P/NP: how much does it hurt? Forum

fiestaoffire · Post by **fiestaoffire** » Mon Jul 16, 2012 4:52 pm

I saw a post on here saying I should limit myself to only 4-5 P/NP classes and suggesting that it actually might hurt my chances if I take more. I was curious exactly how to count these because I've had a couple classes that could not be taken for letter grade (seminars, student-taught classes, field study, etc.) and am not sure whether law schools will count those. If I don't count those, I would already have 5 classes that I've taken P/NP and one more year of study at my college (we're on the semester system).

So I was wondering whether there's actually a consensus that I should limit it to 4-5 P/NP classes or else it might negatively impact me and whether law schools will differentiate between classes where I had a letter grade option and ones that I didn't.

Thanks in advance.

ryanfaro · Post by **ryanfaro** » Mon Jul 16, 2012 5:06 pm

It won't factor into your GPA and it's how some of your courses are graded, you won't be admonished for something out of your control like that. Also, even if it were optional, it's fine.

Is it just straight P and NP? The NP will be factored as a 0.00 because it implies failure.

fiestaoffire · Post by **fiestaoffire** » Mon Jul 16, 2012 5:21 pm

ryanfaro wrote:It won't factor into your GPA and it's how some of your courses are graded, you won't be admonished for something out of your control like that. Also, even if it were optional, it's fine.

Is it just straight P and NP? The NP will be factored as a 0.00 because it implies failure.

Yeah, I've passed every single class that I took for P/NP. I knew it wouldn't factor into my GPA, but I was a bit fearful when I read somewhere here that law schools actually tally up the number of classes you've taken P/NP and that it actually negatively impacts your admission chances if you've taken more than 4-5 as I've never heard that anywhere else. Thanks much.

Nova · Post by **Nova** » Mon Jul 16, 2012 5:37 pm

fiestaoffire wrote: Yeah, I've passed every single class that I took for P/NP. I knew it wouldn't factor into my GPA, but I was a bit fearful when I read somewhere here that law schools actually tally up the number of classes you've taken P/NP and that it actually negatively impacts your admission chances if you've taken more than 4-5 as I've never heard that anywhere else. Thanks much.

lol,no. All that matters is dat LSAC GPA

UtilityMonster · Post by **UtilityMonster** » Mon Sep 03, 2012 4:45 pm

I don't really see why law schools would knock students for taking some courses P/F.

cinephile · Post by **cinephile** » Mon Sep 03, 2012 6:51 pm

At my college, many people took every course P/NP. It didn't matter at all.

Ti Malice · Post by **Ti Malice** » Mon Sep 03, 2012 7:40 pm

Where are you planning to apply? I think it could be a bit of a negative at YHS. Maybe Berkeley, too. Toby Stock, former HLS admissions dean, explicitly stated that a significant number of classes taken pass/fail would be viewed negatively. It's certainly not hard to imagine YLS and SLS, which have the luxury of picking and choosing among high-numbers applicants for their tiny classes, counting it as a weak point of your app.

If these are your target schools, perhaps you should consider adding an addendum that states for which classes the pass/fail grading was required, and which includes a web address to a course catalog that contains this info.

For pretty much every other school, each of which will be desperate to maintain medians/rankings, I doubt it will matter at all. (With its huge class to fill, even HLS may have to ignore it next cycle.)

smittytron3k · Post by **smittytron3k** » Sun Sep 09, 2012 11:23 am

FWIW, I took 8 classes P/NP in undergrad, also freaked out about how it would affect admissions, and ended up at HLS (although I did get dinged or WL'd at Y/S/B). Not convinced it's a big deal.

fiestaoffire · Post by **fiestaoffire** » Tue Sep 11, 2012 1:05 am

I'm surprised this thread was bumped up from oblivion and that I actually noticed it.

Anyway, yeah I'm aiming for top 14 + UCLA. Preferably in CA. I don't know if I'll actually have to explain it or anything, I'll just make sure that this semester and next I avoid taking any and I think I should be fine.

I just quickly went back to my transcript and I only have 4 classes where I chose to go P/NP. The rest were just seminars or field study that had to be P/NP. I'm thinking they'll be able to tell the difference simply by looking at the number of units they are and the titles of the courses.

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