Hey guys I am a junior in high school and am taking many AP courses this year and I took more then I can chew off and have a “D” in AP Calculus AB, all my other grades are good except this one class (IDK why because I put so much effort into this class). I am thinking of removing myself from AB and just taking a “withdrawn” on my transcript rather than a “D” or a “C.” My question is how much will this affect college chances? I plan to take AP Calculus AB at some other place for credit and take the AP exam anyways. Am I screwed? Also for UC schools and other colleges do I have to list the “W” on my transcript?
A W is certainly better than a D, and probably better than a C.
So do you think my chances are severely hurt and do UCs see the W? Even if I take the same course somewhere else?
The W will be on your transcript, but it’s not the end of the world. You can even write a brief note in the supplemental essay section of the common app if it makes you feel more secure about it. Yours won’t be the only transcript wit ha W the UCs see, not by far. 
A W is better than a D on your transcript.
Withdrawn (W) branches out into two sections: Withdrawn/Pass (WP) and Withdrawn/Fail (WF). Difference is simple. Usually, if you drop out of a course with an F in the class, then you will get a WF. However, if you drop out without an F, then you will get a WP. Probably a W is either short for a WP or not showing whether it is WP or WF.
In my opinion, W is better than a D, but getting WP would have been lot better than W. As mentioned, WP just shows that you dropped out of a class without getting an F in class.
If you do not get why WP can be considered better than a D mark, then think of the official grading scale of SAT Math 2 Subject test. Note that the scores you get after getting five questions wrong and getting all right on the SAT Math 2 are the same (both 800). This means that colleges won’t know how exactly what you got number-wise (whether you got 45/50 or 50/50 or whatever), but they know that you just passed 81st percentile. Likewise, if you have a WP, then colleges will not know whether you dropped out of the class with an A, B, C or D, but they will know that you dropped out of the class withOUT an F, so you are treated the same as someone who dropped out of the class in the second quarter with an A, although logically it is unlikely that someone with an A will drop out unless for special reason.
Unfortunately, if you chose to drop out of a class before the first quarter ended, then the history of having taken the dropped-out class will not have shown on the report card. However, because you dropped out later, the withdrawn mark will appear.