<p>It's the second midterm and I feel I'm doing terrible in one of my classes, would it be better for me to drop it now or stick with it until the end of the quarter? How does dropping a class affect financial aid? </p>
<p>Also, what's the difference between dropping with a "W" and without a "W"? What does the "W" mean?</p>
<p>W is just the ‘grade’ you get when you withdraw from a class after week 4 - it doesn’t actually affect your gpa. dropping with a W means that your transcripts will show that you took and withdrew from the class. even if you retake the class in the future, the W will remain on your transcript. and you’re only allowed to take a W once for each course. dropping without a W (within the first four weeks) means that your records will have no indication that you ever took the course.</p>
<p>personally i think you should only withdraw from the class if you know you’re for sure going to get an F, because in pretty much every situation having a W on your transcript is better than having an F (but too many Ws obviously isn’t good either). also you’re allowed to retake a class for credit if you get a D+ or below, but your original grade will still appear on your transcript.</p>
<p>^ agreed.</p>
<p>If you’re doing average though, I’d recommend staying in the class and working hard till the end, cause classes are typically curved to ~C/C+/B- depending on what it is, and I’d much rather take that grade than a W.</p>
<p>If you don’t mind me asking, what class is this?</p>
<p>What’s so bad about a W? Wouldn’t it be better to have a W than to have a bad grade which pulls down your GPA?</p>
<p>W’s just look bad for law/med/other professional schools. definitely don’t want to rack those up. Personally though I think a W is better than a C.</p>
<p>For Professional Schools, they won’t give a **** for 1 or 2 W’s so use them WISELY if you must. Just as long as when you take that class again, you completely rock it. Also, anything is better than a C for medical School/ Law School etc. It’s a huge hit to your GPA and unless you can afford it, don’t let it drop you lower than a 3.5 overall and take the W.</p>