Why University of Michigan Paused Its First-Semester Pass/Fail Program—and What Parents of College Freshmen Should Know
My daughter called from Ann Arbor last Tuesday, not with the usual laundry complaints or dining hall stories, but with something that sounded almost like relief. “So they’re not doing the pass/fail thing anymore,” she said. She wasn’t sure if that was good or bad. She just knew it was a change. I hadn’t heard the news yet, so I did what I tend to do these days: I read the University of Michigan LSA announcement while stirring pasta on the stove.
Starting in fall 2024, LSA had been piloting a program that let first-semester freshmen take their courses pass/fail instead of receiving letter grades. The idea was to ease the transition to college—less pressure, fewer panic attacks, more time to adjust to a new environment. But now, just a year later, the university has paused the pilot. They’re citing concerns about academic standards, student engagement, and how pass/fail might mask real challenges. My daughter, a freshman herself, had been one of those students. She’d opted into the pass/fail system for her first semester, and honestly, it seemed to help her sleep at night. But seeing it paused makes her wonder if she missed something.
That’s the thing about pass/fail—it feels like a safety net while you’re in it, but afterward, you’re left asking whether the net actually helped you learn to walk.
When I first read about the pilot, I thought it sounded reasonable. College freshmen are suddenly managing their own sleep, meals, and deadlines. A little breathing room makes sense. But I’ve also been a high school teacher long enough to know that grades aren’t just arbitrary marks. They’re feedback. They tell you what’s working and what isn’t—for the student, yes, but also for the parents and advisors who are trying to help from a distance. Pass/fail removes that feedback for the most critical semester. The question is whether that’s kind or just convenient.
My daughter’s roommate, who also opted into pass/fail, ended up not even completing her math homework by October. She wasn’t slacking intentionally. She just didn’t feel the urgency. Without a letter grade looming over her head, she kept putting things off, figuring she could pass if she showed up and made some effort. She did pass in the end, but barely, and now she’s behind in skills that her next math course assumes she has. That’s the biggest argument against pass/fail for the first semester: it can give a false sense of safety. You might pass, but you haven’t actually learned the foundation you’re supposed to build on.
Meanwhile, my daughter took her pass/fail classes a little too seriously. She worried she wasn’t doing enough, so she overstudied for everything. She ended up getting more sleep than her roommate, but she also felt constantly anxious that she wasn’t being graded. It was a strange paradox. Without the external marker of an A or B, she had no way to know if she was doing it right. She’d actually asked her chemistry professor for more feedback, which is not something most freshmen do. The professor was kind, but also pointed out that the pass/fail system was meant to reduce worry, not create more of it.
When the pause was announced, the university said they needed to evaluate the data and see whether the pilot did what it was supposed to do. In some ways, that’s just bureaucratic language. But I think it also reflects a real dilemma. College isn’t just about feeling comfortable. It’s about learning to handle discomfort. The first semester is when students first encounter a failing grade, or a harder-than-expected exam, or a sudden realization that they’re not the smartest person in the room anymore. Those moments are painful, but they’re necessary. If we cushion every single one, we delay the very resilience college is supposed to build.
That said, I’m not dismissing the stress factor. The mental health data on college freshmen is sobering. Many students arrive with anxiety and depression already in progress. The early weeks of a first semester are brutal for some kids. For them, pass/fail might genuinely be the difference between staying and leaving. So pausing the pilot feels abrupt, especially for students like my daughter’s roommate who were counting on it. The university likely had its reasons, but change always has a human cost.
What can parents do now, with the program paused? Mostly, sit down with your freshman and talk about what the change actually means. Don’t say “just do your best” or “grades don’t matter”—they do, and your kid knows that. Instead, ask specific questions about their classes. Which professors give regular feedback? Which assignments feel unclear? Help them set up a simple system to track where they stand, even without a formal grade. For example, suggest that they summarize each week in one sentence: “I understood the lecture about X, but I’m lost on Y.” That’s a low-friction way to keep a pulse on learning without waiting for a midterm report.
Also, remind them that everyone gets a rough first semester. It doesn’t mean they’re in the wrong place. But it does mean they might need to adjust their habits, ask for help, or drop a class that’s too much. That’s normal. The pass/fail pause isn’t a punishment—it’s a shift in how the university defines success. Ultimately, the goal is still to learn, and learning often requires being okay with not knowing yet.
As for my daughter, she’s currently looking through the LSA website to see what her second semester will look like. She’s not upset about the pause. She’s actually a little curious to see what her real grades will be. “I kind of want to know how I’m doing,” she said last night. “Like, actually doing.” I think that’s a good sign. The pilot may be paused, but the conversations it started—about grades, stress, and what we really want from a first semester—are still going. And those are probably worth more than any single policy.
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