pass/no pass

Graduate School Law School
1

<p>I'm just wondering how law school adcoms factor in pass/no pass (credit/no credit) courses into GPAs. if they're not included in the calculation, is it still a bad idea to take too many courses pass/no pass? might it depend on the kind of course it is? i'd only take a class pass/no pass if it's an elective course such as a rock history course or a foreign language (i took both of these this past semester, failed the rock history one on purpose because i stopped caring about it once midterms came around). next semester, i'm planning on taking chinese and an introduction to fiction writing course this way.</p>

<p>thanks</p>

2

<p>(speculation) I think the P's don't count but the F's do?</p>

3

<p>F's count, but P's are like W's - they're fine, but don't have too many (3+).</p>

4

<p>chocoman, how would that factor into a college like Johns Hopkins, where freshman are forced to take pass/fail classes during their 1st semester?</p>

<p>Law Admissions technically can call the college and "uncover" the real grades b/c we are given a real grade. However it's not factored into our college GPA. Do Law schools recalculate GPA?</p>

5

<p>Yes .</p>

6

<p>sorry i just want to make sure i'm understanding this correctly....are you saying that a grade of "not passing" will count as an "F" in GPA calculation? </p>

<p>because that would be... not great... for me... because "not passing" has no effect on my school's GPA, so I guess I assumed it was fine to just ignore this class and get a NP</p>

7

<p>Do law schools call your undergrad school and uncover your real grade? Because I have taken one class P/F and it was completely unrelated to either of my majors. I ended up getting a B- so I left the P on. But if they uncover that and recalculate it would really bring my overall GPA down.</p>

8

<p>Are P/F classes really that bad if you're already taking a full course load, and you just want to learn something extra on the side, like an extra foreign language or organic chemistry?</p>

9

<p>This is the way I see P/F, just my opinion:</p>

<p>3 classes and 1 p/f = really bad looking unless you're working 40+ hours</p>

<p>4 classes and 1 p/f = you should probably still have a big time commitment to explain that</p>

<p>5 classes and 1 p/f = You're taking a more than full courseload and just want to learn extra - no loss, maybe slight gain. This is what I'm doing next semester, though the P/F is in Wharton so it's probably going to be my most time consuming class.</p>