<p>The title says it all. I'm not doing so well in a class. Maybe I can pull a B+, but if it turns out I did poorly on recent quiz and paper, at what grade should I just withdraw? I have a 3.8 GPA currently and don't want to screw up my GPA more.. Also, this isn't an important class (I was taking it to fulfill a distrib, it turned out to be full of majors and a terrible class). </p>
<p>How bad does 1 W look? It is better to just take the B? I'm thinking if it looks like I will get a B- or lower, I will drop, but what are your thoughts?</p>
<p>I think B is better than W. If you withdraw, will this be your first W? My instructor once said that employer doesn't really care if you have one W on your transcript, but if you have more than one, that's questionable.</p>
<p>Yeah, my 1st B. I don't expect to ever have to withdraw again though (obviously I don't know for sure) but I know I will do well in my major classes. it's just a series of unlucky events in a field I will never take again that could cause me get the B. My concern about that is that it is hard to return to a 3.8-3.9 with a B.</p>
<p>I don't understand this W business. At my university if you drop a course it just doesn't show up on your record. It doesn't say "withdrew" at all; it shows no record of ever having taking the course. How is it that when you guys drop something it says "withdrew"? Or is it because the add/drop date is over?</p>
<p>OP: A B isn't anything to be worried about. you would be a fool to consider taking a W.
A W usually means that you were failing the class and dropped it to avoid a D/F.</p>
<p>are you at Brown? hee. although def. not what I would call a "low ivy" plus there's no record if you wanna drop a class. and I know Penn and Cornell don't inflate. So I'm gonna guess you are at Dartmouth.</p>
<p>Most colleges record a "W" when a class is dropped anytime after the first week or two. If yours doesn't do this, it is the exception.</p>
<hr>
<p>As far as the question of when to drop, sometimes there are reasons unrelated to the work being performed that can cause someone to take a "W". It can be due to a mix up with knowing when a test was, or having a conflict.</p>
<p>For example, my son dropped a course where he was getting a B+, but missed the midterm completely due to not having the time recorded correctly. Thus, his grade would have been an "F" after the midterm would get added in. But the reason for not understanding the timing is because at his school, every person taking the class had to take the midterm on a Saturday morning at 8 AM regardless of when the class normally meets. (My son screwed up since he thought the midterm was at 10 AM on Saturday). </p>
<p>One of his friends found out that his sister got engaged and was being married that same day at a location that was 500 miles away, so he dropped the course (took a W) rather than miss his sister's wedding. </p>
<p>I also knew someone who meant to drop a course after two weeks (they had enrolled in 18 units with the express intent to drop one of the six classes they enrolled in and keep the other 5), but didn't get the withdrawal slip in until the third week--so the "W" was recorded on their transcript.</p>
<p>I always wonder about people that just assume that the person was doing D/F work in the class when they see a "W". Obviously, as indicated by the situations above, there are sometimes other reasons for taking a "W".</p>