<p>How frowned upon is a pass/fail course in undergrad? is it a make or break type of thing? the reason im considering it is because the professor in one of my courses is not listed on ratemyprof, so it's a bit of a risk (petty, i know, but still a valid concern in my opinion). the workload seems pretty heavy as well. but im absolutely passionate about the course, so i dont really want to drop it either. i'm sure grad ad boards wont be too impressed with my rationale, which is why im a bit torn. if i ever were asked to explain it, id say i was pretty stressed that semester (which is actually factually correct, i wouldnt by lying), but that's only secondary to my primary motivation for p/f-ing the course. furthermore, the course in question is an elective in my major (still an elective nonetheless). thoughts? should i rough it out and risk a potential gpa drop (keep in mind the additional workload might impact my other courses), or should i play it safe and focus more on my other courses? i'm a second semester sophomore with a 3.895 (44 credits), so that ought to give you some sort of idea of the elasticity of my gpa.</p>
<p>Well you’ll want to talk about your interests/passions in your personal statement, so if you say you’re passionate about that subject and they go back and see you took it pass fail, it might be a bit sketchy.</p>
<p>Most applications have room to discuss this sort of thing. And I think it also depends on the vibe at your undergrad institution. At Swarthmore, for example, we have to take our first semester pass/fail no matter what.</p>