Title pretty much sums it up… I’m looking to transfer after this semester to one of those schools and I am wondering if UCB and UCLA care if you take your foreign language as a P instead of for a letter grade. Fortunately, my school consider the “P” as a C or above so it will be valid in clearing my foreign lang requirement for IGETC. I’ve heard stories that some schools consider the P grade as just a C, idk how valid those “stories” are though. I’m taking 23 units atm, and my spanish professor teaches the class as if everyone in the class has taken spanish already even tho its just a 101 class (I took French in high school) so I’m wondering if I should just take it to get a P grade. This is the first time I’m doing this and I have a 4.0 atm. Oh and this would solely be to fulfill IGETC my major doesn’t have any language prereq
If you use IGETC to fulfill the foreign language requirement, check with your community college about whether the qualifying college foreign language course needs to be for a letter grade for IGETC purposes.
What level of high school French did you take, and what grade did you earn in it?
https://ls.berkeley.edu/foreign-language indicates that UCB L&S wants to see a letter grade of C- or higher if using a second semester or higher college foreign language course to fulfill the requirement without IGETC.
@ucbalumnus just checked with my counselor. He said that it does fulfill it. However, what I’m concerned about is he said that elite universities such as UCB and UCLA could consider the grade as a “c” when calculating your gpa. Is that true? Cuz if that’s the case idk what’s the point of doing P/NP I thought the whole point was for it to NOT hurt your gpa while still getting credit for the course.
Usually, students take courses as P/NP for courses that aren’t used for admissions requirements. So if you are taking a course in an elective class, you might take it P/NP. It doesn’t hurt your GPA for admission. But, if you are applying to a VERY competitive university and you take something P/NP, then, it can be considered as a “C” grade.
@“aunt bea” I see. So it is solely up to the university to decide? I’ve been getting a lot of mixed responses. A lot of people say that colleges doesn’t care as long as it’s not a major prereq. Some people said that Berkeley even encouraged some of their engineering students to take their foreign language as P/NP. Dang. I really don’t know what to do now lol I don’t want them to see my grade as a C, that’ll def lower my GPA.
What I’ve understood is that, once accepted, you take your general and tough courses as"P/NP" at your university so that you maintain a good gpa and stay strong.
At the community college, you would take something like weight training/ pastry chef, (no disrespect intended to those majors) as P/NP because it’s not counted towards entrance requirements. The IGETC coursework is usually taken for a grade.
Hmm… not so sure about that. Those “bs” classes tend not to be transferrable. From my understanding, the only classes that UCs even consider valid have to either fulfill IGETC requirements or major prep. Sure, you can take extra classes even after you finish both igetc and major prep if you need the extra units, but the classes have to be approved to fulfill igetc or major prep for any major for it to be transferrable. Thus, taking those “bs” classes are pointless and students who use the P/NP option tend to use it for IGETC. It can absolutely fulfill IGETC as long as your cc considers it a c, my only question was whether UCs cauclate the P as a C when calculating your gpa. I guess no one quite knows yet. Ty for your help anyways.
You can definitely take language P/NP as long as it’s IGETC and not a requirement needed for a major. I did it, and Haas, which is super-picky, even said you could do it when they had it as a requirement. I can tell you this with 100% certainty. FWIW, I got into Berkeley and UCLA with it P/NP.
http://www.dvc.edu/enrollment/counseling/pdfs/FAQ%20for%20IGETC.pdf
thank you @Ohm888 !! Man I’ve been hoping you reply to my thread lol. I know you’re obviously not in the actual admissions process so you might not know this, but do you think that Berkeley considers the P as a “C” grade when calculating your GPA? My counselor said that could happen for a university as prestigious as Cal, but I was a bit skeptical of that
@ericbadmon no the P will not factor into the UC calculation. However, if you go to grad school they could factor it as a C, but it’s community college, so they will focus mainly on the UC grades.
However, I just noticed you took French in high school. As long as you have two years of French with last term at least a C-, you can use that for IGETC.
@Ohm888 I had 1.5 years 
So yeah I need it. probably gonna take it P/NP tho. Btw, I was a bit confused cuz on the Berkeley L&S site, it says that foreign languages must be taken for a letter grade. But I’m assuming that’s different than IGETC, since IGETC is a contact solely between the student and the CC, whereas the site is talking about general ed requirements for Berkeley’s students? I’m gonna call tmrw just to make sure, thought I’d ask you anyways tho.
It says here it can be P/NP:
Oh snap: it says it can only be P/NP when P/NP is the only option. That’s weird, I did it P/NP but that was a few years ago. Yeah, it looks like you need a grade. Wow, sorry I misspoke. It just shows you always need to recheck. Yikes. I was L&S too.
@Ohm888 no worries at all. Idk if you got my msgs, but I called them and looks like you and I were right. IGETC is different than what that site is talking about. The site is talking about their foreign Language requirement for their students. For anyone that else that is wondering, transfer students can take foreign language as a P option as long as your community college approves it. All Berkeley, and any other uc, cares about is that you’re IGETC certified. And certification is done solely by the community college, not Berkeley or another uc campus.
^^^ yay. I’m not an idiot after all.