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I am a first semester Junior with around 40 credits left 'til graduation. I am a Political Science major. One of the courses required for my major is Political Science 101: "Introduction to Politics." The assumption is that Poli Sci 101 is a very easy class and it is common for students in my Department to put off taking the class until their last year since it isn't a firm prerequisite to take any other Political Science class and it's a good way to break up an otherwise challenging senior year schedule.

I took the class this semester because I liked the professor it was offered with - however, I did not know that he would be delegating all of of the grading to his TAs. All of his exams are essay based and they're graded by the TAs exclusively. We have had one exam so far and I received an 80 (B-) - I thought the exam was very easy but when I discussed why I had twenty points taken off, the TA said that one of my examples in the essay was "too abstract" and just attempted to reassure me that "a B- is a very good grade" and refused to reconsider regrading it since it was "already so high." (TAs offer to regrade exams when we are unsatisfied with the grade but it is far from a guarantee of a higher grade.) I have also gotten 80's on every single quiz. Up until this point, I have never gotten a B on any exam, in any class (whether it be Political Science, Calculus II, Intermediate Ancient Greek, etc.)

I currently have a 4.0 GPA. I have taken multiple upper division courses in my major and received A's - I have also received A's in upper division courses in my minor, along with in graduate coursework (M.A./600 lvl) for History and English. It seems unlikely that I will receive anything higher than a B- or B (2.7/3.0) in this class. My school allows us to take one course in the major as P/F. I feel kind of like a giant idiot "wasting" the P/F on literally a 101 class, but I also don't want to take a GPA hit because of it. I also think it'll look really suspicious (and flat out bad) to graduate school and law school admissions if in this semester I am taking a 400 level course on International Political Economy for a grade, then P/Fing "Intro to Politics." This class is seriously stressing me out.

What is better in this situation? A B- in a 101 course (subsequently a lower GPA?) or A P and preserving the 4.0?

I should also add that I have a stake in keeping my GPA as high as possible because I am also on a full academic scholarship that is contingent upon GPA.

95% of what matters to schools grade-wise is your LSAC computed GPA. They do not care what classes you took p/f. They don't care if you artificially inflated your GPA with 36 hours of summer online community college classes. LSAC GPA is king

didgeridoo92 wrote:95% of what matters to schools grade-wise is your LSAC computed GPA. They do not care what classes you took p/f. They don't care if you artificially inflated your GPA with 36 hours of summer online community college classes. LSAC GPA is king

Alright, thank you. Everything I've read regarding P/F on this forum is that law schools generally don't really care, but the situation in the OP is always like "I'm a Chemistry major pulling a C in my 'Medieval Drama' course" - it's never people asking about major coursework (which is seen as the most important by admissions for most programs, whether it be PhDs, Med School, etc.) and especially not about intro level major courses, lol, so I didn't know if the rules changed substantially in such circumstances...

I did it with multiple major courses, didn't hurt me

Go for it

Nevermind; I just reread my transcript. The AP exams are listed under "test credits."