Taking undergrad science pre-reqs as pass/no pass

[plouffes]

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I currently a junior nursing student in a BSN program. I hope to apply to either medical school or a PA program in Michigan within a year or two of graduation (May 2007). I was just wondering what was the general consensus about taking pre-reqs such as organic chemistry, chemistry lab, and advanced humany physiology (pre-req for PA programs) as pass/no pass courses. That is as long as I achieve a 2.0 or higher it will be recorded on my transcript as "Pass" and will not affect my GPA. At my university, you are allowed to do this for up to 20 credits of elective credits -- which in my case these classes would be considered electives.

Is this accepted? Does anyone have any experience with this?

I have called other graduate programs, NP programs, regarding other pre-reqs and their thoughts were that as long as the class was completed, it was okay.

Thanks!

 

[NonTradMed]

I currently a junior nursing student in a BSN program. I hope to apply to either medical school or a PA program in Michigan within a year or two of graduation (May 2007). I was just wondering what was the general consensus about taking pre-reqs such as organic chemistry, chemistry lab, and advanced humany physiology (pre-req for PA programs) as pass/no pass courses. That is as long as I achieve a 2.0 or higher it will be recorded on my transcript as "Pass" and will not affect my GPA. At my university, you are allowed to do this for up to 20 credits of elective credits -- which in my case these classes would be considered electives.

Is this accepted? Does anyone have any experience with this?

I have called other graduate programs, NP programs, regarding other pre-reqs and their thoughts were that as long as the class was completed, it was okay.

Thanks!

No. No. No.

You cannot take your science pre-reqs pass/fail for med school. They expect a calculated science GPA and want to see a grade. You will need to take all your science courses with a grade.

 

[plouffes]

No. No. No.

You cannot take your science pre-reqs pass/fail for med school. They expect a calculated science GPA and want to see a grade. You will need to take all your science courses with a grade.

That's what I figured, just thought I would ask. Thanks 🙂

 

[QofQuimica]

Speaking from experience here (my entire undergrad transcript is P/F), I strongly urge you to take NonTradMed's advice and take your courses for grades. It makes life much more difficult if you have taken your pre-reqs P/F.

 

[MediMama23]

Speaking from experience here (my entire undergrad transcript is P/F), I strongly urge you to take NonTradMed's advice and take your courses for grades. It makes life much more difficult if you have taken your pre-reqs P/F.

So Q, did you really have a 0.00 GPA for your app? I looked at how AMCAS calculates GPAs for different types of grading systems, and for some of them they put 2.0 as a grade for Pass.

My school has pass/fail and grades. I took some P/F (none of my sciences). Do you think they will show up as 2.0s or as nothing at all (I'm obviously hoping for the latter)?

 

[QofQuimica]

So Q, did you really have a 0.00 GPA for your app? I looked at how AMCAS calculates GPAs for different types of grading systems, and for some of them they put 2.0 as a grade for Pass.

My school has pass/fail and grades. I took some P/F (none of my sciences). Do you think they will show up as 2.0s or as nothing at all (I'm obviously hoping for the latter)?

AMCAS did not calculate a GPA for me based on any of my P/F classes from college. I don't really see how they could have done it; my college doesn't work on a credit hour system, so I don't have any credit hours, either. If you have credit hours for your P/F courses, they may try to calculate a GPA for you, which I agree with you would really, really suck if they convert them all to Cs. 🙁 Have you emailed them to ask?

I actually don't have a 0.00 UG GPA because I took a few community college classes as a high school student. I also got graded for the semester that I spent abroad, which I did as a visiting student at another institution. I think I ended up having like 18 credits total that got graded. So what AMCAS did was to calculate an UG GPA for me, based solely on those 18 credits. I ended up with a pretty decent GPA, actually, but of course it doesn't cover any of the pre-medical pre-req coursework I took, and that number of credit hours it includes would make me, what, a second semester freshman??? 😛

 

[MediMama23]

AMCAS did not calculate a GPA for me based on any of my P/F classes from college. I don't really see how they could have done it; my college doesn't work on a credit hour system, so I don't have any credit hours, either. If you have credit hours for your P/F courses, they may try to calculate a GPA for you, which I agree with you would really, really suck if they convert them all to Cs. 🙁 Have you emailed them to ask?

I actually don't have a 0.00 UG GPA because I took a few community college classes as a high school student. I also got graded for the semester that I spent abroad, which I did as a visiting student at another institution. I think I ended up having like 18 credits total that got graded. So what AMCAS did was to calculate an UG GPA for me, based solely on those 18 credits. I ended up with a pretty decent GPA, actually, but of course it doesn't cover any of the pre-medical pre-req coursework I took, and that number of credit hours it includes would make me, what, a second semester freshman??? 😛

Interesting...though we do have grades and P/F (actually, S*/S/NC, to be exact), my school isn't on a credit hour system, either. If you ask for your transcripts, they will send a letter out along with your transcript stating that they don't calculate GPAs, either (we don't have official GPAs, but you can guess it since you still have grades). But I wouldn't be able to tell you the credit equivalent of any class that I've taken, science or otherwise. But I've seen students who've done mdapps, and they had GPAs posted, so SOMETHING must have been done. I wonder what AMCAS did about the lack of credits (just "thinking out loud" here).

 

[QofQuimica]

Interesting...though we do have grades and P/F (actually, S*/S/NC, to be exact), my school isn't on a credit hour system, either. If you ask for your transcripts, they will send a letter out along with your transcript stating that they don't calculate GPAs, either (we don't have official GPAs, but you can guess it since you still have grades). But I wouldn't be able to tell you the credit equivalent of any class that I've taken, science or otherwise. But I've seen students who've done mdapps, and they had GPAs posted, so SOMETHING must have been done. I wonder what AMCAS did about the lack of credits (just "thinking out loud" here).

Hmm, interesting. Well, all I can tell you is that in my case, they left my P/F classes out of the GPA calculation altogether. If you don't have credit hours, I would guess they'd do the same for you too....I guess the best thing is if you know someone who went to your school and applied to med school, maybe ask them what AMCAS did. (You can even contact a lot of people on mdapplicants by leaving feedback to ask them about it if you don't know anyone in real life.)

 

[plouffes]

Now it might not matter.. effective for next fall they changed pre-reqs for the courses I was trying to take (prior to, no pre-reqs required) and in order for me take Human Phys I and II (pre-reqs for PA program), I would have to take Orgo I & II and Physics I & II.. which I know I will have to take if I decide to go the med-school route... but still, it's just physiology (and I've already taken intro and pathophys).. ahh.. frustrated.

 

[MediMama23]

Thanks for the idea, Q. I was lucky enough to find an alum who had an active response box. Apparently, P/F classes aren't included, which helps me a great deal. Less post-bacc classes to take. 👍

 

[QofQuimica]

Thanks for the idea, Q. I was lucky enough to find an alum who had an active response box. Apparently, P/F classes aren't included, which helps me a great deal. Less post-bacc classes to take. 👍

Awesome news. 👍

plouffes, sorry we kind of hijacked your thread. And also sorry about your news....so are you going to sign up for physics and organic? You've already taken gen chem and freshman bio, I presume, so don't despair. You are already halfway done with the pre-reqs in that case. 🙂

 

[plouffes]

Awesome news. 👍

plouffes, sorry we kind of hijacked your thread. And also sorry about your news....so are you going to sign up for physics and organic? You've already taken gen chem and freshman bio, I presume, so don't despair. You are already halfway done with the pre-reqs in that case. 🙂

well like i said, i'm in the nursing program.. which is about 25 hours clinical per week, plus 10-15 hours lecture and here anyway, almost impossible to fit in a regular science + lab, my reasoning for trying to fit the human phys was that they are broadcasted over campus television and can be watched at anytime and taped. i was planning on taking physics and organic post-bac.

and hijack is quite alright 🙂, my original question was answered