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Pass/Fail for Graduate Admissions Because of CoVid-19


narzhy

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Hello,

 

Some schools are making classes taken this semester pass/fail while others are giving the option to choose which classes. How will this look on a transcript to adcoms? If I'm taking honors classes and math courses to try and go onto graduate school, will this hurt me? Thanks

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Startz, how do you plan on handling grades of students who are affected by mandatory Pass/Fail grading schemes for the semester (i.e. not possible to opt-out)? Granted, these are very high-caliber institutions like Harvard, Stanford, Columbia, and Dartmouth, but an A at this institution is still very different than a C+. I'm sure more schools will be added to this list.
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Transcript would indicate that I hope.

 

Btw, The New School has implemented an A/A- policy were students will receive only an A/A- for classes.

Policies and Procedures | The New School in New York

 

"What does it mean to be graded based on the Double A Grading Policy?For the Spring 2020 term only, students will be eligible for A or A- if they complete the requirements of the course. Other grading options for instructors will include:

 

  • A grade of “I,” which indicates an instructor has granted an extension to complete outstanding work for the course for individual students.
  • A grade of “Z,” which designates a student has Unofficially Withdrawn, may be assigned to students who discontinue to engage or participate in their coursework."

2021 Admissions is gonna get complicated. I find this unfair coming from a school that will not have this policy. Its mandatory Pass/Fail for me. I'm ****ed.

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Honestly, I have no idea how the admissions committees are going to handle this. Good luck to you startz.

 

For one, they cannot penalize people for the mandatory P/F being out of their control - but there's a massive question mark that remains; it is literally like the transcript comes with "between A+ and C" for each class.

 

At the same time, they will want to give due credit to people who were able to get high marks in difficult classes like real analysis or graduate micro.

 

Especially for those that are coming from less prestigious institutions, I hope that this doesn't mean committees will put slightly less weights on coursework and more on letters, because taking difficult (i.e. graduate/advanced undergraduate) coursework is one of the big "equalizers" someone who is not coming from a top undergraduate institution can do to break into a top-30 school.

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This period of doubt is when we'll see the character of graduate admissions. I suspect its going to be extremely unequal, with no regard for the context of the grades.

 

I suspect you're right. And as coloradoecon suggests above, it's not clear just what admission committees should do.

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I suspect you're right. And as coloradoecon suggests above, it's not clear just what admission committees should do.

 

The most fair solution in my opinion would be to discount spring 2020 for *all* applicants. Pretend it never happened. Variance might increase with this smaller academic sample but it would be much less biased.

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The most fair solution in my opinion would be to discount spring 2020 for *all* applicants. Pretend it never happened. Variance might increase with this smaller academic sample but it would be much less biased.

 

But how do we compare someone who took real analysis in a previous term with someone who took it in the Spring? We don't want to act as is the latter never took the course.

 

Let me also say I appreciate the discussion on this topic because I may have to figure out what to do about the situation for next year's admits. Hearing various suggestions and viewpoints is helpful.

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Perhaps you could put out a request that the relevant professors somehow send the class rank (for the class they taught) of the student in the transcript package? This way, the professor does not need to determine curved grades, and can easily do this by looking at the data. This does seem like it is additional work, but perhaps it'll inform your judgment and provide for some fairness.

 

However, this does seem to go against the purpose of the mandatory P/F system..

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Perhaps you could put out a request that the relevant professors somehow send the class rank (for the class they taught) of the student in the transcript package? This way, the professor does not need to determine curved grades, and can easily do this by looking at the data. This does seem like it is additional work, but perhaps it'll inform your judgment and provide for some fairness.

 

However, this does seem to go against the purpose of the mandatory P/F system..

 

Not everyone will have a class rank. Especially, if the grade is pass/fall. Perhaps more importantly, we need something with a low administrative burden.

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But how do we compare someone who took real analysis in a previous term with someone who took it in the Spring? We don't want to act as is the latter never took the course.

 

Let me also say I appreciate the discussion on this topic because I may have to figure out what to do about the situation for next year's admits. Hearing various suggestions and viewpoints is helpful.

 

You can compare them on dimensions other than real analysis, and if absolutely necessary, you can impute a likely real analysis grade based on other math course grades. I'm sure that in 6 semesters they will have taken some courses that can be used as proxies.

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You can compare them on dimensions other than real analysis, and if absolutely necessary, you can impute a likely real analysis grade based on other math course grades. I'm sure that in 6 semesters they will have taken some courses that can be used as proxies.

 

That's not a bad idea. Though I like to point out that some colleges like the New School have mandated an A/A- policy were the only passing grades students will get is A/A-. An "A for all" policy. How can adcom deal with that?

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That's not a bad idea. Though I like to point out that some colleges like the New School have mandated an A/A- policy were the only passing grades students will get is A/A-. An "A for all" policy. How can adcom deal with that?

 

The policy I suggested deals with that too, the exact same way a pass/fail grade is judged. Also, A4A is basically not getting implemented anywhere, other than 1-2 scattered schools.

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You really aren't going to be that badly off. We aren't robots. We know that pass/fail in spring 2020 means something different than in other periods. We read files carefully and letters of reference carry a lot of weight. If you want to convey strong performance in a particular class, have the professor from that class write a reference letter. Most schools let you include more than three letters.
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