Taking the C or dropping with a W?

Hello I am currently taking Calculus and I believe I will receive a C in the class. The only way to get a B is if I ace all the tests and exams from now, which I don’t wanna take the chance. I’ve been working hard but my test scores still come out bad. Is it better to receive a W or a C in the class? My first semester at college I got 4 As n 1 B(which is in precal). I want to transfer to UCLA or UCB

@stress123 Personally, if I was in your situation I would drop with a W instead of receiving the C, but there’s a number of things one has to consider when making this decision. Obviously, if you simply want to pass the Calculus class and get it over with, a C is not super terrible. One C will not get you rejected from the UCs, but it might make you less competitive compared to an applicant who has only As and a few Bs. And if Calculus is one of your required major classes and you are in an impacted major, then taking the C will give your Major GPA a big hit, and Major GPA is one of the things that UCLA pays attention to. If this is your 1st semester of college, it wouldn’t be such a a bad idea to take the W and simply retake Calculus the next semester with a better professor and hopefully earn a B or an A. Plus, the UCs don’t necessarily view W’s in a negative way, and it’s pretty much expected now that admitted students will have a few W’s on their transcript. Also, keep in mind that if you desire to apply to Graduate or Professional schools after your Bachelors degree, all of your college grades including those from CC will be looked at and calculated for admissions purposes, so it’s better to have a few Ws instead of a few Cs if you are thinking of Grad school. Remember, if you drop with a W you can always retake the class and potentially get a better grade, but if you take the C you will not be able to retake the class since you already passed it, so that C will remain on your transcript and will pull your GPA down forever.

I encountered a similar situation last Fall when I realized I was most probably going to earn a B in one of my major prerequisite classes (I had straight A’s all throughout CC) so I decided to protect my 4.0 gpa and thus I dropped that class with a W, and I have no regrets about doing so.

w w w w w w w. I was in the same spot as you and I ended up failing calculus with an F. My GPA dropped by .3 and my TAG for uc davis fall 18 will be voided since I have an F and I am pretty sure a W would’ve kept the TAG active.