<p>Intro Bio is notoriously difficult at my university. The average grade for the class (the median) is a B- and only about 10% of the students in the class get an A. </p>
<p>I think I will be getting a C+ in the class or if I'm lucky, a B-. Should I stick with the bad grade and just keep at it or should I take it as a pass/fail?</p>
<p>If I take it as a pass/fail, I heard it will look bad for "top tier" medical schools. Yet, I can still take another bio class for a grade to fulfill the pre-med requirement. So, how bad does a P/F for intro biology look for medical school admission (considering I do fulfill pre-med requirements with other biology courses). </p>
<p>Extremely unlikely, since you post that you attend an Ivy (and its curved to a low B.)</p>
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<p>And you think an upper division class will be less "difficult’. (Think about it.) </p>
<p>(Hint to make it easier for you: a lot of the low C’s quit the premed track and will not take upper division bio…so that leaves the A & B students, primarily…)</p>
<p>I guarantee you, it is curved to a B-. It’s clearly laid out on the syllabus. Also, upper division biology classes actually are less difficult. Even if you don’t believe me, let’s assume, just for now, this is the case. I don’t blame you for your breakdown/analysis of my question. It’s hard to explain the situation within the class. </p>
<p>Anyways, your thoughts on the Pass/Fail option?</p>
<p>You should never take pre-med required classes P/F if you plan to go to medical school. Also, many medical schools will not even accept it. See below:</p>
<p>Many medical schools will not consider any pass/fail courses as fulfilling premedical requirements. Even in cases where there is no absolute prohibition, it is very inadvisable to take premed requirements pass/fail. A “D” counts as a “Pass” in a pass/fail course, and a “D” is probably what skeptical admissions committee members will assume you deserved in the course.</p>
<p>Unless your advisor is guaranteeing you admission into medical school I would consult a few of the schools you are interested in. Most are very clear on how they view P/F classes that are requirements. Here’s a sample on U-M’s site:</p>
<p>Other factors to consider:</p>
<pre><code>Instructors do not know you are taking courses Pass/Fail unless you tell them.
Pass/Fail grades do not calculate into your GPA. You should NOT take pre-professional requirements (pre-med or pre-business courses) as Pass/Fail.
</code></pre>
<p>Many competitive non-science major premeds, some of them actually being pretty good at the art of taking tests and getting A’s, take relatively few upper division biology classes. Also, it is often the case that they tend to avoid taking the “more hardcore” science classes required for the science major. If OP think the classes could be easier (or at least he course load is not as heavy), it may be due to this, IMHO.</p>
<p>Many “academically strong” non-science-major premeds could afford to take fewer science classes if their interests are not in science (albeit they are good at getting good grades in science classes.) These students will not be in the upper-division classes competing with you. This is what I am trying to say.</p>
<p>BTW, if a science major at your school is large enough to have multiple tracks, the upper-division bio classes designed for some track could have less course load than the classes designed for another track. (Hence, some may take a softer classes for the “human biology” major instead of those for the more traditional, hardcore biology major – the latter, but not the former, being the one for those destined to the PhD program. Heck, I heard, at some colleges, quite many of their bio classes in the junior/senior years in some special “premed-like bio” track actually have the same or similar course names as med school classes – their students have already said “goodbye” to the bio classes (in the traditional sense) before they receive the bio degree.</p>
<p>They do not violate the rule as these less-hardcore classes are still designed for the science major, and many science majors still take them. But these non-science-major premeds just have more flexibility when they need to avoid some classes from some “difficult” professors. Since med schools can not tell (or do not care to tell) the challenging level of different upper-division science classes, you could say this is a good strategy for many (esp. for those on the premed track, who are required to allocate lots of time for their ECs as well.)</p>
<p>In one year, a premed posted his opinion on school’s news paper along the line of: A “most grade efficient” premed, who have mastered the art of getting good grades, would take as few science prereqs with good enough grades as possible, and then run as far away as possible from any classes offered by the science department. If this is true, isn’t it quite sad?!</p>
<p>My comment was based on your assertion that your class only had 10% A’s. And THAT % is highly unlikely at all top schools, particularly the Ivies. Sure, maybe one professor is really conservative with A’s, but on average 10% is just too low in the Ancient Eight.</p>
<p>But yeah, do NOT take any premed prereqs P/F. It is basically a large banner across your application telling the adcom that you cannot hack the competition in Frosh/Soph Bio. Not the best way to instill confidence in the reader, is it?</p>
<p>ivan, this may seem a bit of a tangent, but I looked at some of your earlier posts and I’m a little confused. Are you a freshman now? Then why did you start a thread in Aug 2011 about which MS to apply to? And did you take the MCAT without having taken Bio?
Seems to me you are doing lots of projecting as a way to game medical school admissions. How about you focus on why you need to have taken certain courses instead of worrying about what grade you’ll get.</p>
<p>At least some schools have C- as the P threshold when choosing P/NP grading. But the assumed C- is not going to win any favors with a medical school admissions committee.</p>
<p>Yes, though if the college does give lower grades in science courses than humanities and social studies courses (like an “average” college as described in <a href=“http://www.gradeinflation.com/tcr2010grading.pdf[/url]”>http://www.gradeinflation.com/tcr2010grading.pdf</a> ), and the student is otherwise equally good at all subjects, then that may be the reason for such a strategy. Indeed, it would not be surprising if pre-med and pre-law students actually did follow a college-specific strategy of seeking out as many “easy A” courses (based on which courses at the college actually are “easy A” courses) as possible in order to “protect their GPA”.</p>
<p>As far as different tracks of science courses go, note that biology majors already get less rigorous tracks in physics, math, and/or chemistry at many schools.</p>