Columbia Pass/ Fail System

UCLA has it too. UCSF is changing to P/F this coming sch year.
The concept is to reduce competition. Dont get me wrong. I heard the standard to pass is still quite high. With P/F, hopefully people are willing to collaborate more. For UCLA, there is E for exceptional passing, which is only given to the highest grade in the course. Otherwise, people either pass or fail. No letter grades, no gpa.

 

I'm a first year here at Columbia and what ecdoesit said is true. We too have an H/P/F system. H is for honors for people who do very well in particular classes. It definitely helps to take some of the edge off when exams come and I think it does help with some people to curb the competitiveness that you'll especially find in Ivy League schools. I personally like it. And yes, like you mentioned there are no GPA's, but that means that your Dental Board scores will be very important if you're applying to PostDoc. Here our Board average is generally very high though so I'm not too worried about that. I hope that helped a bit.