Pass Fail in Humanities/Social Sciences

[AshPreMed]

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I'm an Honours Bachelor of Science student with a major in Human Biology and 2 minors in life sciences, entering my fourth year. My cGPA is 3.3; 3rd year GPA is 3.75; 3rd year summer is 4.0. Due to my university's (top 20) grade deflation, graduating with a cGPA > 3.2 awards me with cum laude.

First, if I do 2 majors (Human Bio and Animal Physiology) and 1 minor (Physiology), would I look better than if I did 1 major (Human Bio) and 2 minors (Physiology and Biology)? All are in fields in biology.

Second, is it fine to do one pass/fail course in Humanities/Social Sciences per semester? One of the courses would be a History of Medicine course. Being related to medicine, would medical schools want to see how well I did in it, or is taking it as a P/F not going to have any significant disadvantages?

Third, I only need 4 courses per semester to graduate. If I do 4 instead of 5, would it look bad? One of the courses MIGHT be a thesis. Half of my courses are not going to be in biology (for workload's sake).

Fourth, do I need to take any 400 level courses, or would a semester consisting of three 300 level courses along with two 200 level courses be just as competitive? What if I added only one 400 level course?

Thanks.

 

[BABSstudent]

Relax and don't worry. Take whatever courses you need to graduate. if you want to take extra classes, then do it! You don't have to receive a letter grade for them. Just make sure you have all the pre-reqs done for medical school. As for the number of classes to take, do whatever you feel comfortable taking. The chances of a decision to admit a student coming done to the number of credits per semester is remarkably low. Besides, each university has different credit requirements/policy so I doubt medical schools will look too far into it.

 

[AshPreMed]

Thanks. I heard completely opposite views from some others (, including a medical student at a Canadian university). I also heard what you said from another medical student at the same Canadian university.

Obviously, there are some disagreements on this; so can more people from SDN please share their views on this issue? Thanks.

 

[britsmedicine]

I would definately take the courses for a grade. At least at my school, my advisor tells me that med schools make P/F grades an automatic 2.0. That would hurt any app unless the student was accepted early senior year.

 

[AshPreMed]

Bump.

 

[AshPreMed]

Bump. I need to decide soon. Course enrollment is almost over.

 

[Bangersandmash]

2 majors and 1 minor would definitely be more beneficial than 1 major and 2 minors if they are all in biology. Why don't you branch out? I know at my school, you can rarely even minor in a program when your major is of a similar nature. However, if your major is Bio and your minors are something like business and philosophy, I would say that is a little better.

I don't know how pass/fail is really looked on from an admissions standpoint, but I'd say if you have a choice, always choose the grade. Unless the course is ONLY pass/fail, choosing to have it graded pass/fail says that you were worried you wouldn't do well.

Courseload and course difficulty doesn't matter, as long as you're a full time student. Take what you need for your major. Most majors have upper level requirements anyway, don't they? In fact, I was encouraged to take a 200 level class (anatomy and physiology) versus a 300 level class (vertebrate physiology) because A&P better prepares you for the gross anatomy of med school.

Getting your degree shows you completed all the class requirements you need. They won't really care whether you took a 5th class one semester or did a 400 level elective instead of a 300 level.

 

[Claudin]

I go to UToronto as well, maybe I can help out a bit.

1) It's not worth the time/effort to change your majors in 4th year. I really don't think it will make a difference. ...Unless you hate the program

2) P/F is fine, as long as you don't use it for prerequisites. (i.e P/F in English). If you are taking History of Medicine as elective, it doesn't matter.

3, 4) Taking 4 courses in 4th year can actually be advantageous. You'll have more time to prepare for interviews. However, keep in mind that some medical schools in Ontario (Western, Toronto, maybe Queens?) require upper year students to take 60% 300/400 level courses, or else it's going to raise some questions. So, if you take 4 courses this year, 3 of them has to be 300/400 courses.

 

[AshPreMed]

Thanks! 🙂
Each semester, I'm planning to take 2 300 level science courses, 1 400 level humanities with Pass/Fail, 1 200 level science course, and 1 100 level introductory language course (this is an extra course, which although doesn't count in my UofT GPA, may be calculated by Med Schools anyway).

Would the 100 level language course look bad in my 4th year? It is a language course, so being 100 level shouldn't look bad, right? Is it just not worth the risk of looking like a bird course hunter?

 

[qwe7791]

What's your BCPM and cumulative GPA as of current?

 

[AshPreMed]

My cGPA is 3.3; 3rd year GPA is 3.75; 3rd year summer is 4.0.
cumulative BCPM is 3.23, including all courses since first year and those which my university designated "extra" and did not count in my university's GPA. 3rd year BCPM is 3.75, and with summer would be 3.77.

Since I came with 3 full year transfer credits from high school, I easily overshot the maximum of 6 full year courses permitted by my university to be calculated in my GPA, so some later 1st year courses were called "extra" and not included in my GPA. Would those "extra" courses count in AMCAS GPA calculation if my uni said they were "extra"?

 

[AshPreMed]

Bump!

 

[Lucky Louie]

Hopefully this will clarify things for you: https://www.aamc.org/students/downlo...ion_manual.pdf

Courses with the AMCAS grades listed below are not included in the GPA
calculations. Instead, the total hours for each of these categories are reported to
medical schools under the heading Supplementary Hours.
o Pass/Fail - Pass
o Pass/Fail - Fail
o Advanced Placement (AP) Credit
o College Level Examination Program (CLEP) Credit

That is, if you take this as P/F, it won't affect your med school gpa. If you want to improve your gpa, you'll need to take it as credit.

 

[TrojanBacteria]

I would definately take the courses for a grade. At least at my school, my advisor tells me that med schools make P/F grades an automatic 2.0. That would hurt any app unless the student was accepted early senior year.

Just curious, but does your advisor/school have any evidence to substantiate that this is how medical schools actually view Pass/Fail? As Lucky Louie posted, it directly states on AAMC that P/F is not factored into GPA, so I find the claim that P/F becomes an "automatic 2.0" really sketchy.

 

[MDforMee]

According to many on this forum, grade deflation does not matter to admissions committees, and neither does school prestige.

Therefore, if you go to a state school and get a 3.4, or you go to UC Berkeley and get a 3.4, they're looked at the same way.

In my opinion, school prestige does matter, and grades are not equal across the board at all schools.

I'm saying this to you now, preemptively, since I suspect that naysayers will chime in on this thread and tell you that you're not a competitive medical school applicant, even if you did go to Johns Hopkins or wherever it is that's in the top 20.

 

[AshPreMed]

Thanks a lot!

Can some more people please answer the 4 questions of my first post?

Thanks!