<p>Which is wiser to choose when signing up for classes: a letter grade or a pass/notpass???</p>
<p>Are there adv/disadv or either?</p>
<p>If you anticipate a good grade, go with letter grades. Most but not all colleges limit the number of courses you can take pass/nopass. If your college does not limit it, be careful not to take too many courses pass/nopass - that can make your transcript look sketchy to grad schools and future employers. For all an employer knows, every ‘pass’ on your transcript could have been a D.</p>
<p>Until a few years ago all honors classes at Swarthmore were pass/fail, which meant that students in the honors program had only very few letter grades for their junior and senior year. Many honors students felt that the lack of grades put them at a disadvantage when applying to grad school or for jobs, and now honors courses are graded as well.</p>
<p>You won’t be allowed to use pass/fail for courses in your major, minor, gened, etc. You can use it for electives, but some people don’t have many of those if they’re double majoring or whatever. but a letter grade can bring up or down your GPA… don’t pass/fail if you need it for a certain requirement (only pass/fail if you’re taking it to help fill the 120+ credits required)</p>
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That is not true in general - at least not at my college. I believe the OP will attend UC Santa Barbara. They allow students to take gen eds P/NP but not courses for a major or minor.</p>
<p>it is at my school, and I suspect in general, too. I think a lot of places require you to get a C or better or a C or better average in geneds or something (and in your major/minor, too).</p>
<p>“For all an employer knows, every ‘pass’ on your transcript could have been a D.”</p>
<p>No, you need a 73% to get a “pass”</p>
<p>That’s not really any better - for all employers know, every ‘pass’ on your transcript could have been a C. There’s no difference made between 2.0 work and 4.0… why would you want to waste your time in class either working for a simple ‘P’ or not working and not really learning anything but still putting the time in?</p>
<p>Do a letter grade unless it’s you think you’ll do poorly or it’s just a class you’re taking for fun.</p>
<p>P/NP is something you do when you are taking a class for fun, I’m a biochemistry major but I plan to take a a foreign language course P/NP because I want to take the class for fun and not because I need a grade or need a grade reviewed. I am not worried about an interview having to explain that one because I’ll be able to explain it in a good way. You shouldn’t take a course Pass/Fail just because you are afraid of a bad grade though.</p>