Is Pass No Pass Academic Hazard?

Recently, WEMBA implemented a P/NP policy for elective courses in the 2nd year. Is this a Good Thing or not? The way it works is that up to 1 cu per term can be taken P/F. I was thinking about it and I think the spirit of the policy is a good thing overall. It allows us some additional flexibility in choosing electives or courses that we may have an interest in but may not choose to take for a grade. It also reduces competitiveness, which is also a good thing, as I think WEMBA is too grade focused with the switch to letter grades. However, you just have to be honest with yourself and not make it an academic hazard. The problem is that anything north of a D- is still a pass, which incents you to do the bare minimum if you choose this option. This potential academic hazard is doing yourself a disservice, akin to the moral hazard problem involved with insurance/risk management or certain types of executive compensation.

Some things to keep in mind are if you need the courses for a major. Some majors do not allow P/F units to count toward the major, such as finance.

Some advice for Class 33 and beyond:

• Starting in Term 4, there are two main sections, The Finance Section and The Marketing Section. I was one of those who was on the fence and sat in the beginning parts of both classes this term. I ended up in The Finance Section, which made me far worse off from a work perspective but better off (IMHO) from a learning perspective. Leading up to last week's International Finance midterm, I wasn't so sure if I made the right choice. But it was pretty fair so I am overall glad that I have taken the course, which has taught me a lot. If you like Abel's Macroeconomics class, you will like Bodnar's class.
• When you vote for your electives, make sure you get the requirements for majors and keep them in mind. We could have used them for our voting process, and I assert that we would have chosen different classes if we knew that.
• Keep in mind that the class pairings are what is key for the electives. It's still a great mystery of how they do it, but my guess is that they use Prof Bodnar's international finance concept of "you get screwed" when they run the LP. The optimization constraints must be to balance the number of students in each class, so that the most popular classes get paired against each other.
• Take a close look at the difficulty ratings and professor ratings for the classes offered. They will help you choose wisely.