How important is P/F and minimal rank to you?

[Greenvneck]

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[Toothshucker]

I assume you are referring to Columbia since it's p/f/h and ranking into thirds. There are plenty of students here who only care about passing and/or don't care about specializing. There are also students who don't want to specialize but still want to honor courses. The ranking is determined by how many H's you get, what courses you get the H in, if you fail exams/courses, and a few other factors. I guess it's somewhat less pressure because p/f/h, but many do care about honoring. That said, everyone helps everyone and we don't really compare how many H's we get compared to someone else. We study a lot, even when just going for a P, so there's still pressure to do well on exams, but not to out-perform everyone else.

 

[dmdluffy]

I've been accepted at two schools I really like. One is pass fail with ranking into thirds and the other is letter grades and ranking of top 20% (I believe?).

I am really leaning towards the H/P/F type of grading because it takes away a lot of pressure. Does anyone have any input if this should be a big deciding factor in my decision?

Thanks

Columbia vs. Penn?

 

[Greenvneck]

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[UCSFx2017]

If it's not strictly pass/fail like Harvard, UCSF, or UConn, you as might as well have grades than go to pseudo-pass/fail Columbia and UCLA with H/P/F. H/P/F may take off a little pressure as opposed to letter-grading but not nearly as much as strictly P/F does. The reason why letter-grading is more stressful is because you can be a single percentage away from getting an A and end up with a B. With H/P/F, the same situation can occur where you can be a single percentage point away from getting honors. Essentially, they're almost the same thing. The average exam score from Penn is an 85 (from word-of-mouth). At least at Penn, you get only ~1 exam (never more than 2) per week so each week you can dedicate to studying for only one exam. Big stress reduction in comparison to studying for 4 exams all in the same week. Instead of getting stabbed with 4 exams every so often you'll experience a dull but constant pain at Penn (~1/week).

If you're trying to decide between Columbia and Penn, Penn is more well-rounded (balanced with clinical and didactic) and Columbia focuses appreciably more on didactics with their medical school curriculum. If you were interested in OMFS, you should probably go to Columbia. Penn has everything a dental school could offer plus more. Penn ranks only the top ten. Everyone else is in eleventh place.

Both schools have a consistent record of around 30% of their students attending postgraduate specialty residencies. On paper, Columbia's top 1/3 tier as a whole would be considered as the equivalent to the top ten students at another school. At Penn, around twenty other students who were not top ten still matriculated to postgraduate specialty residencies.

 

[LuckyTangerines]

What are your goals in pursuing a dental education? Depending on what you want, one school is preferable over the other.

 

[dmdluffy]

Yup, any insight on the question?

P/F may be more relaxing if you aren't trying to specialize. I could see trying to get into the top 10 at Penn would be a nightmare if you were trying to specialize. That said, Columbia also posts an insane amount of students who match into residents so it might be the better combination of being able to specialize and having pseudo-grades with a H/P/F system. Grades will arguably become more important with P/F boards but I don't feel like it would penalize students from P/F programs. Just means other factors become more important. Which school did you like more?

 

[Greenvneck]

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[LuckyTangerines]

My vote goes towards Columbia. I recall it being cheaper than Penn, and if OMFS is on your mind, then the curriculum there is a definite plus. H/P/F grading doesn't matter too much since specialty programs are factoring other exams for you to take.

You can't go wrong with either schools though. Do you like New York or Philly?