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

Comments

• TheMikey Alum Member

  October 2017 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.
• 1 Like

  btsao650 Alum Member

  October 2017 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.
• TheMikey Alum Member

  October 2017 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 B Alum Member ⭐

  October 2017 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.
• 10000019 Alum Member

  October 2017 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.
• Alex Alum Member ⭐

  October 2017 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 B Alum Member ⭐

  October 2017 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.
• TheMikey Alum Member

  October 2017 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.

  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 Caint Alum Member ⭐

  October 2017 3521 karma

  Nah I don't think it matters.
• theLSATgrind2017 Alum Member

  October 2017 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.