Wellesley College Adopts Pass/No Pass Grading System for Students’ First Semester on Campus

Wellesley College, the highly rated liberal arts educational institution for women in Massachusetts, has announced that it will institute a Pass/No Pass grading system for all first-year students during their first semester on campus. The new system will be in place this fall. The students will be graded with this system for all their courses during their first semester. They will also receive notification of the letter grade they would have received under the old system. But these grades will not be included on their official transcript.

The college believes that the new system will enable first-year students to use their first semester to focus on intellectual engagement and to learn how to grow as a learner in college.

Lee Cuba, a professor of sociology at Wellesley, states, “When grades become the object of learning rather than learning itself, students are engaged in a form of goal displacement.” The theory is that the more time students spend thinking about getting an A, the less time they’re spending thinking about what they are really learning.