Is A Withdrawal Bad For Colleges?!

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Okay
so I'm a senior
with stats of:
Name: Yi Jianlin (not my real name)
Residence: California
Status: U.S. Citizen, Immigrant from China
GPA: UW 3.97 W 4.50 UC GPA 4.68
Rank: 3/623
Eligible for ELC
APs: 3 on AP Bio, 5 ON AP USH, 5 ON AP WORLD
SAT Reasoning: 570 CR 620 M 640 W 10 Essay (hangover from night before)
SAT subjects: 660 US, 640 Math 2C
Taken most rigorous courseload offered at school.
Self-studied for AP World History
Senior Courseload is most rigorous at school.
AP STATS
AP CALC BC
AP Microeconomics
AP Govt
AP English Lit
AP Spanish Lang
AP Physics Mechanics</p>

<p>now onto ECs. Hopefully they're better.
Founder/President of Model United Nations (10, 11, 12) - raised over $5,000
NHS (9,10, 11,12) - member
CSF (9,10,11,12) - member
Link Crew Leader - (10, 11,12)
City's Board Committee (10, 11) - Helps make decisions for youth of the city
Senator's Campaign Intern: 150+ hours, lots of precinct walking
Basketball League - Guard
Library - tutors innercity youth (9, 10, 11) - 400+ hours
Attended Leadership Conference at UC Regents (10)
Attended Asian Leadership Conference in Sactown (11)
Member of Winning HS Academic Decathlon Team (11) School won 1st Place at County
Founder/Leader of Hip Hop Dance (9, 10, 11, 12) - performed at events
UC EAOP Program - (10, 11, 12)</p>

<p>Work Experience:
Macys' Sales Associate (9,10,11,12)</p>

<p>This Summer:
CA Golden Boys' State - High Office</p>

<p>UC COSMOS Program</p>

<p>Essays: I consider myself a strong writer. Will write a good essay. </p>

<p>Major: Political Science
Minor: East Asian Studies
Family Income: Below 10,000</p>

<p>and the thing is..
I have all A's right now
except AP CALCULUS
we don't have a teacher at all
instead we have an english guy
who tells us to read the book
and learn from it
and basically i am not doing so well in taht class
i have a B-/C+
and I really think it's going to continue to drop from then on
to a low C-
so the question is...
IS A WITHDRAWAL BAD?
i have mostly A's on my transcript, with only 1 B
how will a withdrawal hurt me?
PLEASE ANSWER!
i needa make a decision for tomorrow!!!</p>

2

<p>No, a withdrawl will not hurt you.</p>

3

<p>are you sure?
im scared
cuz im applyin to top colleges?
!</p>

4

<p>Yes, I'm sure. </p>

<p>What, you will have one withdrawl? I wouldn't worry about that.</p>

5

<p>please answer!</p>

6

<p>yes it will be my first withdrawal ever.
im just scared cuz i have all A's
and i dont want to make it seem
like i quit from teh class u know?</p>

7

<p>I would move to another math class if at possible, instead of dropping math entirely. Taking 4 years of math is very important to "top" colleges. Ask your guidance counselor if you can change classes, and tell him the reason for the request- the teacher is not an experienced math teacher [ if I'm reading your post correctly- that is the problem, right?]</p>

8

<p>well.
i HAVE AP STATISTICS already
and i have an A in that class
and i have A's in all my other ap classes
im just doing bad in calculus bc
because the teacher doesnt know calculus at all
so yeah.
how will universities view this?</p>

9

<p>it shouldn't be so bad.. they're not going to automatically reject you at all if you have one withdrawal in a class. Esp. if you have 2 math classes. However, they also might look at your semester grade (a projected C) and say, this person withdrew from a course because they thought it was "too hard." It's difficult to say... if you really want to drop the class, take a good substitute (i.e. academic elective that isn't food prep or jewelry) and it shouldn't be a problem at all. </p>

<p>Anyway, if you only have semester grades they won't even see your withdrawal until the end of the year reports (if you withdraw at semester) when you'll already have your acceptances in hand. In that case, they aren't going to revoke acceptance just because of one small withdrawal.</p>

10

<p>Make sure your HS doesn't penalize you for dropping this late. I think the transcript (which gets sent with your app) would show the class and grades for 1st marking period even if you drop it. I believe it might reflect poorly on you if you drop unless you can somehow show a valid reason for dropping it. Top schools do scrutinize your transcript and I think they would expect most top candidates to have taken Calc, esp if you're applying as a math or science major. </p>

<p>Our BC class includes AB & BC topics so it really moves along. Our AB class has all yr to cover just the AB topics. Can you possibly switch down to the AB level to work at a slower pace and cover less material? I would suggest getting a Calc tutor to help you. You don't need an A and with a tutor, you might be able to pull off a B. My son received an 88 (our HS gives numeric grades) most quarters in Calc BC and an 80 in AP Lit all year long and he was accepted to Yale, Brown, Duke and others. He was taking 6 AP classes at the time so maybe they took that into consideration.</p>