I’ll be taking psych next semester and I kind of want to take it pass/fail because I’m taking writing-intensive and time-consuming classes. Would this be looked down on by adcoms? It’s intro to psych and I highly doubt I’ll want to major in it.
EDIT: Wait reading this back, it makes me sound like I’ll put the class on the back-burner and ignore it, which would be a recipe for disaster. That’s absolutely not my intention and I’ll study for it like any other class, but I also don’t want to stress over getting an A when I can focus on math more for an A and get a B in psych.
I took a Spanish class pass/fail because my program only offered it as such, and I passed. Had I not taken it P/F, I would’ve gotten about a B+, so I know I can do it, but it was nice to not have to obsess over it and being able to focus on bio and chem.
The only issue I see would be if the med schools you apply to in the future require social science coursework for admission. (And there are number that do.) If so, then a F/P course won’t fulfill admission requirements.
Check all your in-state med schools and any med school you might consider applying to in the future for specific admission requirements.
(For example, MSU and Oakland both requires a semester of a social science for admission.)
I would advise against taking any pre-med pre-req pass/fail. Psych is now a required class right? Take one of your other classes pass/fail and do B level work in that with A level work in psych and math.
@iwannabe_Brown Is it? Last I checked, it was on the MCAT but wasn’t anything extensive. Of course I won’t apply for another two years, so who knows. Ok thanks.
I guess I won’t do anything P/F then. I’m taking Chem lab, stats, psych, intro to literature (my minor so I can’t take it P/F), and Arabic. Arabic is my native language and it’s worth 5 credits so I don’t expect it to be horribly hard, and I can get a nice GPA boost.
As a FYI–If you are a native Arabic speaker (or come a from an Arabic speaking family), you are required to take a language placement exam and are disqualified from receiving credit for Elementary Arabic 1 & 2 and Intermediate Arabic 1 & 2.
Also 5 credits/term means there is a language lab–be aware that lang labs while not difficult are time-consuming.
To be clearer then :
You cannot take pass/fail the following :
Freshman English, calc 1, stats /biostats, psychology, sociology, any science class.
So, if your college requires philosophy or Art or foreign language, you could take them pass/fail - but not the above.
artloversplus is wrong. AMCAS does not include f/p grades when computing GPAs.
From AMCAS Instruction Manual 2017:
However, this doesn’t prevent adcomm readers of your app from formulating personal judgements or opinions about what your grade might have been had you taken this class for a grade. (The assumption will be that you got a C otherwise why wouldn’t you have taken the class for a grade?)
I am sorry that I did not read the rules from AMCAS. But I read somewhere on the studentdoc that a premed should never take a course P/F unless it is only offered that way, such as physical ed. Otherwise the adcomms may view it as an C.
Back when I considered being premed, I was told the same thing. That no matter how unrelated a course is to med school, you are basically expected to take every course for a grade, unless pass/fail happens to be the only grading method a course is offered, and even then you don’t want to take too many of those. In the event that you do take something pass/fail, even though it doesn’t hurt your AMCAS GPA, adcoms can treat a P as a C, due to the reasoning that if you could do well, you would have taken it for a grade, thus you would take a class pass/fail because you only intend to put in the effort required to get a C. Your choices in that case would be to ask your school to send in a transcript with your true grades uncovered, or let adcoms treat your P’s as C’s.
@umcoe16 Will they know that the Spanish class I took is only offered P/F? Obviously I don’t expect them to know since there are wayyy too many colleges in the US for them to know such small details, and I don’t expect them to call the university or anything. I can explain it at an interview if asked (I know, I know, focus on the now before looking 3 years into the future), but I can’t explain it if they’re just looking at my transcript. Is there anyway I can explain it when applying? Or should I not sweat it since it’s a freshman class?
This is open for anyone to answer btw, it’s just that umcoe16 answered my question in the most complete way.
Also, it’s the ONLY option for this Spanish class. I’m not hiding grades and in fact there was nothing to grade per se since P/F was solely based on passing the final exam.
I often wonder if the statement that adcoms may look at a P as a C is an assumption, or based on solid evidence. Many colleges encourage students to take a few courses pass/ fail as a way to explore something new, something that a student might prefer to learn without the pressure of trying to get an A. D did that and it was never questioned during interviews (though the course was discussed because it was so unique).
I looked up pass/fail on a few college pre-med advising sites, and MYOS1634 answer seems to be what is advised: that medical school prereqs shouldn’t be taken pass/fail, but other courses can be. For example, Harvard’s publication for pre-meds states:
“To be competitive for medical school admission, applicants should demonstrate an ability to handle a science-intensive curriculum and a love of learning through in-depth study of a particular area or areas of interest. However, if you anticipate a challenging semester ahead, it is perfectly acceptable to take one of your elective courses pass/fail (Note: Premedical requirement courses must be taken for a grade to be accepted by medical schools).”
There’s a question asked on nearly every med school’s secondary, “Is there anything else that you would like to tell us?” or something similar. You can always explain it there if you don’t discuss anywhere else in your secondary or PS.
Also, don’t sweat it right now. You are years away from applying to med school.
And although your Spanish class might not have offered you the option to get an actual letter grade, your instructor probably assigned you an unofficial (or hidden) grade. Otherwise how would s/he know you passed? You took the exam; it was scored & a grade was assigned. Just because the instructor entered P into the registrar’s system, doesn’t mean there wasn’t an actual grade underlying the P.
When I used to teach at the university level, I always had to have actual numerical grade in my records/grade book to justify whatever grade I gave a student, even if it was a P. I was required and the department was required to keep that record for a period of time (usually >1 year) even after the registrar had received the grade & recorded it on a transcript.
Some universities have different marks to distinguish mandatory pass/fail (CR/NC for credit/no credit) from optional pass fail (P/F). Obviously if it is mandatory pass/fail, then don’t sweat it. If you have the option to take a class for a grade, then that’s when med schools can view you taking the class pass/fail as an attempt to be lazy. Believe me, when I was premed, there were a number of classes I would have liked to take pass/fail, and they were not even required for med school or my major. But then an advisor told me that they can just assume the worst and recalculate your GPA counting P’s as C’s (the AMCAS GPA is there for them to see, but they are not forced to use it).
Many schools do offer you the option to pay a fee for the registrar to provide a special transcript which uncovers the actual grades behind the P’s for optional pass/fail classes. It doesn’t change the GPA listed on your transcript, but just shows the actual grade the instructor submitted.
For special living learning options with P/F it truly is a Pass (usually), not a grade. Does your transcript indicate that it’s a living learning community option?