University of Michigan Drops First-Semester Grades To'Curb Mental Health Crisis'

speak_plainly

The stated reason for doing this seems suspicious. A pass/fail dynamic would likely maintain student anxiety, if not increase it. What I think is more likely is that this move will help them hire less qualified teachers and reduce administrative oversight as now they no longer have to worry about all the issues that come with grading, such as consistency, or the grades accurately reflecting performance. The quality of curriculum will likely drop significantly and this will be reflected in the student’s second year grades.

quaddoggy

I'll just leave this here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Coddling_of_the_American_M...

AngryData

It sounds okay at first glance, but how many people are going to get saddled with an extra semester of debt now because they didn't figure out they weren't suite/ready for college yet but were just passed along through the first semester anyways?

quaverquaver

research tilts towards grades not helping learners in contrast to non-quantitative feedback so there's that.

fhdkweig

It's been a while since I was in college, but mine gave the bare minimum credit hours (3 classes) to qualify as a full time student and the classes were brain-dead easy. That seemed like a good compromise to get students used to the college life.

ilc

To those saying this is soft: https://registrar.mit.edu/classes-grades-evaluations/grades/... If you want to say MIT is soft. Feel free.

joezydeco

When you force high school kids to work days that are significantly longer than a normal adult to achieve a good GPA and get into a good college, you can expect that they are going to throttle back once they're away from home with way more free time than is normal. From my kid's experience: she was up at 6:30am, in AP classes by 7:30am (three more to go during the day). Classes were done by 3:00, then sports practice until 5:00. Gotta have that activity on your college application, not counting other volunteering and clubs in the open spaces. Then homework after dinner until 10:00 or so, sometimes much later. Homework assigned over weekends. Homework assigned over breaks. That's 15+ hours a day , every weekday, for an entire school year. Then you have test prep (APs and the ACT/SAT), college applications, writing essays and scholarship applications, college tours, sorting decisions, financial aid applications, etc etc etc. And now her college already has a few hours of orientation videos stacked up for her to watch before she moves in. Personally, I don't blame her if she checks out for a few weeks. Or a semester.

tptacek

Having put two kids through college now: this makes sense. First semester grades are a shitshow anyways, and aren't especially predictive. The first semester at an R1 is utterly unlike any ordinary high school experience and a lot of what you're measuring is just kids getting their sea legs. What's the point? If it's causing drama, just get rid of it.

culi

https://archive.ph/FBFjJ Given that 75% of all grades in 2022 were A's, grade inflation has already made the indicator value of grades pretty meaningless. I think this take from a student captures it well: > Louth, 20 years old, said he earned all A’s and one B in his first semester and doubted he would have worked as hard had the classes been pass/fail. But he thinks he would have learned more from his classes without the pressure of earning high marks. The first semester should help students explore and engage their curiosity. I think it's a good move and hope the experiment succeeds

everdrive

Breaking news: student anxiety peaks in the second semester.

timcobb

Johns Hopkins has had this since forever

nodesocket

This sort of coddling and weak policy is setting students up for a rude awaking when they get into the professional workforce.

GlibMonkeyDeath

This has the knock-on effect that it becomes impossible to excel in your first semester. Both of my kids worked hard and were prepared for college, and they did very well their first years, as they were used to the pace and level of information. It's something they are proud of, and it gave them confidence in their future lives. By eliminating the chance to excel, we make life worse for students who should be standing out.

SteveMqz

At MIT first semester grades for freshman have been pass/no-record for several years now

dividefuel

I'm not sure how to feel about this. On the one hand, this is good for people who need time to adapt to college. It's a big change, especially for young people who are living apart from family for the first time. You have to adapt to living alone AND an entirely new social environment AND a much more independent/rigorous academic environment all at once. On the other, it may just delay the same result. If someone knows their first semester doesn't really count, they may not put in the time to adapt, then crash out anyway in the second semester when it becomes real. I also feel our society tries a little too hard to insulate young people from failure, and I wonder whether that means people avoid learning important lessons earlier. I guess the biggest advantage is it lets someone spread the growth out over a little more time rather than getting railroaded at once. This approach is probably most useful for someone who is genuinely trying and struggling, rather than for someone who is not really putting in any effort. It's probably better to help the former, so overall it's probably a reasonable approach.

RickJWagner

I see this akin to what the great Thomas Sowell calls ‘the soft bigotry of low expectations’. Eventually this will lower the bar for everyone.

b0rtb0rt

why even go to college if you can’t handle it and aren’t ready?

duxup

I get the justification, don't necessarily disagree. But this also seems like it is just kicking the can down the road.

Balgair

No one's mentioning it, but also the disease factor. I remember the first semester in the dorms was mostly the sound of coughing. Building up the immune system takes disease exposure and that takes time. Addnib all the immune system depressants and increased exposure events there at Michigan - booze, pot, late nights, hookups, crowds, stress, etc - and you get a perfect storm for the immune system to take a beating.