Really getting an F in an irrelevant course

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Captain Mushroom
Posts: 5
Joined: Sat Jan 13, 2018 3:22 am

Really getting an F in an irrelevant course

Post by Captain Mushroom » Fri May 01, 2020 7:06 pm

Hi all. I hope you are all safe and doing well in learning in any form(online or not). I have received an offer ( Master program ) from the University of Copenhagen and TUD. I prefer the former one at this moment. It is not the time to enjoy the excitement of a grad school offer from the place I was always dreaming of yet.

I think I am really failing a 400 level philosophy seminar. The professor was not actually teaching after the online teaching period started and I was not doing well on learning hardcore philosophy under the current situation. The school had a universal Pass-nonpass policy, and I am likely to not pass that philosophy class. It will not affect my graduation so that I can attend the grad program on time. The worry I have is that this F in a philosophy class (about Nietzsche who is very critical to natural science) affects my further application to a Ph.D. program in the future. I know that the AO of the Ph.D program will definitely consider this F...
Last edited by Captain Mushroom on Sat May 02, 2020 10:46 am, edited 2 times in total.

geekusprimus
Posts: 143
Joined: Sat Jun 08, 2019 1:10 pm

Re: Really getting an F in an irrelevant course

Post by geekusprimus » Fri May 01, 2020 7:54 pm

It matters a lot less than you think, actually. I attended a conference a little over a year ago and had a conversation with the associate dean of graduate education at UT Austin. He said something to the effect of, "If you're applying to graduate school in physics or math, I don't care if you got an F in French. I care what your grades in physics and math are."

Obviously this will differ from school to school, especially if they employ GPA cutoffs, but an F in philosophy isn't going to matter nearly as much as an F in quantum mechanics.

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Nishikata
Posts: 241
Joined: Sun Sep 23, 2018 6:37 am

Re: Really getting an F in an irrelevant course

Post by Nishikata » Sat May 02, 2020 12:21 am

some schools give F when the student withdraws from the class. Such admin policy sucks, but this time it may work in your favor.

If the class isn't over yet, you can make your intention to withdraw / "drop" from that class to the professor and the department in writing.
This way, even if you get an F for that class, you can explain it easily as a class that you drop on purpose.



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