FAU gives students option of changing grades to pass/fail

As Florida Atlantic University has already announced that classes will continue to remain online throughout the Spring 2020 semester, an email was sent today to all students, professors, and other faculty on behalf of the Office of the Provost, that “students now have the option to change grading in most courses from letter grades to a Pass/Fail grade.”

According to the email, the pass/fail system will be available to undergraduate students, while satisfactory/unsatisfactory will be for graduate students. A letter grade of D minus or better would suffice as a pass for undergraduate courses and a letter grade of C or better would be satisfactory for graduate courses.

Despite the pass/fail option helping students who aren’t doing well in classes, it is important to note that the option could affect “professional school applications, such as for medical or graduate schools, or have other unforeseen consequences.,” as the email states. This is why the email suggests undergraduate students discuss the option with their professor of the class or their academic adviser and graduate students discuss with their program director or research supervisor.

On April 1, the university will show which degree programs allow the pass/fail option, as well as any restrictions the State of Florida could impose on statewide requirements. Then from April 8 – 22, students in the selected degree programs will have the option to complete a form online for the courses they wish to switch to the pass/fail grading option.

More information from FAU will be provided to students, professors, and other faculty on April 1.

About the Author

Justin Baronoff - Justin Baronoff is currently a junior at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, FL. He is pursuing a major in Multimedia Journalism, where he hopes to some day write for major news media publications, such as the New York Times, ESPN, or even Billboard Magazine. In high school, Justin wrote for his high school newspaper for three years where he was a staff reporter for the first two years before becoming the Sports Editor in his final year. At FAU during the first semester of his sophomore year, he began interning for isportsweb.com, where he wrote about and covered his favorite professional football team, the New York Jets, and his favorite professional basketball team, the New York Knicks. Then during his second semester of his sophomore year, he began writing for FAU's student newspaper, the University Press, as a contributing writer. Justin now serves a News Writer Intern for the Boca Raton Tribune.