My school offered the Winter 2020 quarter optional pass/fail (P/F) and our Spring 2020 quarter mandatory P/F. Before Winter 2020 grades are posted I have a 4.0 GPA. I received an A (English course) and a B+ (Statistics course) in my Winter 2020 classes. I didn’t do as well on the Stats final due to having Covid-19 which affected my studying for the final. The English course final was a paper I had completed before experiencing symptom which luckily allowed me to maintain my A.
I need advice on whether or not I should make the Winter 2020 quarter P/F to keep my GPA at a 4.0 rather than a 3.77 if I were to keep the letter grades. My school said they would annotate on our transcripts that the P/F is a result of the current pandemic.
My fear is that medical schools will frown upon an optional P/F.
Thank you for your time and thank you to Dr. Gray for all that you do for the pre-med community.
Do you mean winter 2019? Winter 2020 has yet to happen lol. P/F is fine, usually, if the course isn’t a pre-req. For courses that are pre-reqs, even in regards to the current pandemic, many schools are still looking down on P/F and online labs - you would really have to be able to defend your reason. I still say only go P/F if you see yourself getting a C, not a B. App is more than GPA/MCAT, which simply get you in the door - everything else gets you into med school.
As of last week, both AACOM and TMDSAS have indicated they have communicated with US osteopathic medical schools and Texas medical schools and both indicate they will be accepting pass/fail grades without penalty:
Congruent with our philosophy, AACOMAS participating schools intend to adapt their application review process to the following to mitigate the many obstacles you may face: Accept all pass/fail/satisfactory/unsatisfactory coursework, regardless of whether your school required this, including pre-requisite coursework in the context of your entire academic history.
TMDSAS member institutions have agreed to accept all courses graded as pass/fail or credit/no-credit as equivalent to graded courses during the COVID-19 pandemic, specifically the spring 2020 academic term (including winter 2020 quarter term). Member institutions will continue to review candidates utilizing a holistic, individualized review process, considering candidates based on the totality of their academic career.
AAMC has yet to produce a similar response, but many US allopathic medical schools have expressed similar policies.
I would encourage you to confirm this information with the schools you anticipate applying to, but the general consensus is that medical schools understand these are unprecedented circumstances and will approach this application cycle with that in mind.