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Do elite law schools frown on taking a pass/fail course in college?

JRA11111JRA11111 Member
edited October 2017 in Law School Admissions 5 karma

So I'm in my final semester in undergrad and I'm considering taking a class pass/fail, I know the LSAC GPA calculator doesn't penalize you for this, but do admissions officers at elite law schools frown on it? I've never taken a pass/fail class before

Comments

  • TheMikeyTheMikey Alum Member
    4196 karma

    Nope, shouldn't hurt you one bit for any school. Maybe if you're applying to Yale it might but that I'm not sure of and I even doubt they care that much. The only way I can see P/F classes hurting is if you have a crap ton of them which MAY raise some eyebrows, but if you only have a few then they more than likely don't care as long as they are getting that LSAC GPA from you.

  • btsao650btsao650 Alum Member
    254 karma

    I think it would depend on if the class is typically pass/fail or not. I come from a huge state school and the only class people normally take pass/fail is P.E. If this is a class that most students take for a grade (ex. biology, english, etc.) then I would avoid pass/fail.

  • TheMikeyTheMikey Alum Member
    4196 karma

    @btsao650 said:
    I think it would depend on if the class is typically pass/fail or not. I come from a huge state school and the only class people normally take pass/fail is P.E. If this is a class that most students take for a grade (ex. biology, english, etc.) then I would avoid pass/fail.

    Ehh, it doesn't really matter though. I know a few people who took graded classes but made them pass/fail and now go to top schools including Harvard, and according to them they don't think anyone cared at all about the P/F classes. But like I said above, it more than likely doesn't matter unless you have an excess amount of them that were voluntarily switched to P/F, which may potentially be seen as a red flag.

  • Leah M BLeah M B Alum Member
    8392 karma

    I'm not applying to HYS, but I doubt that 1 or 2 would make a difference. I took a course P/F freshman year because I knew I was transferring universities and that I had already taken any classes that would be able to transfer. So I took a random elective and decided to do P/F since it really didn't matter academically. (It was a linguistics class and actually it was awesome! Highly recommend if anyone needs a random elective to fill in a schedule haha). I suppose you could add an addendum if you felt the need to explain, but agreed that probably just 1 or 2 won't affect anything.

  • 1000001910000019 Alum Member
    3279 karma

    I doubt it's going to be a game changer, but I think you should make the decision based on what the class is.

    If you don't need the credits and find the class interesting, I would audit it instead of taking P/F.

  • AlexAlex Alum Member
    23929 karma

    I agree with @TheMikey 's take on this. I can't find much of anything substantial on whether it will have an effect on your application, but I highly doubt it will. GPA is what matters most; not whether you have a couple pass/fails.

  • Leah M BLeah M B Alum Member
    8392 karma

    ... gonna amend my statement and also say, of course make sure you pass, not fail! hahah Pretty sure a fail would reflect badly. :wink:

  • TheMikeyTheMikey Alum Member
    4196 karma

    @"Leah M B" said:
    ... gonna amend my statement and also say, of course make sure you pass, not fail! hahah Pretty sure a fail would reflect badly. :wink:

    Haha true! Also a huge thing about that is that a pass won't be factored into an LSAC GPA but a fail definitely will!

  • Paul CaintPaul Caint Alum Member
    3521 karma

    Nah I don't think it matters.

  • theLSATgrind2017theLSATgrind2017 Alum Member
    440 karma

    I certainly hope not. I had to take a few courses as P/F. They were required and only offered as P/F.

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