<p>How do Pass/No Pass grading scale count in your GPA calculation.</p>
<p>They do not affect your Berkeley GPA as far as I know. You can only take a certain number of classes P/NP. If you apply to law schools, "NP" are 0.0 or Fs. I am not sure what other professional schools do.</p>
<p>
[quote]
The Passed/Not Passed (P/NP) grade is designed to encourage you to take challenging courses outside your normal academic sphere without having to worry unduly about your grades. To receive a grade of P, your level of performance must correspond to a letter grade of C- or higher. P/NP grades are not counted in your GPA; however, students who have received 12 or more units of NP grades may be blocked from future registration in the College.</p>
<p>Guidelines for P/NP Grades
To take a course on a P/NP basis, you must be in good academic standing.</p>
<p>You may receive unit credit for courses graded P (including P/NP units that you take through EAP) up to a limit of one-third of the total units taken and passed on the Berkeley campus at the time you graduate.</p>
<p>Remember that you can't take courses to fulfill the Reading & Composition, Foreign Language, and Quantitative Reasoning requirements on a P/NP basis - you must take them for a letter grade. This is generally true also for courses in your major.
Please Note: If you are planning to apply to law school, be advised that the Law School Data Assembly Service (LSDAS) counts NP grades as F's in computing a student's GPA. LSDAS does not count P grades in the GPA.</p>
<p>For more information about the P/NP grade, consult the General Catalog or make an appointment with a College adviser.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>So, do most students take some courses P/NP or is it not that popular of a method?</p>
<p>A good rule of thumb is that you should not take more than 1 class P/NP for every four classes taken for a grade.</p>
<p>I fulfill my humanities require(excluding R&C) with pass/not pass classes.</p>
<p>I can focus on the harder tech courses instead.</p>
<p>How are P/NP treated by law school admissions? Are they treated as C's or treated indifferently?</p>
<p>NP = F. 0.0. Pass your pass/not pass classes! Passes are not given any weight, so basically are treated indifferently. However, too many of them may cause suspicion.</p>
<p>Yes, I understand that. But how are they treated by law schools when applying for admissions? Do you know? Or does each law school have their own rules?</p>
<p>I'm telling you how they're treated. If they see NP, they don't like it, and they see a GPA lower than what it would be, and GPA is a major factor for law school admissions. In these cases, they look upon it very negatively.</p>
<p>If you pass them and there aren't that many, they look at them indifferently. If you pass them all and there are a lot of them, say, more than 4 or so, they might start to be suspicious, which would be bad. These are pretty much the guidelines that law schools take. The Law Schools Admissions Council calculates GPA, and NPs are 0.0, while Ps are not considered.</p>
<p>thanks DRab.</p>
<p>Glad to help. Don't be afraid of taking something p/np every once in a while as long as it works with your major and college.</p>
<p>Yeah, I've alway been afraid of taking a class for P/NP; in fact, I never have. But once I transfer to Berkeley this fall, it would be nice to take one here and there if I could get away with it; however, I would never do so if it would compromise my future chances at a good law school.</p>
<p>Well, as a transfer student, I imagine that you are in a slightly different situation. However, I still think that you could take a course or two pass not pass and be fine. I imagine they would want to see that you are capable of doing well at Berkeley, and so the more grades they see the better. You are transferring from a CA cc?</p>
<p>Yes, I'm transferring from a CA CC. I have to say, I'm a bit nervous about transferring since I know classes at Berkeley will be much more involved and undoubtedly harder overall, but I'm ready for the challenge. This is why I was curious about P/NP, but after hearing your comments on it, I probably will avoid that option since, like you said, the more grades the law school admissions' people see, the better.</p>
<p>Law schools don't treat P/NP as an F if you pass the class. Only if you fail.</p>
<p>how about for medical schools, anyone know?</p>
<p>I'd say don't avoid p/np entirely- don't worry about one or two, especially if it's outside of your major, and many majors allow one or two, but save it for special occassions, just cover up a B- or something. <em>shrug</em></p>
<p>Sorry, don't know about med schools.</p>
<p>so drab, if I am doing badly on a course midway through the semester, I can switch to Pass/no pass without this fact appearing on my transcript?</p>
<p>you can switch to pass/not pass from a letter grade well into the semester. I did this for 2 classes i didn't need just before spring break. but the deadline to switch from pass/not pass to letter grade is much sooner, like a quarter into the semester.</p>
<p>will this fact appear on my transcript, do you know?</p>