outwestmom

D is studying History in Oxford for one year. The program is arranged through her school, Wash U and they only accept one-two students per year. Due to the tutorial nature of instruction she will not receive grades for her classwork there. The full year of instruction will make up the bulk of her major class work but will go onto her transcript at Wash U as Pass/Fail. How does she address this on the AMCAS application? She was told by the Department Chair that after reviewing her papers he would write a letter explaining the quality of her work and giving her an unoficial grade for the Oxford work. She completed her premed requirements this summer and took the MCAT in August. This means she will only have 2 years of US school grades for the AMCAS application and I have heard that schools want 3 years. Thoughts?

bluedevilmike

1.) I feel like this is probably one of those exceptions. Remember, this three-years business is not a requirement, it's a strong suggestion passed down from premedical advisors. And passing is a track record of a sort - it's certainly more information than being younger.

2.) The summer is another semester, so that's now adding up to 2.5 years.

3.) If she can come out of it with a paper of some kind - published is great, but a thesis or whatnot works very well, too - then that's a kind of tangible result that can be discussed in essays/interviews.

4.) AMCAS is pretty strict. It'll just go in there as a pass/fail course and will not be included in her gpa - unless she fails.

outwestmom

So the pass has no impact on the gpa, neither good nor poor? I was worried it would be converted to a 2.0 or similar.
Her 2nd term will be on medical history and she is considering starting her research for an honors thesis during that period. She wouldn't complete the thesis until mid year senior year when she will hopefully be further along in the application process. Would the research and discussion of that be close to helpful for essays and interviews (without a completed paper)?

bluedevilmike

I can't imagine that would happen (the 2.0), but given that I never actually did it, I suppose that I'm not 100% sure.

Yes, the point would be that she's doing a meaningful long-term research project with a tangible result to show for it.

VelaenOscuridad

I believe that classes that are only taken pass/fail (or S/U) would not penalize the GPA. I think the interpretation of a "pass" as a C is only for cases where the student decides mid-semester to take a class pass/fail because they know they won't get an A - medical schools don't want to encourage that, and will assume that the student was getting a C anyway.