NU just announced they are going to P/F system for this quarter. No option for grades. And a Pass is a D or above.
Funny story. I was on a UCSB webinar for counselors the other day. The AO was explaining that they understand many high school students will have P/F grades this semester, but assured everyone that these courses will still meet the A-G requirements, as long as the grade is a Pass.
One HS counselor then said…in our school a grade of D is a Pass, and asked what does that mean since UCs don’t accept D grades for A-G credit.
The UCSB AO let a long sigh and said I am very surprised to hear that, let’s talk offline. Not sure the UCs (or any other school) will be able to ever sort thru that issue though.
My is a PhD student at a D1 Uni and she ‘teaches’ a summer course that usually has a handful of athletes in it, anything from incoming football players who want to get a jump on things, to Olympic wannabes who are stretching out their classes, to high schoolers trying to buttress their college apps. Anyway, the Uni just asked her and other summer instructors if they would be willing to teach the class online. She said yes, bcos it a big payday for her, but she hasn’t been officially told if her class is a go.
That’s really tough for pre-law seniors who were hoping on another quarter of A’s to boost that all-important GPA. It also hurts premeds who are taking Organic Chem, a critical class and critical grade.
OTOH, anyone know how colleges are teaching lab classes online?
@bluebayou - D says her lab is definitely the worst virtually taught class. She has two lab classes - a statistical modeling class (that one’s OK because it’s mostly a lot of coding) and her second o chem lab. That class doesn’t work well on line at all.
A power point is set out weekly with the lab process with descriptions of reactions and data, sometimes a video of a the lab being conducted is included, students do a pre and post lab write up, and there is a weekly lab quiz. Basically they are trying to cover the same content on the syllabus without the hands on component. Less than ideal but they are doing the best they can.
Thankfully her o chem II lecture is going great (but that’s her favorite class in general). That professor is the most organized and he’s super accessible. He has virtual lectures, power points, and holds multiple office hours and study sessions every week. He rocks.
Here’s an interesting take on the push for universal pass at tippy top schools:
“Ironically (or perhaps intentionally) Universal Pass hurts disadvantaged students by ending their ability to distinguish themselves based on merit. It also, invariably, helps wealthier students with friendly connections at prestigious employers or top-tier grad schools, who are more apt to overlook mere passing grades during trying circumstances.”
https://nypost.com/2020/04/04/yale-students-are-using-the-coronavirus-crisis-to-lower-standards/
@momofsenior1
My D is also taking O chem 2 and lab. She says the TA posts a video of the lab/experiment with no sound. She takes notes on what she sees, then there is a quiz. It’s a fairly watered down version of the class but I guess it’s the best they can do.
What are the pre-meds going to do with O-Chem and no grade? A Pass doesn’t usually do it for Med school - they need a grade.
Meds schools will have to adjust like all other schools.
Soooo… How many of you are excited to have your graduating child back that is going to most likely have a hard time getting a job? 
.
I was getting used to this empty nester thing… Lol.
In 1970 after the campus strikes due the the Kent State shootings and the Vietnam war many universities gave all pass/fail grades to all students. Medical schools adapted to the change.
If a sport is making a loss, then cutting the sport would save the college’s athletic department money.
However, keeping the sport “on hold” (i.e. maintaining the infrastructure, staff, scholarships, etc.) but not playing would be the worst of both worlds – paying much of the cost, but not getting the revenue, so there would be losses instead of profits, or larger losses instead of smaller losses.
I think most schools will want to retain their coaching staff if possible because they’ll have to replace them in a year or less and finding the right match is not always easy.
Actually, Pass / No-Pass (P/N) according to the article. Neither P nor N affects GPA as calculated by Northwestern ( https://catalogs.northwestern.edu/undergraduate/requirements-policies/grades/ ), although professional schools may have different policies for recalculating college GPA. Since only an F becomes an N under Northwestern’s P/N, it is easy to see that any N on a Northwestern grade record really means F.
The threshold for P in P/N, P/NP, P/F grading varies across colleges; a threshold of C- or C for P is common.
Maintaining grading fairness will be a huge challenge for most colleges when they switch to remote learning. Only a few colleges (such as Caltech) are used to open-book (and often untimed) tests for almost all classes. It won’t be easy for professors to redesign their tests and exams for this new environment when they’ve never done it before.
My D’s had two distance learning exams so far. She said they have both been incredibly more difficult than her in person, closed book exams.
Okay, admittedly, I know nothing about this, but…
- Aren’t schools required to have a certain number of sports in order to qualify for their conference.
- Don’t sports also bring in a lot of donor money (boosters?), in addition to the “profit/loss” that’s reported?
to show why some schools went to P/F here is an article about the economic disparity at another LAC
Obviously sports aren’t the biggest concern for anyone during this crisis. But I listened in on a call with a P5 AD last week that I thought was pretty telling. He was asked about the possibility of running an athletic department if the college football season is canceled and replied that he can’t even imagine a contingency plan for that. He likened it to an ice age for college sports. I suspect the same is true in a lot of areas. I doubt there’s any college that has a contingency plan for a semester of empty dorms and zero room and board revenue, not to mention loads of students taking gap years and those remaining wanting a discount. Not many schools are in a position to do that without major cuts that involve eliminating entire programs. In other words, I don’t think living at home and paying full tuition for online learning is the worst case scenario at many schools. Kids who have that option might feel fortunate come September.
I didn’t know where to post this so you gave me a segue… Lol.
This short article is since football athletes can’t take the Act/Sat to get, minimums they can’t become eligible to play. Never really thought about this before and just found it interesting.
247Sports: Cancellation of SAT, ACT tests causing college football headache.
https://247sports.com/Article/act-sat-standardized-test-recruit-college-football-145674745/