Med School's Opinion on Pass/Fail Courses

[stifler]

What do medical school admissions office think of pass/fail courses. I dont mean courses in your major or BCPM. I plan on using all my pass fails (four courses) and taking some credit fail courses (dance).

Would I be at a disadvantage? There are some courses at school that I will take that I wouldnt have a good chance of getting at least an A- in so I want to take them pass fail to keep a high gpa. I'll prob take around 5 or 6 courses of 32 courses pass fail. Do you think med schools will think poorly of me if my gpa was still respectable?

Thanks.

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[AStudent]

I took 5 classes for pass/no pass and didn't have any problems. Granted, they were all outside my major and were 1 credit elective classes.

 

[dr.z]

If the courses aren't important for your major or pre-reqs, I don't think it matters much. Also if you don't over do it, it should be fine.

 

[skoaner]

This is a little intriguing to me, because as I'm sure many of you know many schools use a pass fail grading system. So if they use it for their evaluation of student when they arrive, who does it not suffice prior to that point?

 

[stifler]

whats over doing it? i plan on taking 4 courses pass fail and taking 2-3 credit fail (which means the courses are only offered credit fail).

so that is like 6 or 7 out of 32 courses without a grade... will they think im not challenging myself? i mean at my school i dont get any credit for labs. i have 5 hour chem labs and it doesnt count as a quiz. Thats longer than a regular class...

 

[dmoney41]

It's like W grades. Nobody really knows and different med schools are different anyway.

Personally I'm of the opinion that neither W's or P/Fs matter that much - I just don't think they bother scrutinizing your transcript. You got the 120 credits and the GPA, that seems to usually be what they care about.