Should I withdraw or not?

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of California - Berkeley
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<p>
[quote]
regardless if its summer or not a withdrew by petition does NOT look bad. its the overall GPA that matters most. do you really think an admissions officer would see a "withdrew by petition" and automatically look down upon this candidate. the answer is NO.
One withdrew by petition is okay, but if you have multiple withdrews by petition than it will look bad on your transcript.
if you really think getting atleast a B+ is too difficult than i suggest withdrawing. i have a friend in a similar situation and he withdrew from a course because he knew even getting a B+ was impossible.

[/quote]

The issue is resolved, but I think I should mention this.</p>

<p>One of my club advisors was a particularly avid alumni of Michigan and as a result, had U Michgan administrators and other officials come around from time to time to visit. I'm picking U Michigan to discuss in this matter because I've never talked to a Berkeley admissions officer that dealt with graduate admissions.</p>

<p>I talked their Director of Minority Admissions or whatever, but in any case, he did admissions generally for their graduate program.
When asked the question of whether withdrawal from a class looks bad, he paused for a long time and finally said roughly that it would not automatically disqualify you, but there would be some questions about your ability to assess difficulty and manage workload, your commitment to finish what you begin, and speculation about how poorly you might have done had you kept the class.</p>

<p>His advice was if it is avoidable, don't do it.</p>

<p>I don't know how you substantiated your claim, boston, but I have you give a differing opinion based on what I've heard from one of the people making such decisions on graduate admissions.</p>

<p>But on the topic, same as boston, congratulations, NeedAdvice.</p>

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<p>When you follow the deadline and drop classes by then, does that go on the transcript?</p>

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<p>Congrats, NeedAdvice!</p>

<p>unlimitedx, if you drop a class by the add/drop deadline, I"m pretty sure it's not on your transcript. Does that answer your question?</p>

<p>Allorion, I think different sorts of admissions councils (say, professional vs. graduate school, different disciplines of graduate school or fields of proefssional school) will see it differently, especially depending on what the class is, but certainly I could understand many viewing the situation as the graduate admissions person did. Like he said, avoid it if at all possible.</p>

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<p>Allorion--did he say anything about P/NP classes? I have taken a P/NP in a lower div of one my majors, as at the time I was not considering majoring in it. I'm not exactly sure how bad this looks...</p>

<p>Unlimited--Nope. </p>

<p>Thanks for the congrats guys.</p>

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<p>P/NP is so different. Minimize it, especially for law schools, but a few won't be a worry.</p>