With the semester halfway over, students have a fairly good idea of what to expect on their report cards. For students anticipating less-than-ideal results in a particular course, Nov. 7 is the deadline to request a PDF grade.
It is no surprise that Whitman’s rigorous academic standards permeate into their pass-fail policy. Unlike other campuses, which mark a simple P for pass or F for fail, Whitman transcripts record a D+ or D-. By opting for the PDF grade, a student can only pass with a C- or above.
A PDF does provide some attractive benefits: students can channel more focus into other graded classes and enjoy a PDF class for its own sake. Also, credits can still be earned while GPA is not compromised, so students have extra protection in areas they are uncomfortable academically.
“It means that I’m forgoing the stress that goes along with getting a C in a class,” said senior Anna Clark, after choosing to PDF Calculus this semester.
Many students find the freedom of designating a challenging course as PDF-graded benefit enough to risk the transcript implications.
“It can’t look too good,” said Registrar Ron Urban.
“It’s like having a blemish on your face when you’re going to a high school prom. The grad school will look at that and put your application towards the bottom of the stack. If you have a limited number of them, one or two, that will probably not represent the end of the world, but it’ll disadvantage you to students with a similar academic record who didn’t take the PDF. It cannot help you if it looks like you’re trying to avoid something. Some will convert them to C-s and recalculate your GPA according to that, which is really unfair.”
Although a student can have up to 40 percent of their credits designated as PDF, the college encourages students to opt for regularly graded courses.
“A typical transcript has no Ps. I’d be guessing far less than a fraction of 1 percent of the total grades. Again, the college is really drawing away from it,” said Urban. “The trend is clear to me that we’re moving increasingly away from the PDF. We’ve been whittling away at the areas it applies in for years. You can’t satisfy a distribution with a PDF. There are a lot of majors that don’t allow you to take PDF once you declare a major. I advise students to read their department’s policy on PDF. There’s a lot of misinformation there.”
Urban sees two categories of students actively pursuing the PDF option.
“The first is students who may not be strong in an area but want to explore without risking damage to their GPA,” said Urban. “Let’s say I’m a poet but curious about a nuclear physics class but I’m really out of my element. I’ll have it graded PDF to preserve my GPA.”
“The second category is a student that uses a PDF very shrewdly. If you get a B+ instead of an A – a perfectly acceptable grade – the PDF protects your high GPA,” added Urban.
Students who do choose the PDF option are not required to report the status to their instructor. Their assignments are graded regularly and the professor still submits a grade to the registrar’s office. The conversion happens privately in the Registrar’s office.
Another important consideration for the student considering requesting a PDF grade is its permanence. Once submitted, a student cannot simply withdraw their request. If a student realizes the possibility of making an A in a course after filing for PDF, the P will still be present on their transcript, which some graduate schools recalculate as a C-.
“There is something that startles us in the office,” said Urban.
“We find it amazing that such a comparatively high percentage of students requested a PDF in a class that they earned an A.”
For Clark, the PDF option is simply practical.
“I am PDF’ing because I know that I won’t get better than a C in this class, no matter how many hours I study a day,” said Clark.
The impact on graduate school applications was certainly a factor in her decision, but did not outweigh the stress relief.
“I don’t think it will have much of an impact, because it is only one class. Also, because I’m looking to go into ecology, and most people say that statistics is way more useful than calculus anyway.”
The deadline for filing for a PDF is Nov. 7.
