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Seriously, and how many HNers would cite MIT as one of the best around?

Well I learned over a decade ago that they have had Pass/no-credit for the first year implemented for years... So at this point it wouldn't surprise me if you said it's been going on for two decades (at min.)

Again, I think people are having the same reaction I had "what, MIT just gets off scotch free for the first year?!". Decade later, watching it help relieve the stress from their rat race of 110% from their childhoods... Man is it worth it. And everyone still loves hiring people out of MIT



MIT describes the purpose of Pass/Fail during the first semester as:

> giving you time to adjust to factors like increased workloads and variations in academic preparation and teaching methods. [0]

I can 100% get behind that logic.

I can't get behind a college saying they're doing it to "curb a mental health crisis".

[0] https://registrar.mit.edu/classes-grades-evaluations/grades/...


> giving you time to adjust to factors like increased workloads and variations in academic preparation and teaching methods.

> curb a mental health crisis

In this context, both have the exact same meaning, of "stop freshmen who are used to overachieving their entire lives from taking a header off the tallest buildings on campus because they're not used to being less than the top 5% at everything"


Small nit: it’s Pass/No Record rather than Pass/Fail.

If you get a D or F, there’s no external record you even attempted the class, rather than a record that you attempted and failed it.




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