Covid-19 Pass/Fail??

[Grizz3246]

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With the pandemic happening my uni is now letting us do Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory for any course taken this semester and they will not count toward our GPA since all classes have been moved online and quite a struggle for everyone. Is S/U looked down upon by adcoms and how would this affect my science GPA when applying? The only classes this really affects is my Organic Chem 1 and Calc 2. I am already a non-trad working on building my upward curve so I don't need anything else working against me on my transcript. Help!!

Thanks!

 

[brown_skin_girl]

I asked a very similar question, and this is what the wise @gonnif wrote:

"Because of COVID-19 and the very dynamic and utterly profound changes this will bring to millions upon millions throughout society for the this year (and likely for the next 2-3 years if pandemics of the 20th century would indicate), questions will come up again and again about online prereqs, P/F courses, MCAT prep and testing, volunteering, shadowing, Physician LOR, and all other aspects of being a premed. No matter the question, there is no definitive answer to any of them as no one knows which schools will act in which ways. However, as medical schools are on the front lines of this both in treating patients as well as setting appropriate behavior for community public health, it would seems reasonable that most medical schools will take into consideration over the next few years at least. How this might be in 3-5 years is anybody's guess."

--gonnif

HMS and UMich, to my knowledge, have been the only ones to explicitly mention that they are accepting pass/fail courses for premed requirements (though HMS will only take them if the college is mandatory pass/fail).

I wound advise you to consult a pre-health advising office. My office sent out a FAQ shortly after the grading policy was announced.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

With the pandemic happening my uni is now letting us do Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory for any course taken this semester and they will not count toward our GPA since all classes have been moved online and quite a struggle for everyone. Is S/U looked down upon by adcoms and how would this affect my science GPA when applying? The only classes this really affects is my Organic Chem 1 and Calc 2. I am already a non-trad working on building my upward curve so I don't need anything else working against me on my transcript. Help!!

Many other forums have asked this question, but I understand not everyone wants to read it all. 🙂

Inquire if your university allows you to choose to report a proper letter grade instead of pass/fail for classes you designate. Also I will expect university registrars to append a grading notation explaining the options for all students with grading.

 

[Grizz3246]

Many other forums have asked this question, but I understand not everyone wants to read it all. 🙂

Inquire if your university allows you to choose to report a proper letter grade instead of pass/fail for classes you designate. Also I will expect university registrars to append a grading notation explaining the options for all students with grading.

Thanks! We are allowed to do either a grade or S/U, but I didn't know if it would be worth it to save Ochem from affecting my grade given how the class is going with the change.

 

[KnightDoc]

Thanks! We are allowed to do either a grade or S/U, but I didn't know if it would be worth it to save Ochem from affecting my grade given how the class is going with the change.

It's a risk. Many of us are in exactly the same boat. This is a response I made to the same question in another thread. I'm just a premed like you, but it makes the most sense to me. Good luck!!

It depends on whether or not the schools know whether or not you had a choice. If it's mandatory, they really can't hold it against you, but, if it's optional and you opt-in and they know it was optional, it's not going to help you. If you can make the election course by course and you only opt-in for some courses, that will be pretty much the same as just telling them you got a C, even though it won't affect your GPA.

 

[allantois]

Med schools are a sellers market and will continue to be so - you don’t want to have a P/F grade when other applicants will be having letter grades