My university - and likely other universities soon - are allowing students to choose up to 2 classes to make Pass/Fail due to Covid-19. What do you guys think are the potential benefits and consequences of this?
For example, is it worth turning an A- into a pass/fail if you have A's in your other classes? This way you get a 4.0. Or is an A- strong enough to where a pass/fail might look more suspicious. I am torn and leaning toward just taking the A-'s, but want to get other people's feedback.
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Depends on the class but I say just take the A- since it probably won’t hurt your GPA that much.
Does P/F courses count towards GPA calculation? My kids’ university said they do not count. So P/F option offered seem to be designed to help students expecting a grade of D in a class, because those would most likely to choose the option.
They do not count, so taking a P/F only on courses that would lower your GPA ends up boosting it.
Most people are taking P/F unless they are getting an A in the class. An A- hurts anyone who has above a 3.7 cumulative which is what most people I know have.
Yeah that is the situation I'm in. 3.75 and expecting 2 A's and 2 A-'s, and I cant decide if the slight bump in GPA is worth having 2 P/F's rather than 2 A-'s.
it’s not
It depends. If you have a few semesters ahead of you and you think they will be harder, then take the A- to “anchor” your gpa in the 3.7+ range. If you are really aiming to go even higher than A- in future semesters then take P/F.
P/NP has zero affect on your GPA. If you think your GPA will go up this semester without it (with some reasonable degree of certainty), then take normal letter grades. If you think there’s a strong possibility it might go down, then take P/NP.
Only caveat to this is if business schools might look at this, which I do not know (I would appreciate some perspective from someone who is more knowledgeable on this). I’m a senior with a high (3.95+) GPA and am planning on doing all my classes P/NP just to make things more chill on myself. Would a business school see this/think negatively about it?
Yeah I have heard some business schools do not accept P/F. Not sure if there will be an exception for this semester. For example, I have heard Georgetown has made all classes P/F so many don't have the choice. That is unconfirmed though.
The idea that business schools, medical schools, grad programs, etc. would look down on P/F that occur during the worst global disaster in a century is ridiculous.
Anyone involved in the hiring process how do banks view having P/NP on transcript instead of letter grades? Also thinking about it like OP. Just don't know if taking a B is preferred over a Pass grade.
Top Law schools (Harvard, Columbia, Stanford) are already giving students P/F this semester. Everybody will know this was a weird ass semester and top universities are already moving in that direction.
Only way it looks fishy, in my opinion, is if you cherry pick. Say you get 2 A+ and 3 Pass, then it might look weird. But you either go all in with P/F and everybody will understand, or you go with normal grades.
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