Hello, I had a quick question regarding switching a class to p/f:
I'm a second semester junior who's a math/econ major (T20 undergrad) and will be applying this upcoming cycle. In order to satisfy the statistics prerequisite requirement that exists for TMDSAS schools and also satisfy a degree requirement for my major, I have to take a pretty brutal 400-level mathematical statistics class. I was unlucky during course selection and will be taking the class with a prof who's pretty infamous for harsh grading in our math department and told us during our first class last week that he will only give 3 As and 6 Bs in the class of 29 students (the rest being C/D/Fail). Classes like these really make me wish I had just taken the easy route at my school of being a bio/neuro major lol.
Frankly, I'm not confident at all that I'll be able to get an A or possibly even a B, especially considering how there are graduate students also taking the class. My university is allowing us to take up to 3 classes P/F this semester, and we don't have to declare which classes (if any) until right before finals. I've not taken a single class P/F at any point during undergrad so far, so I was wondering how big of a detriment it would be if I were to eventually turn this upper-div stats class into P/F.
I know that it's certainly not ideal, but I also can tell that this class will become an enormous time-suck if I take it graded and I will have to sacrifice time/energy that could be much better used writing my PS and preparing my application in general. For reference, I'm expecting my GPAs to be 3.86c/3.82s with P/F, or 3.78c/3.70s if I get a C in this class. It would be 3.82c/3.75s if I were to get a B in the class.
Given that Texas schools are particularly well-known for loving high GPAs, I feel like the docking for a p/f prerequisite course would be overshadowed by having a significantly lower GPA. MCAT is 516 for reference, with my goal schools being UTSW/Baylor/McGovern. The TMDSAS website says explicitly that P/F Coursework will still be accepted for Spring 2021, so I know that I technically can do this but it's boiling down to whether or not I should. Thanks in advance!
