Is it possible to get an F in graduate school

[causalset]

First  of all, I am nowhere close to an F (plus I promise I won't get any C or D either), the reason I am asking this question is partly curiosity and partly because I want to see how to interpret B+ that I got last semester. If C is the lowest possible grade one can get in graduate school, this would essentially mean that the translation between graduate and undergraduate grades would be A --> A, A- -->B+, B+ --> B-, B --> C, B- --> D+, C+ --> D-, C --> F. But you see, in the course I got B+ on they were grading by the regular policy that 90% is an A, 80% is a B, 70% is a C, and so forth. So if C for a graduate class is truly equivalent to an F for undergraduate, do you really think they would give an F for 70%? I guess part of the reason they assigned grades this way in that course is that it was 5**/4** level course, meaning that it had both first year graduates in it and senior level undergraduates, and of course you have to grade all students on the same level. But in this case, wouldn't it be better to grade undergraduates easy than to grade graduates hard (I mean back when I was undergraduates I saw plenty of courses curved even to where 60% was an A, but I remember only one example of undergrad course where 90% was a C due to the opposite curve). 

Anyway, back to what I was going to ask. Even if you forget that course where I got B+, I still think its weird that graduate grades are compressed so that C is the lowest possible grade. I mean I understand the whole thing about "academic politeness", but if C is basically an equivalent to an F, how is it "polite" any more? Then you aren't talking about politeness but rather you are talking about blatant relabeling, which serves no purpose at all. Now, in order for it to be politeness, there should be some remote possibility of getting an F, even if it would be very hard to get an F. Which leads me to asking the following question: suppose there is a student who does absolutely no work at all, they haven't submitted a single homework, and skipped all the exams. Will they get an F or will they still get a C? 

And here is another interesting question. Back when I was an undergraduate, over a decade ago, I took a certain graduate level course, but I was struggling with that course so I made it into pass/not pass. Now, the way this stuff works is that graduate student has satisfactory/unsatisfactory, where B is satisfactory and C is unsatisfactory, while undergrad has pass/not pass where C is pass and D is not pass. An undergrad taking grad course would still have pass/not pass. Anyway, since my grade wasn't posted yet, I emailed the instructor asking what I got, and she told me I got C+. But, via the above explanation, C+ ended up being P on my transcript! Now, if I were to get a plain C, that would have been P as well. So if in graduate school one can get plain C by not doing any work at all, then an undergraduate can take a graduate class on pass/not pass basis, never show up, and get a P. Which is why it would make a lot more sense if someone had to do at least a minimal amount of work for a C and could get a D or F for if they don't do it. Which again leads me to the question I am trying to ask: is it possible to get a D or an F in graduate level course if you try super hard to fail, such as never show up? 

P.S. When I googled this thing I saw some people saying that it depends on department. Well I did my first Ph.D. in Physics and now I am getting second Ph.D. in Math. So the B+ I got was in math, but I got some Bs back when I did my physics one as well. As far as the C+ I got when I was undergraduate (which became P) was in the math class. So I would be curious to interpret grades in both of those departments. 

Edited January 8, 2017 by causalset

[TakeruK]

I am not 100% sure what you are asking. But yes, it is possible to get an F in graduate school. And yes, everything does depend on each department too. At my current school, there is no policies like you state. All grades from A+ to F are awarded. So if a student submits nothing, they will certainly get 0 on the course and get an F. There is no rule explicitly that says grades below B are considered failing grades. However, when the committee reviews your academic record, the expected performance is at least a B or B+ average.

At my previous schools, there were cutoffs. For a Masters student, the only possible grades are A+, A, A-, B+, B, B-, and F. For a PhD student, there is no B- grade. The significance of the grades are supposed to be A = "Excellent", B = "Very Good", C = "Satisfactory" and D = "Minimal Achievement". So, the reason for the cutoff at B is that grad students are expected to perform more than just "satisfactory" since we are supposed to have deep understanding of the material. You sometimes see this in undergraduate classes too. Some of my Physics classes had a B- minimum in order to count as a pre-req for a later class, but you'll still get credit for it towards the degree if you score a C+ for example. Having different requirements like this make sense because if that was your last E&M class, then passing it is enough, but if you want to take the next level, you need to do more than that class' minimal requirements to succeed in the next level.

In your case, I would interpret the B+ grade to be just slightly above the minimal expected knowledge that a graduate student is expected from the course. It means that you didn't excel at the material, but you do know what you need to know. In grad school, this is okay. Grad school is not only about doing well in courses and sometimes you need to prioritize your time and energy so that you excel in other areas that are more important. Having a lot of B+ grades could be a bad sign if the minimum grade to pass is a B though. If you are concerned about your progress, you should talk to your advisor or the academic officer for your department.

[jmillar]

At my school, grades A-F are given at the grad level, however grades C+ and below do not count towards the major. For us, these are considered failing and are also grounds to revoke TAships and other funding provided by the university. And, yes, there have been a handful given out in my associated departments in the last few years, including F's.

Edited January 8, 2017 by jmillar

[fuzzylogician]

16 hours ago, causalset said:

Which leads me to asking the following question: suppose there is a student who does absolutely no work at all, they haven't submitted a single homework, and skipped all the exams. Will they get an F or will they still get a C? 

Someone who did no work whatsoever would most likely get an F. That has little bearing on how you should interpret a B. No one here is going to be able to answer your questions for you. Grading policies are a part of a particular department's culture, and you should address your questions to your department. One option is to ask more advanced students how to interpret a B or a C, or if they know anything in particular about Prof X's grading policy. Another, more direct, option is to simply meet with the professor and ask them how to understand the grade that you go. And if you're interested -- what you should/could have done to get a better grade.