UCSF, UCLA, Case and Columbia: P/F to Grading

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.

ucla2134

Full Member
10+ Year Member
15+ Year Member
Joined
Nov 19, 2006
Messages
785
Reaction score
1
Words from them that they are changing P/F to grading since the board will be P/F in 2011.
And that specialty programs will have their own specialty test to choose student like the DAT test.

Can anyone else confirm this?
 
Where did you hear that UCSF and UCLA are going to grading system instead of P/NP? BTW I am not trying to sound mean or anything I just want to know where you hear this from?
 
I don't know how you start these rumors but the admissions head at my ucla interview said they are staying pass/fail despite the boards going pass/fail. My question is will this be a disadvantage if you are trying to specialize bc the class would be one huge homogenous blob...
 
I heard from my interviewers at Case and UCSF.

But i think even though they keep P/F, they still keep the internal ranking?
 
I heard from my interviewers at Case and UCSF.

But i think even though they keep P/F, they still keep the internal ranking?

Speaking as one of the interviews here, UCSF's never told me of any plans to change grading. We also have NO internal ranking. When you apply to programs that request your transcript, we tell them outright we don't rank our students.
 
Speaking as one of the interviews here, UCSF's never told me of any plans to change grading. We also have NO internal ranking. When you apply to programs that request your transcript, we tell them outright we don't rank our students.

Are you 100% sure? My interviewers student told me there is a possibility that they will change to grading by the time we are entering.
It is a good new that they will keep the P/F since it reduce the competition.

But if UCSF don't rank students and boards is P/F, then how you can select students for specialty? Everyone can do research and extracurricular activities but not everyone can be in top 10%.
 
I don't remember anything about going to grading when I was at UCSF, if anything they were happy with how with P/NP was doing at their school. They did say you can get honors in some classes? Maybe that could help with differentiating people
 
Are you 100% sure? My interviewers student told me there is a possibility that they will change to grading by the time we are entering.
It is a good new that they will keep the P/F since it reduce the competition.

But if UCSF don't rank students and boards is P/F, then how you can select students for specialty? Everyone can do research and extracurricular activities but not everyone can be in top 10%.

Either you misunderstood or the student interviewer was ill-informed.

The questions you posed have no definative answers. The only thing I can say is we've enjoyed the luxury of p/f for ages, and we still produce a significant number of specialists regardless. The same goes for several schools. The process has a way of working itself out.
 
Top