<p>Hi CC members,</p>
<p>I’m a student who’s currently attending an University that is ranked from USNWR 20th to 25th. I seek to transfer this following March and got a quick question about use of PNP.
My school offers PNP opportunities, one for each quarter. So if one receives a C or above and uses PNP, the letter grade doesn’t show up or influence the GPA.</p>
<p>I assume when transferring, the college admission officers would look at the fact that I don’t have any letter grade but only with a pass just like Brown’s grading system. I wonder if I can use PNP without worries that it would hurt my application. I take 3 courses in this term and 2 of my other classes are in stable A range. Supposing I would get 3 As from next term as well, achieving 4.0 GPA, would using PNP matter at all for transfer?
The vast majorities of others said it wouldn’t matter as use of PNP is my right and Adcoms wouldn’t realize the difference (and they only look at the formal GPA). However, I wanted to make sure and give a final check with CC members’ advices. </p>
<p>Thanks for reading!</p>
<p>How many units is 3 classes, is it considered full time? If it is below what would be considered a ‘normal’ load of 15-16 units, then taking P/NP classes makes the schedule even lighter. </p>
<p>It also depends on how long your record is, if you are a fr attempting a soph transfer, your college record is already brief and taking a P/NP for a third of your classes each sem doesn’t help. In general, I wouldn’t recommend using P/NP every semester, but at least if you’re a jr transfer, colleges have more grades to look at.</p>
<p>Another factor is which course you choose to take P/NP; not so bad for a fun, 1 unit exploratory class, but not such a good idea for a regular academic class.</p>
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<p>Yes, it’s your right to take courses P/NP, but that doesn’t mean adcoms won’t notice it. You send your transcript, so they’ll be looking at the courses you took and the individual grades, not just your gpa. The ‘vast majorities’ are extremely naive if they think that adcoms just look at a gpa and don’t consider the rigor of the coursework and how many grades the gpa is based on.</p>
<p>My school uses quarter system so we are obliged to take 3 courses or 4 per semester. Freshmen are strongly discouraged from taking 4 in their first year. I’m not planning on using one for each semester, rather only for this quarter. 3 of my classes are considered somewhat rigorous and the one I’m planning to use PNP on is considered very rigorous.
This course is a general elective, and it’s pretty common among Freshmen students to do so, yet I still feel uncomfortable. I appreciate your advice. Could you assess my circumstance with these information? Quarter system, 3 for each semester, 3 all quite rigorous and using PNP only once.</p>