Boise State offers alternate grading for Spring 2020 courses

A few items to note regarding changing from a letter grade to pass fail:

• You can choose to opt for a Pass/D/Fail for one, or more of your classes.
• Currently, to earn an MBE degree, you must receive a grade of C- or better in all courses, with the exception of ENGR 180 and PHYS 212/212L where a D is passing for these 2 classes only.
• You don’t have to make a decision now about changing from a letter grade to a Pass/D/Fail. Professors will submit letter grades by 5/12/20 and then you will have 5 days until 5/17/20 to request switching letter grades from a C- or higher to a P.
• A course that is graded as a pass with a P, will *not* count towards your GPA, but it will satisfy degree requirements and prerequisites for future courses.
• Once you choose to take a P you may not change your mind and go back to a letter grade.
• Courses previously taken and being repeated in spring 2020, if graded with a P will still overwrite and exclude the first letter grade from GPA calculations.
• More details to come from the University on the process for changing your grading will be made available in the coming weeks.
• When making decisions about changing to pass/fail, consider impacts to minimum GPA requirements for scholarships and financial aid, as well as potential questions from future employers or applications to graduate school.

A few items to note regarding admission to upper-division and beyond:

• If you switch from a letter grade to a P in an ME core class, that course will not be used to calculate your ME core GPA for admission to upper-division.
• To be admitted to upper-division, you still can’t exceed the maximum number of ME core repeats (3 on 20-21 catalog and 2 on 19-20 and earlier catalogs), and must still meet the minimum ME Core GPA (2.6 on 20-21 catalog and 2.4 on earlier catalogs).
• REMINDER: Math 170, Math 175, PHYS 211, ENGR 210 (ME 201) and ENGR 220 (ME 203) are ME core classes for all catalogs. CHEM 111, ME 105 and ME 302 (ME 321) are only ME core classes for the 19-20 and earlier catalogs while ME 271 (ME 273) is only an ME core class on the 20-21 catalog.

This GPA calculator may be helpful as you determine which route you are going to go.

Questions? Reach out to your advisor, or AdviseME@boisestate.edu. While we cannot make the decision for you, we can help you look at the different options.

In recognition of the fact that many Boise State students have been adversely impacted by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic – perhaps most significantly, by the sudden transition from in-person to remote instruction on March 13 – it is proposed that the following procedure be implemented as a one-time accommodation to respond to these extraordinary conditions.

All undergraduate students will have the option to take any current course on a Pass/D/Fail basis. The process and standards for exercising this option will be as follows:

1. Students will be allowed to invoke Pass/D/Fail grading for any Spring 2020 course in session at the outset of Boise State’s pandemic response (March 13, 2020), including those courses that satisfy program-specific requirements (see item 7 below).
2. Faculty will submit grades as usual, using the A+ through F grading scale.
3. Students will have 5 calendar days after grades are posted to request to switch any of the relevant course grades to Pass/D/Fail grading.
4. The Registrar’s Office will publish and manage an electronic form that students will use to exercise the Pass/D/Fail grading option.
5. If a student requests a Pass/D/Fail grading option, grades of C- and higher will be converted to a P.
6. Grades of D and F submitted by faculty will be retained and transcripted as such.
7. For those undergraduate programs that have specific minimum letter grade requirements for admission to the program, admission to the program’s upper-division courses, or for degree completion, courses completed in spring 2020 with a grade of P will be exempted from these program-specific grading requirements. This will be a one-time exemption for program-specific minimum grade requirements for courses taken and completed in spring 2020.
8. Students will not be able to revoke the Pass/D/Fail option once exercised.
9. Courses with atypical meeting schedules (intensive weekend classes, seven-week starts, etc.) and have grades that have already been submitted for the Spring 2020 semester are not eligible for the Pass/D/Fail option.
10. Students will have until midnight on May 17, 2020, to request this alternative (Pass/D/Fail) grading option.

HOW DO I REQUEST A GRADE OF P FOR MY CLASS? (Updated 5/12/20)

On May 13th you will receive an email with a link to an eform. Use this eform to choose the course(s) you wish to change to a grade of P and submit by the deadline.

Get answers about how this process works (The link to this process page has been removed as the P option is no longer available to general students)

IMPACT OF P/D/F OPTION ON PROFESSIONAL LICENSURE (Updated 5/14/20)

In a communication with the Idaho Board of Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors, the Department asked if substituting a Pass for a letter grade would impact the ability of an engineer to get their Professional Engineer license. Executive Director Keith Simila responded that the Board is only concerned with the final engineering degree and not the individual course grades.

IMPACT OF P/D/F OPTION ON GRADUATE SCHOOL APPLICATIONS (Updated 5/14/20)

Dr. JoAnn Slama Lighty, dean of the College of Engineering, shared the following:

“I asked Dean Vacha-Haase and a colleague who Tweets about grad education. Both had not heard about people looking at transcripts differently for admission to graduate school with Spring 2020 being a “P.” Students were concerned about that. My colleague suggested pointing it out in the letter and also, if they are concerned, is that a place you really want to spend the next 5 years? Everyone knows this was an extremely difficult shift and should understand.”