Should I withdraw from a class?

College Life
1

I am currently a freshman with sophomore standing at Georgia State University and I am transferring to University of Georgia (UGA) this fall.

Just this week I screwed up big time and missed an exam for my Psychology 2070 class and received a 0. I obviously don’t have a legitimate excuse for missing the exam except for maybe the fact that it was snowing and my car iced over (for Georgia, this is a big deal). Despite this, GSU was still open and therefore missing the exam was unexcused. We only have 3 more exams, and on the first exam I got a 94, so really the most my test average can be is 79 if I get 100s on the rest since tests count for 50%. He allows us to drop our lowest test grade, but that would only help me if we assume I do very well on the remaining 3 exams (which I cannot guarantee).

My question is, should I withdraw from this class now? I only have 5 more days to decide before W becomes WF… As for transferring to UGA, the admissions director told me that dropping a class would not affect my admission so long as I do well in my other classes and keep a strong GPA. The class I want to drop (Psych 2070) is also not transferrable to UGA anyway which convinced me even more to drop. I really only took this class so I could have more credit hours, but I’d still be a full time student and keep my scholarships without the class.

Thanks for any replies and advice!

2

He allows us to drop our lowest test grade, but that would only help me if we assume I do very well on the remaining 3 exams (which I cannot guarantee).

Well, anything’s better than a zero. I don’t see how this doesn’t solve your problem. Sounds great to me. You messed up and have a ready-made excuse.

3

I’m not affiliated with UGA, but in general: A single W won’t hurt you. A single WF will. A single F will hurt you in a massive way.

Now, if you already have a lot of Ws, then that presents a problematic pattern—but one or two withdrawals is simply a part of life as a student.

4

@bodangles Yeah, the grade replacement is one of the biggest reasons I would not withdraw from the class. I just feel awful because I already wasted my “get out of jail free” card so to speak.

@dfbdfb This is my first W and I’m assuming the number of withdrawals I am given restarts at UGA. I think one of the only impacts of having the W is that it will remain on my GSU transcript forever…

5

I would stay in the class. The practice of dropping the lowest test score was designed for situations like this (an inexcusable low grade).