<p>Are there policies at Caltech to change a class to pass/fail or credit no credit outside of the first two quarters to avoid C or D?</p>
<p>bump bump …</p>
<p>Yes. Electives (classes not specifically required for your major or core) can be changed to pass/fail up until drop day, which is the 7th or 8th week of class (out of 10). Required classes would have to be dropped and retaken to avoid the bad grade.</p>
<p>First of all, to clear up some misunderstanding: During your first two terms, you wouldn’t need to change a class to pass/fail – any course you take during your first two terms are automatically and involuntarily pass/fail, even classes that cannot otherwise be taken for pass/fail.</p>
<p>As IMSAgeek mentioned, for a class that is not marked as letter only or pass/fail only, you can change the grading of a course to pass/fail or vice versa up until Drop Day. I do not agree with what IMSAgeek said about “required” classes. It is not even clear what is meant by “required”.</p>
<p>The class requirements that all majors have to satisfy include the math, physics, chemistry, biology, menu class, chem lab, additional lab class, writing, humanities, social sciences, and PE requirements. Of those, the required math, physics, and biology requirements which are meant to be taken after the first two terms are always marked letter grades only by convention. (Math, physics, and chemistry classes meant to be taken in the first two terms are marked as pass/fail classes, so they are pass/fail even if you had to re-take it later.)</p>
<p>Chem lab, PE classes, and freshmen humanities are marked as pass/fail only (so they are pass/fail no matter when you take them). The other classes: menu, additional lab, writing, humanities, social sciences, may or may not be marked letter grade only depending on the course. Starting in the 2011-2012 catalog year, advanced humanities and advanced social sciences requirements cannot be fulfilled by pass/fail; this did not apply to people on previous catalog years.</p>
<p>A few departments are listed in the catalog to have graduation requirements that say classes taken on pass/fail may not be used to satisfy some or all of the option requirements. Other majors do not seem to have such a requirement, though I am not familiar with how they work. (Of course, that doesn’t mean you can’t take them on pass/fail; just that you can’t use them to satisfy the requirement.)</p>
<p>There are other rules on pass/fail, like only up to 90 units of classes <em>elected</em> to be taken on pass/fail can be used for degree requirements (including the 486 total units requirement). (You can take more; they just can’t be used to satisfy requirements.) 90 units = 10 regular classes that count for your degree can be elected pass/fail. That means, for example, prior to the 2011-2012 catalog year, you can take all your humanities and social science requirements on pass/fail (which is 108 units, but 18 units are freshman humanities which are always on pass/fail, leaving 90 units which you can elect), if you so wanted.</p>
<p>Thanks IMS. Do the drops show up on the transcript?</p>
<p>Thanks spoonl. Has anything changed recently to enhance GPAs at Caltech? Someone mentioned it on another thread.</p>
<p>
Drops do not show up on the transcript unless you drop after Drop Day (which requires approval anyway).</p>
<p>What I meant by “required” are classes for core, and classes your major specifically lists as required. For example, chemistry majors must take organic chemistry. Chem majors therefore cannot take organic chemistry on pass/fail. On the other hand, some majors will have a list of courses you can use to fullfill a requirement. In that case, you could take any of the courses pass/fail, but then you would need to take an additional class on grades to satisfy the requirement. I am not aware of any major which requires you to take a specific class and also allows you to take it pass/fail. </p>
<p>I did not go into humanities because the pass/fail rules for humanities/social sciences were being debated last year and I don’t know what the result of that was.</p>
<p>^ I asked this question earlier and the answer I got was that you can take Ochem, for example, pass/fail if it is taken during your first 2 quarters… you just can’t elect to take it p/f. You don’t get a choice if it is taken in your first 2 quarters. It is advised to take your more difficult classes in your first 2 quarters due to p/f.</p>
<p>You are only supposed to take organic chemistry freshman year if you pass out of chem 1 (freshman chem). It would then be pass/fail, yes. I believe some people have managed to take both chem 1 and organic chemistry freshman year at the same time. The chemistry department hates this practice and it is not supposed to be allowed, but most freshman advisors will not check your prerequisites and the registrar probably won’t either. </p>
<p>The advice to take your most difficult classes in your first two terms of Caltech is, frankly, stupid. Particularly for a class like organic chemistry where you will have to take your third term on grades. You’re going to have to learn the material well anyway in order to survive third term. </p>
<p>Also, this sort of attitude is one reason why many Caltech professors would dearly love to eliminate the first two terms of pass/fail. It’s supposed to be a time for frosh to get used to the workload. If frosh just load it up with difficult upper level classes to get out of grades, then what’s the point? </p>
<p>I understand the desire to have as much as possible on pass/fail. It’s only natural. But IMO overloading your frosh year schedule will make your frosh year worse and won’t make your next years that much better. It’s not worth it. Save the misery of orgo for sophomore year where it belongs.</p>
<p>If you don’t understand the fundamentals of what you’re supposed to be learning your first two terms because you’re trying to game the grading system, I have a feeling you’ll be playing catch-up for the rest of your career here.</p>