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I'm a junior in college right now, will my history of taking classes pass/fail hurt my chances of getting into T14 law schools even if my GPA is good? In my freshman year, I took a 5-unit Spanish class pass/fail, in my sophomore year, I took a 4 unit physics class pass/fail, I also took 13 units pass/fail last semester as part of the spring 2020 covid-19 semester as my school issued massive changes to the grading system. This puts me at 22 "P" units throughout my college career, (I intend on taking 151 units). I'm also taking 2 units in mandatory P/F classes this academic year as part of research credit, (one unit per semester, each mandatory pass fail). I'm a bio major and have around a 3.83 LSAC gpa. At my current track I should finish with a 3.85-3.9, will this negatively affect my application to T14 law schools?

Also, I've never received a "NP" I've passed every Pass/fail course I've taken.

As long as those Pass/fail courses don't show /have a grade you are fine.

I think you are at the cusp. Too many P/F sends a transparent message that you have been protecting your GPA. Careful

Schools don't have to report how many P/F grades went into your GPA, so largely don't care. And no school is going to hold P/F during covid against you in any way (the vast majority of law schools went to P/F for last spring semester). One P/F course per year other than the covid stuff isn't going to raise any eyebrows.

007sean wrote: ↑

Thu Sep 24, 2020 4:33 pm

I think you are at the cusp. Too many P/F sends a transparent message that you have been protecting your GPA. Careful

Do you think where I'm at can permanently keep me out of some of the best schools? I want to go to Berkeley and my dream school is Stanford, I understand that T3 may have different expectations than the rest of the T14

No. It’s is not as deterministic as that. But I certainly would not take more P/F classes

007sean wrote: ↑

Thu Sep 24, 2020 4:33 pm

I think you are at the cusp. Too many P/F sends a transparent message that you have been protecting your GPA. Careful

This would normally be true, but given that the majority of the OP's P/F classes have been directly tied to COVID-19, I don't think it's likely to have the same effect as in a normal year. Most applicants are going to have a similar trend if they went to undergrad during this period.

There should be no issue with Covid PF classes. Although — students may have had the option to take those P/F. The issue is voluntary non Covid P/F classes. I know of pre law advisers in top schools who counsel students not to have more than 2 of those.

007sean wrote: ↑

Sun Sep 27, 2020 1:35 pm

There should be no issue with Covid PF classes. Although — students may have had the option to take those P/F. The issue is voluntary non Covid P/F classes. I know of pre law advisers in top schools who counsel students not to have more than 2 of those.

Pre-law advisors are universally uninformed when it comes to law school admissions. 2 P/F courses in college will not affect anyone's application.

I said more than 2 P/F.
We agree that 2 P/F is fine.


Here is Cornell :

“ The Committee considers the circumstances, including whether such courses were required or optional, how many and in which subjects pass/fails were earned, etc.”

There is another poster with 8 optional P/F (in addition to 2 Covid and one mandatory P/F) l. This is a real red flag.
Moderator: I don’t like your tone and dismissive approach — not to mention baseless statement that all pre law colleges advisers are uninformed. This is not how you get experienced lawyers to contribute. Learn to disagree in a mature and professional manner.

007sean wrote: ↑

Sun Sep 27, 2020 4:36 pm

Moderator: I don’t like your tone and dismissive approach — not to mention baseless statement that all pre law colleges advisers are uninformed. This is not how you get experienced lawyers to contribute. Learn to disagree in a mature and professional manner.

I don't like your unfounded assertions made with the sole citation of "I'm a big lawyer at a big firm" to back it up. You're posting bad takes, and people are taking issue with them. Not sure which part of my (or anyone else's) replies lacked maturity or professionalism. Frankly, most people here have been far more polite than opposing counsel I've dealt with in litigation.

And prelaw advisors are idiots. Literally search for "prelaw advisor" on this site, and you will only find people offering bad advice.