[Agvisors] FW: Nursing - Pass/Fail Decision with Admission, with more details

Tue Mar 24 11:17:15 MST 2020

Hi everyone,
For those who have students interested in UA’s MEPN program or other nursing programs, below is information I received from the nursing advising team. They’re accepting p/f grades but have other advice they’re passing along to students too, especially if they are considering applying to other grad programs.
Thanks!
Liz

From: Sogge, Chris - (csogge) <csogge at arizona.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, March 24, 2020 8:15 AM
To: Collins, Elizabeth Anna - (eamartin) <eamartin at arizona.edu>; Fleck, Melanie - (mfleck) <mfleck at arizona.edu>
Subject: FW: Pass/Fail Decision with Admission, with more details

Good morning campus colleagues,

I know that some of your students are planning to do MEPN, and have had some great questions on how pass/fail will work with those requirements. The short answer is that we are happy to accept them here, but there are some considerations we want them to have too, particularly looking at graduate programs and if they want to continue on to other advanced degrees.

Feel free to use any of this language when you meet with them, or send them directly to us too.

Best,
Chris

From: "Sogge, Chris - (csogge)" <csogge at arizona.edu<mailto:csogge at arizona.edu>>
Date: Tuesday, March 24, 2020 at 8:10 AM
To: "Sogge, Chris - (csogge)" <csogge at arizona.edu<mailto:csogge at arizona.edu>>
Cc: "Holt, Brandie - (bdholt)" <bdholt at arizona.edu<mailto:bdholt at arizona.edu>>
Subject: Pass/Fail Decision with Admission, with more details

In line with the University of Arizona decision to accept pass/fail-designated courses for general education and foundation (language and math) requirements, we have decided to extend that acceptance towards BSN and MEPN prerequisite courses as well. While typically we do need a “C” or higher grade, and a “pass” is only a “D” or higher, we are making special accommodations given the circumstances. As of right now, we plan to only accept passing grades for courses taken in Spring 2020 at the University of Arizona, as well as for courses taken at schools with similar options for students due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Unless things get substantially worse, we do not plan to extend this accommodation beyond this semester, though we will monitor quarantine processes and will re-evaluate as necessary.

However, there are additional considerations we urge you to reflect on, prior to your decision to change a course to pass/fail as well:

  *   Pass/Fail classes are not for a grade, and as such would not be factored into your GPA. We would check that you have the requirement completed, and then mark it off, just like we do now with AP and CLEP credit. This does mean that admissions GPAs, such as cumulative and prerequisite GPAs, will have a smaller denominator and thus your graded classes will have more weight. For MEPN, the last-60 GPA does not include non-graded courses, so we would continue to work backwards until we hit at least 60 units. So, switching a class to pass/fail does mean your classes from other semesters now have bigger impact. We recommend you run a GPA calculation to make sure that you know what it is prior to you applying for admission.
  *   For those of you who want to continue on to graduate programs, like MEPN or an advanced practice degree, please note that the Graduate College has a limit on the number of pass/fail grades they can accept. Additionally, for some of our advanced programs, like CRNA programs, you want to be careful with having pass/fail designations on your core science classes as they may not be accepted.
  *   Some schools may not accept pass/fail courses for admissions. While we will do it at the UA, you want to make sure you have researched and contacted other schools to see what their policy is. Additionally, some schools may ask for justification to your reasoning as to why you want to do pass/fail. Make sure that you are doing the right choice, and are able to articulate why you made a choice to change to pass/fail.

  *   We recommend continuing to do your best with classes amidst the change, as the content itself is still valuable for when you get into nursing school as well, regardless of the grading structure and options. For example, strong knowledge of PISO 201 and 202 is needed for success in pathophysiology. Even if those grades are “pass” we want to make sure you have at least a “C” grade level of knowledge for moving beyond those courses.

This accommodation feels most fair to balance admissions integrity alongside the sudden change students and faculty are facing with the online course shift so suddenly. The reality is that some people will have academic issues due to this format and life change, and we do not want to penalize anyone for that.

In general, we recommend sticking with a graded course to continue to improve your GPA and play it safe, but we do want you to know you have the option to do pass/fail and still apply to BSN and MEPN here. If you’d like to think through this more on a specific and personal case, let’s chat at an appointment and run some GPA calculations! You can schedule an appt through student.trellis.arizona.edu with myself or with Brandie Holt.

Best,
Chris Sogge, MA
He | Him (learn more about pronouns here<https://www.mypronouns.org/>)
Academic Advisor II, Nursing
To make an appointment or view drop-in hours, please use this link<applewebdata://4FB830BA-39C6-4471-9711-3BF62E3AD08F/student.trellis.arizona.edu>

University of Arizona College of Nursing
Phone 520.626.3808 | nursing.arizona.edu<http://www.nursing.arizona.edu/>
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