<p>hi. i'm going to be an entering freshman @ UCSD next fall and I was wondering if I have to take every class for a letter grade. I know that all medical school prerequisites need to be taken as a letter grade but how about the classes that are not required (to be specific it's sociology)? Will med schools look down on applicants who use the pass or no pass option?</p>
<p>Don't use it more than a couple times, or else it looks funny. But a couple here and there won't hurt anything.</p>
<p>Why don't you start it with a letter grade and swith to P/NP if you need to? I believe you have a few weeks to do this, unless things have changed.</p>
<p>if you are planning on majoring in sociology most schools won't let you take classes as P/F to satisfy your major requirements. Also schools with core curriculums (like columbia) don't let you P/F core classes either.</p>
<p>Depending on the school, the student may only be allowed to start a course with P/NP and switch to a letter grade, but not the other way around. DS's school is like this. Please double-check the rule at your school.</p>
<p>I think P/NP is good only when you take enough, (say, 4) courses with a letter grade and then take another (say, 5th) course P/NP. But this is only a rule of thumb. You do not need to follow this rule strictly.</p>
<p>D's school is the same, some non-major courses can be started P/F and then converted once the course is over.</p>
<p>Regarding "converted once the course is over", S's school will not allow that. It can only be converted to a letter grade in the middle of a semester, at the beginning of November in the fall semester.</p>