Would it be advisable to take a pass/fail course in final year of study? How do grad schools treat such courses?

It depends what the course is. If it is a training (like WHIMIS for me was a pass/fail) than it will be needed, but otherwise depends on the course

Does anyone have a list of pass/fail courses that a life science student can take? I only found a 1st year health sci course.

Pass/Fail courses are, for me, a waste. All that time and money...and you don't even get a grade out of it?
Unless, of course, it's required, like WHMIS...which isn't for credit, anyway.

Some grad/professional schools consider your grade in a pass/fail course to be whatever the minimum to pass is. For example, in the program I'm in now at UofT, a pass is 60, so anyone applying with a pass in a pass/fail course would have their GPA counted with a 60 in that course.

Originally Posted by starfish

Some grad/professional schools consider your grade in a pass/fail course to be whatever the minimum to pass is. For example, in the program I'm in now at UofT, a pass is 60, so anyone applying with a pass in a pass/fail course would have their GPA counted with a 60 in that course.

wow if thats true, thats a pretty bad blow to cGPA

Originally Posted by lifesciman1

wow if thats true, thats a pretty bad blow to cGPA

Lol it is true...a friend of mine had the choice of having their actual grade on the transcript, or a simple "pass", so she emailed the admissions people to find out what would happen if it was a "pass", and that's what they told her. Since her grade in the course was well above 60, she went with having the actual grade
So yeah, a lot of people want to take a pass/fail course so that they don't have to worry about getting a good grade...I don't think it counts towards your McMaster GPA (though I could be wrong?), but it could really hurt you if you want to apply to professional/grad schools with different ways of calculating averages.

I don't think this applies for zero-credit courses like Science 1A00 and 2C00; since those have zero weighting towards your GPA, they don't count for anything.

Originally Posted by starfish

Lol it is true...a friend of mine had the choice of having their actual grade on the transcript, or a simple "pass", so she emailed the admissions people to find out what would happen if it was a "pass", and that's what they told her. Since her grade in the course was well above 60, she went with having the actual grade
So yeah, a lot of people want to take a pass/fail course so that they don't have to worry about getting a good grade...I don't think it counts towards your McMaster GPA (though I could be wrong?), but it could really hurt you if you want to apply to professional/grad schools with different ways of calculating averages.

I don't think this applies for zero-credit courses like Science 1A00 and 2C00; since those have zero weighting towards your GPA, they don't count for anything.

I have only had 1 pass/fail class. Good thing I came across this lol.

Er, I don't think they would count it as a 60 or whatever the hell the pass is. Likely it depends on the program, so you should email each school and program to be sure. In some courses you can request a mark on the transcript. Though, if that option isn't available, they may not consider that year a 'full course load' into the admission GPA calculation.

Originally Posted by Lois

Er, I don't think they would count it as a 60 or whatever the hell the pass is. Likely it depends on the program, so you should email each school and program to be sure. In some courses you can request a mark on the transcript. Though, if that option isn't available, they may not consider that year a 'full course load' into the admission GPA calculation.

I said "some schools", and it definitely is true for some schools...but yeah, it's always smartest to check with each one individually for any questions about admissions (which is how my friend came across this information in the first place).

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-7I4c--wuyS...+isnt+fair.png