VCMM414 said:
Certainly getting straight C's, or a 2.0 GPA, would not warrant an academic probation? If so, then how is that any different from having to pass every class in a P/F or H/P/F system? Just because you are in P/F system doesn't mean you are free to fail your classes.
Maybe it's different from other schools, but my friend from Wisconsin told me that he needs to maintain a cum GPA of 3.0, and anything below that will place him on academic probation. I may be mistaken, but that's what he told me. To me that creates a lot of unnecessary stress and liable to bring out the gunners in some people creating an unpleasant learning environment.
Then again, I don't know what the classes are like at Emory or University of Wisconsin. Maybe the classes are all straight grading and not on a curve, in which case, a conducive learning environment would be created because the emphasis would be on simply passing the classes with the best grade you can (hopefully with a B or better), as opposed to competing with your classmates.
I don't think that H/P/F or P/F is the same as letter grades. I don't mean to state the obvious, but H/P/F consists of three broad gradations. A, B, C, D's along with their +/- are a heck of a lot more gradations. To me, a transcript that has all P's on it looks a lot better than a transcript with letter grades with +/-, unless you're talking about A's and A-'s. At Jefferson, the grading scale is simply--Honors is 100 - 90, Pass is 70 - 90, and Fail is 70 and below.
The bottom line from what my med school friends tell me, your grades in your basic sciences matter very little. Your competitiveness as an applicant for any sort of residency position comes from your extracurriculars and your grades in your clinical rotations.
