I’m currently a senior and am waiting on college decisions, but I think I really want to drop a class. Last year when making my schedule I decided to pick up Creative Writing my second semester because I wanted to have the teacher who taught it and thought it would be an enjoyable class. Now though I’ve lost my one study while most kids in my grade are gaining a study. We have a new teacher, who is pregnant and leaving soon, and she doesn’t really seem to know how to teach the class. The class itself is really tiny and my one friend in it is already dropping. I really enjoyed my study and I just want to have it again, but I also don’t want to damage my applications and know I would have to contact everywhere I’ve applied/ have been accepted to. I also applied for film or communications to all my schools so I feel that creative writing is a positive towards that, but ah, I just don’t feel like I want to spend my time in this class. Would dropping possibly have a major impact on my decisions?
For context some of the places I applied to BC, BU, NYU, and Syracuse. Also, I’ve already been accepted to Elon, Fordham, and Penn State.
Maybe start by contacting the schools you have been accepted to and see if dropping the class would impact your admission decision. I would probably just keep the class.
dropping classes will hurt you in the following ways:
it will add to your overall taken courses. At my college you need to have passed 67% of the classes you taken in order to receive financial aid. - Keep dropping classes and it is hard to keep above that number.
you will not be able to take it off your transcript. An F - you can do academic renewals, a W (withdrawls, drops) you can’t use academic renewals - so they stay there - forever.
they will stay there FOREVER - they will haunt you, trust me.
@sherpa Well, if you think it could have a major impact I would stick with the class as much as I don’t want to. I understand that being accepted to colleges is more important than me spending half of a semester in Creative Writing. I’m just trying gauge whether or not I really have to do that.
@Ruskointhehouse As stated in the original post, the OP not considering dropping because he/she is in any danger of failing the class. He/she is just considering dropping an elective HS class second semester in order to have an extra free period.
I understand your dilemma and I believe you’re analyzing the pros and cons correctly. The problem is that there’s no way to know what impact this decision will have on your college acceptance outcomes; we can only guess.
If it were me, all I’d have to do is imagine an admissions committee choosing their final film studies student, and the choice coming down to @CathJR, who dropped Creative Writing, or another applicant who didn’t.
My child was accepted at a school not on your list. The school let them know that it considered any change in schedule a change in the application, making it subject to review. If everything else is fine, it probably wouldn’t be an issue though. But just thought I’d throw that in as an FYI. Good luck with senior year and your college selection!
@sherpa@TTG Okay thank you both for your input! I talked with the college counselor at my school and she does not think it will be a big deal, but I am still going to fully discuss this with my parents this weekend. Again, thank you!
It depends on the school. Some schools request midyear transcripts and if there is a schedule change they require students to explain why they dropped a course. Sounds like senioritis to me.
@ready2launch It really wasn’t senioritis. I did in the end decide to drop the class for several reasons. As I mentioned before I really was not enjoying the class. We weren’t doing much in it. For the most part we would sit and stare blankly. Other reasons I hadn’t mentioned were that I’m currently taking AP Studio Art which is taking up a lot of time and I also babysit every day after school. I was worried about managing my time and overloading on assignments. I personally don’t feel like it was senioritis. Yes, I wanted my study back, but it time I can spend working on other subjects and I find having the free time really helps my mentality during the days that I have the period. Also, when I talked to my college counselor I was told that I didn’t have to handle talking to any colleges, that when they send my midyear report they simply check a box if there have been any schedule changes and that’s all.
