Pass/No Pass Final Mark Decision

[academic_20]

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Hi everybody. I’m finishing my sophomore year as a BME premed. Due to coronavirus my school allowed everyone to do pass/no-pass on their courses. I’m planning to do this for my BME class since it is not a premed prerequisite, but I am also unsure if I should also do it for my math class. This is my fourth semester of math, so I have already satisfied math requirement for med school. By taking math with a letter grade which I got a good mark of B+ (an upward trend from last semester's math) , my GPA does drop a little by 0.01. My grades have gone down significantly since freshman year and I do not want my GPA of 3.54 to drop lower. I am scared about how this will look to medical schools when I apply in the future with 2 letter grades and 2 pass class in one semester. As a premed, do you think it would look bad to do two classes pass/no pass this semester and would medical schools assume that if I got a C if I do pass/no pass on my math course?

 

[M&L]

Hi everybody. I’m finishing my sophomore year as a BME premed. Due to coronavirus my school allowed everyone to do pass/no-pass on their courses. I’m planning to do this for my BME class since it is not a premed prerequisite, but I am also unsure if I should also do it for my math class. This is my fourth semester of math, so I have already satisfied math requirement for med school. By taking math with a letter grade which I got a good mark of B+ (an upward trend from last semester's math) , my GPA does drop a little by 0.01. My grades have gone down significantly since freshman year and I do not want my GPA of 3.54 to drop lower. I am scared about how this will look to medical schools when I apply in the future with 2 letter grades and 2 pass class in one semester. As a premed, do you think it would look bad to do two classes pass/no pass this semester and would medical schools assume that if I got a C if I do pass/no pass on my math course?

what did you get for the other math classes, which were the math requirements?

 

[chaim123]

Hi everybody. I’m finishing my sophomore year as a BME premed. Due to coronavirus my school allowed everyone to do pass/no-pass on their courses. I’m planning to do this for my BME class since it is not a premed prerequisite, but I am also unsure if I should also do it for my math class. This is my fourth semester of math, so I have already satisfied math requirement for med school. By taking math with a letter grade which I got a good mark of B+ (an upward trend from last semester's math) , my GPA does drop a little by 0.01. My grades have gone down significantly since freshman year and I do not want my GPA of 3.54 to drop lower. I am scared about how this will look to medical schools when I apply in the future with 2 letter grades and 2 pass class in one semester. As a premed, do you think it would look bad to do two classes pass/no pass this semester and would medical schools assume that if I got a C if I do pass/no pass on my math course?

Given that small drop in GPA and your grade of a B+, I would not P/F it. There doesn't seem to be any need to. A P looks like a C, which is worse than if you took the B+.

 

[M&L]

overall, i think it is better to get the grade, even if your GPA drops by 0,01. What math course is it?

 

[KnightDoc]

Hi everybody. I’m finishing my sophomore year as a BME premed. Due to coronavirus my school allowed everyone to do pass/no-pass on their courses. I’m planning to do this for my BME class since it is not a premed prerequisite, but I am also unsure if I should also do it for my math class. This is my fourth semester of math, so I have already satisfied math requirement for med school. By taking math with a letter grade which I got a good mark of B+ (an upward trend from last semester's math) , my GPA does drop a little by 0.01. My grades have gone down significantly since freshman year and I do not want my GPA of 3.54 to drop lower. I am scared about how this will look to medical schools when I apply in the future with 2 letter grades and 2 pass class in one semester. As a premed, do you think it would look bad to do two classes pass/no pass this semester and would medical schools assume that if I got a C if I do pass/no pass on my math course?

People ask a variation of this question pretty much everyday, and the answer never changes!

Adcoms are not stupid, and the GPA is not viewed in a vacuum. They understand what candidates are doing, COVID or no COVID, when they choose to mask a grade. Applicants focus on the optics of 0.01 on the GPA one way or the other. Adcoms don't care about a single grade in a single class. They look at overall records of achievement, trends, etc., and the GPA, while very important, is not the only thing that goes into a decision. If you have a significant downward trend with a 3.54 GPA, your issues at this point go way beyond whether or not you have two Ps on your transcript this semester, and a 0.01 bump in your GPA is not going to help you at all.

Bottom line, if you are masking a C, you have nothing to lose, even though you are fooling no one. If you choose to mask a better grade, you are just playing yourself. The adcom won't care about the few fractions of a point you are gaming on your GPA, and will likely assume you did worse in the class than you did.

 

[academic_20]

what did you get for the other math classes, which were the math requirements?

I did Calculus 1 where I got B+, Calculus 2 A-, Calculus 3 where I got B.

 

[academic_20]

overall, i think it is better to get the grade, even if your GPA drops by 0,01. What math course is it?

Math 245

 

[M&L]

Math 245

Which course is that in your school ?

 

[M&L]

I did Calculus 1 where I got B+, Calculus 2 A-, Calculus 3 where I got B.

Those are impressive grades !!! You should be proud of yourself . Calculus is hard

 

[academic_20]

Those are impressive grades !!! You should be proud of yourself . Calculus is hard

People ask a variation of this question pretty much everyday, and the answer never changes!

Adcoms are not stupid, and the GPA is not viewed in a vacuum. They understand what candidates are doing, COVID or no COVID, when they choose to mask a grade. Applicants focus on the optics of 0.01 on the GPA one way or the other. Adcoms don't care about a single grade in a single class. They look at overall records of achievement, trends, etc., and the GPA, while very important, is not the only thing that goes into a decision. If you have a significant downward trend with a 3.54 GPA, your issues at this point go way beyond whether or not you have two Ps on your transcript this semester, and a 0.01 bump in your GPA is not going to help you at all.

Bottom line, if you are masking a C, you have nothing to lose, even though you are fooling no one. If you choose to mask a better grade, you are just playing yourself. The adcom won't care about the few fractions of a point you are gaming on your GPA, and will likely assume you did worse in the class than you did.

Thanks for your input. I am not trying to mask a grade. I am trying to decide whether it is worth to keep a letter grade for a course which is technically isn't a prerequisite since I have already done 3 other math courses. Since I am going to upper division courses, I realize that achieving a higher gpa is gonna be harder especially with those harder engineering upper division courses. So I am deciding if it would be worth it to just do pass/no pass for math and increase my gpa so I have more leeway in the future or just keep it as a letter grade and slightly decrease this semester. I know that being a premed in an engineering major would not do any favors to my gpa and I understand that I need to work hard.