Effect of taking a class pass/fail on MBA admissions?

I'm a senior right now, planning out my courses for my final semester, and am considering taking my philosophy class pass/fail, so I can concentrate on my other courses. I'll be taking two MBA courses and am doing work as a TA/Independent Study for a professor, all of which are more relevant than the philosophy class and therefore I would like to dedicate more time to them.

My question, as the topic indicates though, is what effect, if any, does taking a class pass/fail have on MBA admissions? Specifically, I aspire to go to a top-10 B school and currently have the GPA (~3.92) and wouldn't want something dumb like this to derail my chances. I realize there are more components than undergrad GPA that come into play, namely GMATS, work experience, leadership experience, etc etc, but I figured I'd ask.

Any input would be appreciated.

 

From what my advisers told me at school, some schools will give you a C for any class you take pass/fail although I believe this depends on the nature of the course? Honestly I think your safest bet would be to dig for some info at the schools you are planning on applying to and see if they give any guidance as to how they treat them. I've also heard that MBA programs don't mind the pass/fail option as long as it isn't in a business related class (econ, finance, math etc). All depends on the school I suppose, but taking something pass/fail will definitely make your schedule look less challenging than other piers, so even if it doesn't affect your GPA it might make you a less attractive candidate.

 

If you're just getting a P/F on your transcript and it's not affecting your actual numerical GPA, it shouldn't have a huge impact. Be prepared to address it if the topic comes up (say, in alumni interviews), but I highly doubt that will happen.

 

With undergrad grades being the least important factor to admission, I don't think they would give a shit at all. Think of all the other things that will take place between graduation and B-school applications. They aren't going to home in on 1 class that you took pass/fail. I wouldn't be suprised if they only asked 1 total question about your undergrad studies. Don't stress about it.

 

MBA Admissions are alot less about whether you have a 3.98 or a 3.94 than what you do in the 2-5 years after you graduate. You must know that your marks are more than sufficient for HWS MBA programs, assuming you don't go to community college; you have a solid job lined up and your GMAT ends up strong.

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It differs between schools. When I wanted to apply to NYU undergrad they said they didn't accept pass/fail b/c the grade required for a pass/fail is a C-. And they do not take C's so even if I got a 99% it'd appear as a "pass" and they'd reject it. Unless of course you have a not saying you got the B officially from the teacher, therefore they'd still know you got that B. So ask the schools, and honestly, ONE B will not hurt your chances.

 

TabascoSalsa -

I generally wouldn't recommend taking the P/F approach or risk the appearance of gliding through your senior year.

When adcoms look at your transcript, of course they're going to focus on your school, major, overall GPA, etc., but they also attend to how you performed over the course of your undergraduate studies. Did you do consistently well throughout college (ideal), start strong then falter, improve over time (also good), have a GPA rollercoaster, etc. They also want to see that you pushed and challenged yourself throughout undergrad. Doing that will help your UG stand out more effectively than the alternative, and taking P/F classes might give an unfavorable impression to the schools that you're considering. I'd make an exception for this if you were taking a super-high/graduate level course in your major. It's not going to be a red flag, but not taking the classes for a letter grade isn't going to help your cause, either.

All that said, I do think it's a decent idea to take some of those "fun" classes as they can also help you to stand out a bit since it'll help make you a little more interesting. Just take them for a letter grade and be sure to do well.

Good luck finishing up your senior year!

Regards, Jon

Jon Fuller Senior Admissions Counselor Clear Admit, LLC 215.568.2590
 

They won't see it. They'll ask for your transcript once you get the offer, and then if they decide to check out your GPA they'll look straight to the GPA line. Some people on this board seem to fret over HR examining all your classes and individual grades when that simply doesn't happen.

Bottom line - do whatever you have to do to get the highest GPA possible. No one said every class you sat in had to count.

 

they would see it as slacking off, if they saw your transcript. Most banks only look at your transcript after you have been tendered an offer, if at all (at least for summer offers and i'm pretty sure ft, too), so there's a definite trade-off between getting a job at those banks and getting a job at shops that do look at your transcript. But the bigger question is how can you respect yourself when you're doing that and other people are taking the equivalent of double your course load ;)

 

seriously, take all the easy a's and bullshit classes you can. do whatever is necessary to get the highest GPA, the financial world is competitve, and you must do everything you can to remain compeitive, even if it requires taking an uninteresting, invaluable class. ratemyprofessor.com is my fav. site lol

 

Thanks for the replies everyone, but in no way am I trying to justify slacking off, it's just that I chose Brown because it would let me explore different areas in ways that I couldn't at other institutions. And I'm still going to take everything in my major (Maths/Physics - which are generally regarded as reasonably difficult) for a grade. It's just I was wondering if exploration with random Visual Arts or Egyptology courses would be frowned upon. But it seems at the end of the day, the only thing that matters is GPA.

Another thing then, Brown doesn't create a formal GPA though, so I would have to make one myself. (Also there are only A's, B's and C's or fail, no +/-). So I really have the control to do with it what I may - ie A's 4.0, etc. Do you think because of this the full transcript will be more important than if not? Thanks again everybody :)

 
Best Response

I don't think there's one best solution to your situation. If it's a grad-level course, it's understandable that you don't have an A in it. Most firms won't check transcripts until they do a background check. Since your GPA is rock solid, your GPA could take the hit and from that standpoint your chances wouldn't really be affected (this may be different for MBA purposes, but I doubt so much).

There are trade offs here. Obviously you can work super hard and try to get a better grade, but if it comes at the cost of less time allotted to your other classes (thus dropping your grades in them) then it's probably not worth it. For the record, I passed/fail a class (it was an art class so not part of my major) and it hasn't affected my recruiting chances at all. For recruiting purposes with banks, I think the main thing is to not get a bad grade in financial accounting and corporate finance.

Have you thought about just dropping the course entirely? I'm assuming you're on the semester system, so you shouldn't be more than 1.5-2 months into the course? If you drop the class, then if you still want to do the stat major, you can retake it senior year.

Overall I think you're not in bad shape at all. It'd be worse if this was a required class for your first/primary major and you were in the D range close to passing.

 

Thanks, I'm on the quarter system so unfortunately I can't drop the class. I'm leaning towards just taking it pass/fail considering what you said. I can reevaluate whether to take it again once senior year comes around.

 

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