Pass/Fail a B in Calc 3?
Had an A the whole semester in Calc 3 but got the flu before the final exam and ended up bombing it, finishing with a B. Is it worth pass-failing the class to keep my GPA at around a 3.8 or taking the B and having it fall to a 3.6? I'm a freshman at a target, so I have plenty of time to raise my GPA if I take the B. However, if there's no downside in taking the B, I don't see why I wouldn't just Pass/Fail. Just wondering how a Pass might look in a quantitative course to MBBs/BBs/Business Schools? Will it matter if I end up getting As in the other quantitative courses I take?
dude I can guarantee you are going to have awful anxiety attacks during your banking/consultng stint.
Don't worry, you will fit right in
If you dont plan on taking further math classes or have another academic reason that would require you to have a grade, then wont really hurt. Top MBAs dont care about P/F due to covid, and firms dont give a shit
Agreed with above though. Stop worrying over minor shit like this and youll be much happier
Overall, I don't think it really matters. Calc 3 is already more Calc then you'll ever need in banking/consulting. If you're thinking about staying in something related to Math for your undergrad degree and pass/failing that grade will become an obstacle to that (for example, you want to be an applied math major and either need Calc 3 or a harder class to satisfy a major requirement) then I'd probably just take the B and move on.
If Calc 3 is not a major requirement and was simply just the math class you decided to do, if it's not a hassle to pass/fail it after the fact, I'd take a contrarian approach to the above and think about pass failing it. Preserving your GPA in the early days as much as possible is smart. At the end of the day, basically no one actually looks at your transcript, I'd lean slightly towards preserving the GPA with the pass/fail.
One other consideration is how many pass/fail opportunities you have through your undergrad. If you only have a couple, you can think about whether you'll need to pass/fail a harder class that you might really want to take, but know it'll hurt your GPA, same goes for any other required classes that might be really tough. A B isn't a GPA killer, so if you're going to have to go and take organic chemistry or something like that, you just want to think about how to use the pass/fails strategically.
As I said, don't get too wrapped up in it, I've probably already done you a disservice by overanalyzing it with you, but one of my undergrad regrets was not focusnig more on taking easy classes and maintaining a higher GPA, it made life harder for me down the road.
If you go to a US school on a 4.0 gpa grading curve, I think it makes sense to P/F it. Business schools publish average admission stats for those and I think they will want to keep those as high as possible. I asked an admission consultant a similar question and she recommended that I can always explain why I P/F in this supplemental section.
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