Another question about pass/fail

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.

JKDOC

New Member
10+ Year Member
Joined
Mar 7, 2009
Messages
3
Reaction score
0
Hey everyone,

I've been looking at pass/fail threads all day without really finding an answer to my question. So at my undergrad institution, I took all the pre-med requirements on a graded basis, but there were a few courses that I took that were worth like 1-2 units that were seminar/independent study courses that were graded only on pass/fail basis. I took like 4 or 5 of these courses. Also there were instances that I received credit for being a biology lab instructor for 2 semesters. My question is, does this look bad? How will this affect my chances?

My bcpm gpa: 3.7
cumulative gpa: 3.8
MCAT: 34S

Thanks in advance for all your help everyone.
 
Didn't seem to affect my application cycle. A few P/F sprinkled across your courseload won't be cause for concern as long as all your pre-requisites are graded.
 
Didn't seem to affect my application cycle. A few P/F sprinkled across your courseload won't be cause for concern as long as all your pre-requisites are graded.
Agree.
 
I have tons of pass/fail classes but it's because I did research for credit nearly every semester (and research wasn't graded at my school.) I can't imagine this looking bad....jesus, sdn. Making me question things I thought were strengths about my applications.
 
I had something like 40 credits of pass/fail. Stuff like honors seminars and research.

Moral of the story, that stuff looks good and is totally normal on the modern transcript.
 
Thanks for the help everyone! I had been getting anxious because I had been hearing from people that having too many p/f courses was not generally looked greatly upon. Many of these classes I took solely out of interest, and I didn't know it was it was going to cause me (unnecessary) concern later.

Thank you again!
 
I had something like 40 credits of pass/fail. Stuff like honors seminars and research.

Moral of the story, that stuff looks good and is totally normal on the modern transcript.

Yeah I had some 80 pass-fail hours and it wasn't a problem. (Most of them were mandatory pass-fail but medical schools presumably didn't know one way or the other).
 
I had a whole bunch of P/F courses (probably one each semester), including one of my physics pre-reqs (I wasn't originally pre-med & it was mandatory P/F in my dept).

Your MCAT is similar to mine (34T) but my GPA is way lower, 3.45 (3.21 sci) and I still managed to get in.
 
i definitely don't think taking some P/NP classes will hurt your application at all, especially if the classes were only offered P/NP.

Now, it might be different if say, you have a low GPA, and your transcript shows that you took the minimum courseload each semester and you used P/NP units to make it up to the minimum courseload each semester. Then you might look like a not-so-good student.

But taking the occasional P/NP seminar, and especially taking P/NP research credit and/or TAing/internship credit can't hurt you.
 
Hey everyone,

I've been looking at pass/fail threads all day without really finding an answer to my question. So at my undergrad institution, I took all the pre-med requirements on a graded basis, but there were a few courses that I took that were worth like 1-2 units that were seminar/independent study courses that were graded only on pass/fail basis. I took like 4 or 5 of these courses. Also there were instances that I received credit for being a biology lab instructor for 2 semesters. My question is, does this look bad? How will this affect my chances?

My bcpm gpa: 3.7
cumulative gpa: 3.8
MCAT: 34S

Thanks in advance for all your help everyone.

btw, are you a cal student? the 1-2 unit P/NP seminars and the bio 1A lab instructing sounds like UC berkeley. (just from my biased perspective. i don't know how many other universities do those things)
 
Top