Do I take a B+ or Pass/Fail?

Transfer Students
1

I just finished my freshman year and unfortunately I got a B+ in Computer Science 1 (I’m a computer science major). I plan to apply to competitive universities such as Johns Hopkins and Cornell next year as a transfer. Would it be better for my application to take the B+ or Pass for this class?

If I take the B+ then my cumulative GPA would be 3.79; if I take the Pass my cumulative GPA would be 3.86

2

Where are you now? Are you at community college or a different university?

3

I’m at a state school currently.

4

i’m in a similar situation, i took calc online this semester and ended up with a C (my cc doesn’t do + - grades). my gpa would be a 3.7 if i do pass/fail, or a 3.21 if i dont, should i take the pass fail? this is my first semester of college and i seriously have no idea how one C will affect my cumulative gpa so much

5

Take the B+. If you opt for Pass/Fail, the assumption will be that you were barely scraping a D.

As for the C, is this your only math class, or do you need the next level of Calc? If you need the next level, can you enroll in that class with a Pass on your record?

6

Anything that’s a B or above is fine. (I am an incoming junior transfer to a competitive school as well and I received a B in calc 2 as a CS major, FWIW.) It won’t hold you back and as the post above says, GPA isn’t everything in this case-- upon seeing only a grade of Pass, they won’t give you the benefit of the doubt that you did substantially better than barely passing.

7

Using the passed / not-passed grade option for a course in your major is not going to look good no matter how you look at it. If you apply to transfer, your target schools will view a P grade in your major suspiciously (or assume that it is the lowest possible letter grade that your school allows for a P). If you do not transfer, your current school’s CS department probably requires CS majors to take CS and math courses for letter grades, not passed / not-passed.

8

“Anything that’s a B or above is fine.”

I agree with this, although I might have said “B- or above”. If you want to transfer to a top school then A’s are better than B’s, IMHO but B’s are okay and are better than a P (pass).