<p>I am wondering what impact "hiding" a grade (an option provided by the school) could have on grad school acceptances. The reason for making the choice to hide a grade (in this scenario, a B+ ---non STEM class) would be for keeping gpa higher. </p>
<p>I am asking specific to MIT. </p>
<p>Also if the grade is hidden, there is still a grade, which proof (printed off computer) could be provided presumably, although I doubt the school could directly provide proof down the road.</p>
<p>How can you “hide” a grade? And of all the grades you could hide, why would you hide a B+?</p>
<p>Are you asking about the impact of freshman P/NR or Junior/Senior P/D/F on grad school admissions for a student applying from MIT? Or are you asking about hiding a grade at another school when applying to MIT grad schools?</p>
<p>I am talking about hiding it from another school (via pass/fail). So yes, I’m wondering about the impact that could have when apply to MIT grad school (or other similar caliber schools if you want to speculate further).</p>
<p>S is concerned about his gpa and his other grades (admittedly only first semester freshman) are all in the A range (A+ to A-). The B+ is in history.</p>
<p>^Agreed – graduate programs care about grades in and related to the subject of interest.</p>
<p>It’s not a problem for graduate school admissions to use a pass/fail option if available. I used the MIT junior/senior P/D/F option to take two courses (in my major, even) on pass/fail, just because it was available, and this wasn’t problematic for me in any way. </p>
<p>Just be aware that some graduate programs will assume that a pass-fail grade is actually a C – that there’s some reason that the grade is hidden. Overall, given that non-major grades are fairly unimportant for STEM grad school admissions, it’s not important to hide a B+ in history.</p>
<p>While admissions may not care about non STEM grades, how about the gpa overall? I think that is more my S’s concern (his goal is for summa cum laude honors I believe which is a gpa basically of all As I believe, I haven’t looked up the details).</p>
<p>What field are we talking about? SM or PhD? Each department does its own graduate admissions, so it’s tough to talk in generalities.</p>
<p>In general, overall GPA is not as important as major GPA (/major grades), though it’s nice to have honors like summa cum laude. Grades less important for many fields than research experience and letters of recommendation, although the importance of grades does vary somewhat depending on where the applicant went to undergrad.</p>