University of Michigan Will Remove First Semester Letter Grades From Freshmen Transcripts

Quick Facts on Michigan Grade Policy

What the Michigan First-Semester Grade Policy Does

The Michigan grade covering policy replaces letter grades with pass or no credit on external transcripts for LSA freshmen. The College of Literature, Science, and the Arts announced the pilot in August 2026. It will begin with the Fall 2027 freshman batch.

Every course taken in that first semester will show as a P for pass or NC for no credit. The letter grade will still be shared with the student in private for feedback. Only the external transcript view changes.

LSA Dean Rosario Ceballo first floated the idea in her 2025 State of the College address. The plan is framed as a mental-health support move for first-year students. Michigan says the plan should help freshmen adjust to college workloads without long-term GPA damage.

Ceballo said the aim is to let students "try a course in a field they know nothing about" and "embrace the joy of learning". The pilot will run for at least one intake before any formal review. Source: U-M LSA official policy notice, August 2026.

For a full look at the university, see the University of Michigan Ann Arbor overview.

Check University of Michigan Ann Arbor Courses and Fees for 2026

Who Falls Under the LSA Grade Pilot

Only new freshmen in Michigan’s College of LSA joining Fall 2027 will be covered. Transfer students are out. Students admitted to the other 18 undergraduate colleges are also excluded.

That means the pilot skips Engineering, Ross Business, Kinesiology, Music, Nursing, Art & Design, and every other Michigan school. Only LSA-admitted first-years enroll in the covered grading system.

LSA is the biggest college on campus. It teaches around 19,700 undergraduate students in fields like economics, political science, biology, mathematics, psychology, and computer science. Any Indian applicant who applies to Michigan for liberal arts, pure sciences, or social sciences will land in LSA.

There is no opt-out for the pilot. If an Indian student enrolls in LSA in Fall 2027, that student will be on the P or NC transcript for the first semester. LSA officials said an opt-out would defeat the purpose. Students who "chose grades" might look stronger to future evaluators.

• Included: Fall 2027 LSA freshmen across all LSA majors and first-year course levels.
• Excluded: Transfer students entering at any level after freshman year.
• Excluded: Freshmen in Engineering, Ross Business, and the other 16 colleges.
• Excluded: LSA freshmen from Fall 2026 or earlier cohorts.
• Not confirmed: Whether the pilot will continue for Fall 2028 or later intakes.

For a full breakdown of Michigan admit selectivity, see the Michigan Ann Arbor acceptance rate data.

Key Insight: If you apply to Ross Business or Engineering as a first-choice pre-admit, this policy does not apply to you. Your first-semester letter grades will show as normal on the transcript.

How First-Semester Grades Appear on Transcripts

First-semester courses will show a P for pass or NC for no credit on external transcripts. No A, B, or C will appear for that block. First-semester grades will not enter the GPA either. Students will still get their actual letter grades in class for feedback.

From the second semester onward, standard letter grades resume. Those grades count toward the GPA in the normal way. So the covered window is one semester out of an eight-semester bachelor’s course.

Michigan will keep internal records of every letter grade earned in the first semester. Those records support many downstream uses.

• Academic advising and course planning for the second semester.
• Merit awards, dean’s list decisions, and continuing scholarships.
• Athletic eligibility and NCAA compliance reporting.
• Financial aid decisions and satisfactory academic progress checks.
• Applications for majors outside LSA (like Ross Business or Kinesiology).
• Student-signed requests for internal transcripts to internships or research programs.

What the pilot gives an LSA freshman:

• A clean external transcript for the first semester.
• Freedom to try a harder course without a formal GPA hit.
• Time to adjust to Michigan’s academic pace and pressure.

What the pilot does not cover:

• Second-semester grades or any later course grades.
• Internal grade records used by Michigan for aid or advising.
• Grades reported to NCAA, federal loan systems, or state aid bodies.
• Michigan’s own admissions review for switching into a non-LSA major.

Source: LSA First-Semester Grade Covering Pilot official notice, 2026. For daily student costs at Ann Arbor and other US cities, see the cost of living in USA for international students guide.

Read More: Cost of Studying in USA for Indian Students

Grade Policy Impact on Graduate Applications

Graduate schools that ask for official transcripts will only see pass or no credit marks for the covered semester. For most MS, MBA, and PhD programs, that pass-or-fail semester will read as a neutral block. MIT has run a similar policy for decades. Its students still get into top graduate schools each year.

The Fall 2027 LSA batch will graduate around Spring 2031. Their first US or Indian graduate school applications will land in 2029 to 2030 (early admits) or 2030 to 2031 (regular timelines). Admissions officers will see three full years of letter grades plus a covered first semester.

Some graduate programs still ask for course-level grades. Johns Hopkins medical school is one of the few schools flagged in prior reporting for asking about covered grades. Indian medical schools admit, and some US law schools may also ask.

Key Insight: For Indian students planning a return home for CAT, GATE or NEET-PG, the covered semester will not matter much. Those exams do not weigh a US freshman GPA. But your US-side plans (MS, MBA, medical school) will.

The Michigan grade covering policy borrows heavily from the MIT model. MIT admits its freshmen to a pass or no record grading system in the first term. Graduate schools have accepted the format for years. Cornell, Stanford, CMU and Berkeley routinely admit MIT students despite the P-only first semester.

If a Michigan LSA freshman wants a US MS in a competitive field, then the target GPA for semesters 2 to 8 is 3.7 or higher. That is what will show on the transcript. It matters more than the covered semester.

For Indian students planning to convert an F-1 stay into US work time, the OPT and STEM OPT rules are the next big step. See the post-study work visa in USA OPT guide for the full route.

Source: MIT Admissions on pass/no record policy; U-M LSA official notice.

Read More: MS in USA Top Universities Fees and Eligibility

What Indian LSA Students Should Know

Indian LSA freshmen will get the same pilot as US-based freshmen, with no separate opt-in or opt-out. The policy is not tied to visa status, financial aid category or country of origin. Every Fall 2027 LSA admit is on the pilot from day one.

Three practical points matter for Indian applicants and their parents:

1. Scholarships still read your real grades. Michigan’s merit aid, dean’s list awards and continuing scholarships pull from internal records. A strong first semester still helps the aid file even if the transcript stays quiet.

2. Off-campus internships often ask for internal transcripts. F-1 students on OPT or CPT often send certified transcripts to employers. Michigan can share internal grades on a signed transcript request. Talk to LSA advising before the first internship pitch.

3. Returning to India for the job market changes the game. Big Indian employers, IIM PGP admits and Rhodes-style scholarships read US transcripts differently. Some will treat a P as neutral. Others will ask for a numeric grade average.

What internal grades cover for an Indian LSA freshman:

• Merit aid renewal and LSA scholarship files inside Michigan.
• Applications to switch into Ross Business or Engineering after freshman year.
• Faculty recommendation letters for internships and research grants.

What internal grades do not cover:

• Public transcripts sent to graduate schools or foreign employers.
• Automatic disclosure to Indian recruiters back home.
• Visa officer reviews at the US Embassy in India.

If an Indian LSA student plans to apply for a Fulbright or Rhodes back home, then the Michigan internal grade record is the real academic file. Ask LSA advising for a copy during the sophomore year.

For the full US admission cycle and prep timeline, review the study in USA application process guide.

Check F1 Visa Application Process for Indian Students

Michigan LSA Fees Under the New Policy

Fall 2027 LSA international students will face out-of-state tuition and living costs of around $84,000 to $89,000 per year. Michigan has not released 2026-27 rates yet. The 2025-26 estimates are the closest benchmark. Fees usually rise by 3 to 4% each year.

Conversions based on a USD-INR rate of INR 95.77 as of August 2026. 

The grade-covering policy does not change tuition. All LSA freshmen still pay the same annual fee whether the transcript shows letters or P and NC marks. Financial aid, on the other hand, keeps reading real grades from internal records.

Admission cycle for Fall 2027 (undergraduate):

• Early Action / Early Decision deadline: November 1, 2026.
• Regular Decision deadline: February 1, 2027.
• Application fee: $75 (around INR 7,183) via the Common App or Coalition.
• Test policy: Michigan is test-optional for the Fall 2027 UG cycle.
• English proficiency: IELTS 7.0, TOEFL iBT 100, or Duolingo 120.
• Class XII cutoff for strong Indian files: around 85% and above.

Key Insight: Indian students applying with a strong SAT (around 1530 and up) or ACT (34 and up) still get a lift even under test-optional rules. Michigan uses the score when the student submits one.

Michigan’s move to test-optional joins a wider trend across the US. See the full USA test-optional university list for the 2025 and 2026 cycles.

Source: U-M Office of Budget & Planning 2025-26 estimated cost sheet; U-M Office of Undergraduate Admissions.

Read More: Scholarships for Indian Students in USA

Similar First-Year Grade Rules Elsewhere

MIT, Swarthmore and Caltech already run similar first-year grading systems. Michigan is not the first US university to hide grades in year one. But it is the biggest public research university to try covered grading at scale for a full freshman batch.

MIT. All first-year freshmen get pass or no-record grades in the first semester. The second semester runs on ABC or no record. MIT students still land at top graduate schools every year. Google, Meta, and McKinsey continue to recruit MIT freshmen for summer roles.

Swarthmore. All first-semester classes run on pass or fail marks. Faculty share grades in private but transcripts show only "credit" or "no credit". The policy has held for decades without a rollback.

Caltech. Freshmen take courses pass or fail for the first two terms of the year. The move is meant to help students adjust to the school’s heavy maths and physics load.

Johns Hopkins (cautionary tale). Hopkins ran a similar covered-grade rule for 45 years. It rescinded the policy after faculty found it delayed study-skill development. Reports also said "graduate schools and employers" did not receive it well.

Michigan will need to watch for the same warnings. The pilot may hold, shift, or end after review. To see how these schools rank on graduate outcomes, browse the top bachelor colleges and universities in the USA.

Source: MIT Admissions, Swarthmore College and Caltech official records; City Journal analysis of Johns Hopkins reversal.

Criticism of the Grade Covering Pilot

Critics warn covered grades may hurt strong performers and slow study-skill development. New York psychotherapist Jonathan Alpert said college should be a place where students learn that they are "tougher than they think". Hidden grades may take that lesson away, he argued.

Faculty reviews at Johns Hopkins listed three real risks that Michigan will need to answer.

• Students who could earn top grades lose a signal to graduate schools and employers.
• Weaker students may not build college-level study habits early in the year.
• Some graduate schools and employers see covered grades as a gap in the file.

Michigan LSA counters that internal grades will still support advising and merit awards. But the impact on external graduate school applications is hard to test in one pilot cycle. City Journal has flagged the plan as part of a wider push to soften US college assessment.

If Michigan finds outcomes weaken after two batches, then the pilot may end or shift to a partial-credit model. For now, Fall 2027 admits are locked in for the full first semester.

Source: Detroit News report on the pilot; City Journal analysis; NPR coverage from August 2026.

Also Check:

The Michigan grade-covering pilot is a real change for Fall 2027 LSA freshmen. It only removes letter grades from external transcripts for one semester. Indian students should still push for strong grades because Michigan uses them internally for aid, advising, and switching majors. The rest of the four-year degree runs on the standard letter-grade system. For most Indian families, the pilot works as a soft landing at Ann Arbor, not a free pass.