Hello all,
Currently, I am a junior in high school. For the past several years I have managed to maintain a pretty shiny transcript. I have taken a fair amount of dual credit courses and an AP course, while maintaining a 4.0 GPA. However, I have bitten off a bit more than I can chew this semester. With my current schedule, I will be taking a fairly intensive dual credit course as an overload, meaning I will not have a period for it. With my current course load and extra curricular activities, I do not think I’ll be able to handle it. Furthermore, the course would be fairly redundant as the syllabus shows that I know a great portion of what will be taught in it. I currently still have time to drop it and take a “W” rather than an “F.” So my question is, how much would a “W” affect a 4.0 transcript? Would it alter my GPA at all? Will it affect my chances at getting accepted into colleges?
W >>>>F. A withdrawal just said that something came up that semester and you were not able to handle that class. I don’t think it will affect your GPA if you are not failing. If you have taken other dual credit and done well and this is the only W, then it won’t affect your college admissions. If you had a pattern of W’s, it might.
Also, for college terminology…The “Drop Period” is the first couple of weeks of class where you can drop or add a course and it doesn’t go on your transcript. After that there is a period where you can withdraw and get a W on your transcript. After that you are stuck with the grade.
When you get to college, you have to think more about when you take a W.
Will you still be a full time student?
When will you make up the credits?
But keeping a good GPA is important too.
My daughter had to go into the hospital a week last semester…she ended up Withdrawing from one of her classes so she could catch up in the others and still do well. She has AP credits so she won’t need to make up the credits, but will take the class this semester. She is still full time with withdrawing from the class.
Well most would like to think that if you “withdrawal” from a dual credit course it does not effect your college or high school GPA. However, my daughter was enrolled in a dual credit course and submitted a withdrawal because she had an 88 in the course and did not want a B on her transcript. (She was in a race for Valedictorian, which she won.)
The local school district (Spring ISD) pulled a policy out of the woodwork that says if you withdrawal from a course (including dual credit), the grade that you earned at the time of withdrawal is reflected on your high school transcript. This ultimately caused her to no longer have a 4.0 GPA in high school.
And to make matters worse, she did not even need credit for that course. She already had enough credits to graduate.