Hi guys I saw a lot of discussion about this on my school’s facebook page whether taking P/NP is going to hurt you in the admission process or not so I thought I’d make a post here.
I talked to a UC Berkeley rep not long ago regarding this situation because I also took a class for P/NP (for the record, I’m an Electrical Engineering major and I took a GE Biology class for P/NP and I passed!). Well I asked her if it was going to hurt me during the admissions process in any way and this is basically what she told me:
The P/NP designation is a UC-wise policy that is accepted across all UC campuses (and for those of you applying to CSUs, I believe it’s treated the same way). You can take a class for a “pass”, “no pass”, “credit”, or “no credit” for up to 14 units of classes that ARE NOT MAJOR PREP (and any prerequisites). She also assured me that they are not looked down on, again, because it is accepted across all UCs.
To my understanding it’s completely okay to take a class for P/NP because students at UCs and CSUs take classes for P/NP as well. Because you can only use it for classes like GEs and they calculate a “major prep GPA” for the admissions process, so it’s okay if you took a class for P/NP. I wanted to clarify because there are some people who are saying it is greatly frowned upon to take a class for P/NP because it’s hiding that you possibly got a C. The rep also mentioned that they don’t know if you got an A or C, you just passed.
I hope this reassures someone who plans to take a class P/NP in the future (excluding the exceptions that are applied right now because of the virus)!