I’m a first year at McGill University, and I’ve overwhelmed myself a bit. I took 15 credits and joined a Varsity sports team. My admission and financial aid have no link to the sport (I was a walk on), and I’ve already decided I won’t be coming back to the team next year because school needs to come first, but I made a commitment to finish out the season, and my grades aren’t bad, but I need to keep above a 3.7 to keep my scholarship, and I don’t know if I can do that with my current load.
I have one class that is sort of an elective, it’s somewhat related to my major but it isn’t part of the department or a major requirement, but to someone outside of the university, it could seem like it is. It won’t help me in terms of graduation, and it’s a ton of work, so I’m considering withdrawing (Add/Drop is over). It’s not that my grade is this class is particularly bad, but the amount of work I need to put into it, along with 30 hours a week plus traveling on weekends to competitions, is pulling focus away from classes that are related to my major, and making my grades worse there.
I plan to apply to some top US law schools and top US/Canadian grad schools, will I get a chance to explain the circumstances of the withdrawal if they care, and are these circumstances that would be considered reasonable to most schools?
I don’t want a withdrawal on my transcript, and I don’t want to only have 12 credits this semester, but I also don’t want my tuition to double, which it will if I lose the scholarship (not to mention that a lower GPA won’t look great to grad schools either, although its first semester, so I’d have time to bring it back up).
How serious are course withdrawals to grad school admissions officers?