Predicament in my Cell Bio grade.

Pre-Med & Medical School Pre-Med Topics
1

I am a Chem.E major with Spanish minor/Pre med track, and I have a very serious question about Cell Bio class. I am a junior but this is my 3rd semester(44 AP credit), and I have 3.701 GPA and 3.6 BCM average GPA. By the way, I am a foreign student BUT I will get green card before I apply med school.

In my school, pre med students are NOT required to take Cell biology(BSC 300). We are required to take one of two biochemistry classes: one is BSC 450 and another is CH 461. Both are biochemistry, but the former one requires Cell bio and the latter requires Orgo II and the lab.

I could have just taken CH 461 this semester right away(since I have A on both Org II and lab), but I read several med schools requirements, and a good portion of them require bio classes that cover Cell Bio/Genetics.
Some school like UAB doesn’t say anything about Cell bio, but requires 8 hours of advanced Cell Bio classes if you have AP bio credit. I have used AP bio credit for Bio 1 and 2. Therefore, I decided to take Cell Bio.

However, I have been having awful grade because I have been extremely stressed out by money issue; I live off campus and I earn my own food and utility by working as an independent tutor, so I was too distracted to get decent grade like B. In fact, I have middle D right now. ( I am going to talk to the adviser and professor about how to salvage this awful grade. I did hear rumor about curve but I don’t want to resort to that)

So I was thinking: even though this class is essentially important, since this is NEITHER major requirement NOR pre med prerequisite, why don’t I ask the school to convert the grade to Pass/Fail? I know, it is a cop out, but I can’t withdraw the class anymore because I only have 13 credits(two spanish courses, one Thermo and Cell Bio. Deceptively light credit this semester), and dropping it would make me a part time student, therefore lose my scholarship. I don’t want my Cell Bio to butcher my GPA.

I have read many threads about this pass/fail issue, and the opinions were very mixed. What would you recommend me to do?

Just in case you are curious, I will list the courses that I have taken:
(number of credit)
Spring 2015. GPA:3.72(total credit 12)
Intro to Chem(1): A
Emerging scholar 1 (1):A+(this is some special scholar program)
Calc 3(4): A
Non native English 1(3): A
Ochem 1(3): B-

Fall 2016. GPA: 3.71(Total credit 19)
Ochem II(3): A
Ochem Lab(2): A
Non Native Eng(3): A-
Chem Calculation(4):B
Emerging scholar 2(2): A
Diff. EQ(3): A

Spring 2016(currently taking 13 hours):
Advanced Spanish Grammar(3)
Spanish Literature(3)
Thermodynamics(4)
Cell biology(3)-currently D.

2

If part of why you’re taking Cell Bio is to fulfill requirements for med schools, then you need a C or better anyway for it to count. I don’t know how they handle P in P/F at most schools (because at Brown, below a C is failing, so P has to be a C or better). I think you need to think about those things out before you make the decision.

3

This is what U Alabama says:

A grade of “P” is assigned for satisfactory performance and does not affect the grade point average.
-Maybe I should raise my D to C at least.

1.The student must be a sophomore, junior, or senior with a grade point average of 2.0 or higher in order to use the pass/fail option.
-I have 3.7 GPA so this one is fine
2.Only elective courses may be taken pass/fail.
-Cell Bio counts as Advanced elective in my course. Our premed doesn’t include it

3.A maximum of four courses or 12 credit hours (whichever comes first) may be taken pass/fail while a student is earning an undergraduate degree.
-Not a problem. This will be my only p/f class hopefully

  1. Only one course each fall semester, spring semester and summer term may be taken pass/fail. -Just this one
  2. Once the deadline to add a course has passed, a student may not rescind the decision to take a course with the pass/fail option. -Not sure if there is a deadline for this...I should contact my advisot\r
4

I mean you need to talk to the pre-med advisor about it because I don’t know how medical schools use grades of P when evaluating your coursework for their own requirements. Would UAB consider 8 hours of cell bio on a P/F basis as fulfilling the requirement given that a D at UA is still a P? I’ve never even thought about this question because as I said, at Brown it was a moot point. There was no such thing as a D. You either got a C or better or you failed.

5

I am going to talk to advisor and my professor next week. I couldn’t meet them today