are a student or a parent looking for care, a few questions separate programs that treat co-occurring conditions from programs that only screen for them.

Ask whether psychiatric and substance use care are delivered by the same team. Ask what happens when symptoms and substance use conflict in treatment planning.

Ask about coordination with a university, including medical leave and re-enrollment. Ask what your insurance covers and whether the program is in network.

Treatment Centers Directory lists mental health treatment facilities and dual diagnosis treatment programs nationwide.

Author

Nikki Wisher, BA

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Nikki Wisher is an Atlanta-based content writer who specializes in health and wellness. After earning her BA in English, she has been writing in the health and wellness space for over a decade, with credits ranging from addiction recovery to fitness to aesthetics and skin care. This includes her inclusive running blog forallrunners.com.

Editor

Eric Owens

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Eric Owens has been a writer and editor for various businesses as well as his own successful websites. He has extensive experience creating content in the health and wellness space and the sustainability space. He holds a bachelor degree in Philosophy which helped him with presenting complex information in a simple way that all audiences can understand.