Pass/Fail courses during the school year - TJ

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:P/F in PE seems fine and no I can’t fathom colleges caring about that.

I also cannot fathom not getting an A in PE. You don't have to be athletic, you just have to do the stuff. I guess if you skip class every day, you might not get an A in PE. But is your all-A kid going to do that?

No, not at all.

[Anonymous]

My kiddo is at TJ, and I asked the counselor about this (for PE in specific). The counselor strongly recommended against this...said that the colleges re-compute and that the "story" of the transcript doesn't look good with P/F. But that's just one data point.

You can't take a core class P/F (like English or history) and foreign language is a requirement for many colleges so a letter grade is helpful. I think only econ-personal finance is worth the risk.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:P/F in PE seems fine and no I can’t fathom colleges caring about that.

I also cannot fathom not getting an A in PE. You don't have to be athletic, you just have to do the stuff. I guess if you skip class every day, you might not get an A in PE. But is your all-A kid going to do that?

Isn't there a PE teacher at TJ that is famous for trying to inject "rigor" into her PE class by assigning homework and having tests.

[Anonymous]

Oldest kid attended a non-DMV well known private and had "P" on transcript for PE. Got into 4/4 ivies and other T20. I don't think letter grade vs. P matters for PE

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Oldest kid attended a non-DMV well known private and had "P" on transcript for PE. Got into 4/4 ivies and other T20. I don't think letter grade vs. P matters for PE

This is a TJ specific issue. Many Asian kids take PE p/f for grade bump. It distorts the ranking when students with better grades have lower gpa's compared to p/f students. So colleges look at transcript primarily since they know what these TJ students are trying to game with the gpa. It actually hurts them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oldest kid attended a non-DMV well known private and had "P" on transcript for PE. Got into 4/4 ivies and other T20. I don't think letter grade vs. P matters for PE

This is a TJ specific issue. Many Asian kids take PE p/f for grade bump. It distorts the ranking when students with better grades have lower gpa's compared to p/f students. So colleges look at transcript primarily since they know what these TJ students are trying to game with the gpa. It actually hurts them.

Lots of kids at lots of schools do this for the grade bump. Colleges look at UW GPA for that reason, it's not TJ specific (or race specific).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:P/F in PE seems fine and no I can’t fathom colleges caring about that.

I also cannot fathom not getting an A in PE. You don't have to be athletic, you just have to do the stuff. I guess if you skip class every day, you might not get an A in PE. But is your all-A kid going to do that?

Isn't there a PE teacher at TJ that is famous for trying to inject "rigor" into her PE class by assigning homework and having tests.

Yes, I heard that too. Kids have to actually study and be very athletic to get an A in that PE class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:P/F in PE seems fine and no I can’t fathom colleges caring about that.

I also cannot fathom not getting an A in PE. You don't have to be athletic, you just have to do the stuff. I guess if you skip class every day, you might not get an A in PE. But is your all-A kid going to do that?

Isn't there a PE teacher at TJ that is famous for trying to inject "rigor" into her PE class by assigning homework and having tests.

Yes, I heard that too. Kids have to actually study and be very athletic to get an A in that PE class.

It's nucking futz. It's almost as if they are inviting kids to take the class P/F

[Anonymous]

A lot of TJ kids take PE P/F over the summer..,so why can’t my base school kid take it P/F during the school year? Will colleges have an issue with this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Neat trick! Do a lot of kids do this? It would seem to benefit anyone who has over a 4.0 weighted GPA.

However, it will lower your unweighted GPA (unless you already have a perfect 4.0 unweighted).

Most kids DO NOT do this beyond the required EPF class. College admission officers want to see grades for academic classes. Take a look at the excellent admissions blog of Dean J Associate Admissions at UVA: http://uvaapplication.blogspot.com/ and this post on her Twitter feed: https://twitter.com/UVaDeanJ/status/950549871936835584 where she says "I'm looking at applicants from one of my schools in GPA order. The programs are all over the map. Remember that transcripts tell stories that GPAs don't. #UVA #UVA22 #collegeapplications"

These are the idiots that applicants are up against.

[Anonymous]

I hear a number of TJ kids take world language courses on P/F basis to lighten the course burden? PE is relatively easy course for getting an A.

[Anonymous]

So would it be ok in terms of colleges for my non TJ freshman kid to take PE P/F during the school year?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So would it be ok in terms of colleges for my non TJ freshman kid to take PE P/F during the school year?

It depends on which colleges. Elite colleges don't want to see any p/f. Others are okay.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So would it be ok in terms of colleges for my non TJ freshman kid to take PE P/F during the school year?

It depends on which colleges. Elite colleges don't want to see any p/f. Others are okay.

Even if it’s just PE??

[Anonymous]

Elite colleges evaluate applicants based on their interested major. Random courses being taken for p/f may not matter. If student is applying for a sports major like Exercise science, Exercise physiology, Athletic training, Physical therapy, etc., then applicant would be better off explaining why they took PE for p/f, if they did. College admissions wouldn't care if this applicant took a world language class for pass/fail. Similarly if a bio science major took honors biology or AP Biology for p/f, they are better off explaining what caused them to do so, but may not matter at all if Economics and Personal Finance is taken for p/f. Colleges know that most high schools dont allow taking high school graduation required courses such as English, social studies, mathematics, and laboratory science on p/f basis, and p/f is limited to state mandated courses like PE, EPF, etc.