<p>Last year (Junior), I took Linear Algebra and Calc III at a community college and received As. In the summer, I signed up for Differential equations and then dropped it after a week. My community college transcript has a W for that class. I had not received any grades or taken any tests in the course yet. Part of the reason I chose to drop the class was that I missed the entire first week and had not fully caught up, and intended to miss the majority of Wednesdays for the rest of the course. The rest was that I had just finished Junior year and found myself unwilling to complete the necessary coursework. I do not intend to take any more academic courses at the college.</p>
<p>If anyone has any insights as to how this will affect my application, whether this should be addressed, and if so how, I would appreciate it.</p>
<p>If you drop within the drop date and file the correct paperwork this should not be on your transcript at all. So first check about removing it. Otherwise, I’m not sure. Some colleges might consider it equal to an F and others might ignore that. Maybe someone else will have a more informed comment.</p>
<p>I missed the drop date. I was only in the class for a week, but it was technically the second week of class because I did not attend for the first week (schedule conflict).</p>
<p>In the grand scheme of things, if everything else adds up, I really can’t imagine colleges holding a Withdrawal in DiffEq in between your junior and senior years of HS against you. Just explain the W on your Common App and you should be fine. It’s really all you can do at this point.</p>
<p>No one cares when you are sitting in class. The start is when the class starts, not when you stroll in. There is no ‘technical’ about it, you were in class for 2 weeks! If you are enrolled it is the start of the class till when you drop, you miss the drop date and it is now an ugly W. Geeze, if you are going to be a college student pay attention to these details to keep your record clean. People end up not graduating from taking these kinds of things so casually. Good luck.</p>
<p>See @MrMom62’s post.</p>
<p>Thanks all for the input. If I do choose to add an explanation, would that be just a separate sheet I include with my application? I couldn’t find anywhere on the Commonapp to address it.</p>
<p>The Common App is all online, so there is not a “separate sheet”. There is a place on the Common App called Additional Information, which would be the right place. I would caution you to carefully consider how you explain the W, though, and not use the version in your OP (“I found myself unwilling to complete the necessary coursework”).</p>
<p>Thank you. I missed that sub-tab somehow.
And yes, I’ll try to be a bit more tactful in the actual explanation.</p>