<p>Okay, so in my school system, I'm allowed to take a class for pass/fail. I want to do orchestra as pass/fail this year (sophomore), because it's my only "regular" class and the rest are AP and honors. However, my mother is really against it for some reason.
Is doing pass/fail on a regular class going to look suspicious on my transcript, and will it help my gpa since all my other classes are weighted? By the way, I took orchestra last year without pass/fail, and I know I'll just keep getting an A in that class.</p>
<p>If you’re getting an A anyways, why would you want to make it pass/fail?</p>
<p>There’s absolutely no reason to take a class pass/fail if you’re going to get an A in it anyway (for all colleges know you got a D), but a single pass/fail class won’t kill your application. I took physics (well, I tested out of it) pass/fail. </p>
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<p>Pass/fail classes have no effect on your GPA or class rank. You get the credit, but otherwise it doesn’t count for anything. That’s kind of the point.</p>
<p>I think OP wants pass-fail because in a lot of high schools, getting an A in a non-weighted class can actually lower your GPA if you have A’s in all of the weighted classes.</p>
<p>Colleges don’t care about your weighted GPA (not all schools have it, and they all calculate it differently). Just worry about your unweighted GPA. If you don’t already have a 4.0 unweighted on a 4.0 scale, then taking any course for a letter grade and getting an A will increase your GPA.</p>
<p>I see what you guys mean, but I was a bit worried because if I didn’t take it pass/fail my weighted gpa would be lowered. This is sort of a problem for me because in my school, class rank is based on weighted gpa. (I’m currently ranked 3, but the people ranked before me all take band for p/f)</p>
<p>Thanks for all of your inputs, and sorry if I don’t make complete sense!</p>
<p>As long as you’re in the top 10% there’s no reason to worry too much about your class rank. Pass/fail looks sort of suspicious…it makes it look like you didn’t do well or didn’t think you’d do well. Like I said, you could have done C/D-level work for all they know.</p>
<p>Sorry to bring up a semi-old thread, but I have the exact same problem (including a mother who is against the idea). I’m first chair in the band though, so couldn’t that be used to justify that I’m a decent player (I have no doubt I’ll hold an A in the class without pass/nc, just like the OP).</p>
<p>@DigitalKing, so did you do pass/fail in the end? I ended up not doing it for orchestra this year.</p>
<p>No, I won’t be doing it for reasons similar to what halcyonheather said in the post above mine. It looks kind of fishy to have a p/nc grade. Plus, my school is full of idiots (lol) and I’m already significantly ahead of my peers, so I’m not too concened about minuscule point differences on my weighted gpa. I’m hoping to get into honors band next year, which is honors credit…</p>