<p>My son is currently a full time freshman at a major university. He has two classes he is doing very well in (3.7 /3.8), but his last class he is struggling in - maybe a 2.5 or a little higher. He is too late to withdraw from the class and cannot do a pass/fail so he is considering withdrawing from school for the whole quarter, in doing so he would not receive credit for any of the classes he is currently enrolled in. His only reason is because he is concerned that one class will lower his GPA and possibly affect his acceptance to graduate school in a few years. I cant convince him this is a poor idea. I believe he should work hard the remainder of the quarter be happy with the good grades he gets and if he is still unhappy with the one grade, retake the class this summer while it is still fresh in his mind. The school will average the grade of the first & repeated class. I also said he can at some point take a class (pickle ball? climbing?) or two that he could easily get high grades in order to boost his GPA. He beat me to the whole subject of money and has stated he will reimburse us for the lost quarter (tuition & housing), but I worry about how financial aid may be effected. He will talk to his professor about getting an incomplete in the class tomorrow. Id appreciate any advice.</p>
<p>I'm afraid that there is not much advice I can give you. I do think that you are very right on this matter, especially considering the fact that the school will average his current grade with the grade on a re-take. That means that GPA shouldn't be an issue since the final grade will be about a B or B+ if he does pretty well the next time. A 2.5 isn't poor for one class, either. It's a C+/B- grade. I don't see anything wrong with that for a tough class. In fact, I know many students who would celebrate for grades like that in their hardest classes. Try to encourage him to ask opinions from a pre-grad school advisor, his academic advisor, and his professor. I'm sure none of them will support his plan. Ask him what graduate schools will think if they see a random term off. Ask him whether they will actually care about a B-/C+ in a class during freshman year--many grad schools pay very little attention to first year grades. Ask him whether this is what he plans to do every time he gets a lower grade. </p>
<p>Hopefully talking with his professor will knock some sense into him! :) Professors want their students to succeed in the course. I'm hoping that the professor will be comforting and helpful. More than anything, try to get your son to ask opinions of advisors and upperclassmen.</p>
<p>I agree that it would be very bad to withdraw under the circumstances you describe. </p>
<p>I am disturbed, also, about how breezy your son is about the financial side of this matter. "I'll pay you back later" is, imo, unacceptable. Thousands of dollars going to waste because of a B-/C+? How does he know that he won't get another lowish grade at some point in his career, perhaps even next quarter? Perhaps every quarter? What if he decides that a B or B+ is reason to withdraw? How will he handle the inevitable setbacks that occur to everyone in life generally? </p>
<p>If my child absolutely refused, after kind discussion of the matter with us and with professors and advisors, to finish the quarter under these circumstances, I would want him to begin to see a mental health professional, and to take additional time off from school, during which time he would get a job. Before I sank thousands of additional dollars into my child's education, I would want to be satisfied that whatever is causing the desire to withdraw at a totally inappropriate time has been adequately reflected upon and addressed.</p>
<p>One grade his first year will not kill his chances of grad school. Two or three might not either. And your son could be wrong about his grade. Or he may change his mind about grad school.</p>
<p>Is he planning to quit the next quarter if he has one C then, too? And what message will THAT send?</p>
<p>Is it possible he's not telling you something? Is he perhaps not doing well in more than one course?</p>
<p>I cannot comment as a parent with a college age child yet. But as one late to parenthood, with lots of life's experience first, I think its a poor decision to "run" from the problem and withdraw. There may be other ramifications of w/d'ing as well. I think he needs to finish the class, finish the semester, take the grade and learn a lesson. It will have an impact, but not a HUGE impact on his final GPA in the end. He WILL have to explain why he withdrew for a semester, and he won't exactly be able to say why. I think he just has to speak with the prof, salvage the best he can from the semester, and move on. We can't always erase our mistakes. There comes a point in life that they can't be "eliminated" by withdrawing. And to loose the good grades in the other courses. </p>
<p>Just a bad idea. A typical idea from a college student, but you have to discuss the repercussions of doing this. I think it is an immature way to deal with the problem. I don't mean to be critical. College kids are still maturing, and this is all a learning experience for him. I think he has to take his lumps on this one. He'll pick himself up, its not an F mind you.</p>
<p>I think a C can be absorbed in his GPA, particularly since the other grades are so high and it is just his freshman year. How sad it would be to lose credit for those two classes that he has done so well in this term. I bet there are a few students who would love the B-/C and the subsequent credits. To withdraw seems like an expensive and time consuming method to deal with courses outside of his strengths. What if this happens again? I'm with you--summer school averaging looks like the best solution, but I'd be tempted to just leave it lay.</p>
<p>At the school I work at, if a student withdraws from a class, or all classes, after a certain date, grades are recorded as WF. Withdrawing at a late date from the whole semester would be recorded as WFs across the board. They go into the GPA as 0's.</p>
<p>If a student repeats the class, the new grade replaces the old, so the 0 would then be removed from the GPA. However, the WF(s) would remain on the transcript.</p>
<p>Colleges don't all work the same way, but I think your S needs to find out how the withdrawn semester would be transcripted. It could leave an image that would be difficult to overcome.</p>
<p>I agree overall that this is an unhealthy way to deal with one slightly lower grade (and believe me, we've seen lower around my house). In addition to thinking this is a bad idea, though, I caution that it may do more harm to his transcript than the grade he's trying to avoid would.</p>
<p>I went to a lecture about grad school admissions. If you have a bad grade, you just explain it in your essay. If you other grades are good, it's okay. Really. Graduate schools care most about research experience and the ability to work on long term projects (eg. thesis).</p>
<p>Thank you one & all for your responses. I just placed a call to my son and told him I had posted his situation and had rc'd responses. At his request I read each response to him. I believe it was helpful to him to hear the perspective of parents who are removed from the situation. You raised many questions that he will have to give further consideration to. I appreciate having heard from you.</p>
<p>There is another piece to this puzzle also. At most schools a student needs to complete a minimum number of credits to remain in good standing. If he withdraws from all his classes that may well have much more severe consequences like place him on probation or worse yet removed from the school. Frankly, it's hard to imagine how the consequences would not be much more severe than eating the C.</p>
<p>3togo </p>
<p>PS - I attended 2 top tier grad schools ... after "only" having a 2.98 undegrad GPA including C+, C, C-, D+, D, and D- grades on my undergrad transcript (all in my initial couple years) when I applied to these top schools ... a C is not a killer by any means</p>
<p>I can't improve on the wonderful advice given above. But I (also) can't escape the feeling that "something else is going on here." Withdraw from school because of one C that could be a B? When my D came down with a serious vision problem her Dean suggested she withdraw for the semester. Her response? "I am not going to withdraw now and lose the ten weeks I've suffered through. Not happening." A little quiet digging may be warranted IMHO.</p>
<p>My D had two C's this past semester. She worked hard, learned a lot and was very happy to have made C grades so she does not have to repeat those courses. We have grown used to severe grade inflation especially in our high schools. At many colleges C's or worse are fairly common. Some students are weeded out or change majors. The vast majority raise to the higher standards, do well, and are strong candidates for graduate school.</p>
<p>Something like that happend to me and i DID withdraw from the entire quarter, this was actually fall of 06. </p>
<p>But, unlike your S, i was set at getting poor grades in all 3 classes. Secondly i also changed majors... and i crossed all the T's and dotted my I's as well when it came to my explanation for withdraw--Something that come grad school time would play in my favor. </p>
<p>I made sure i had more than enough units to not go on probation.. which might happen.</p>
<p>Also, colleges are not going to just approve a withdraw due to "i might get a C"....... there has to be legitamate reasons and this does go into your permanent record.</p>
<p>Being a freshman he has an additional 3 years + summers to raise his gpa.</p>
<p>this is NOT going to be his first and only C or possible C, he needs to come to terms with that now, some courses will just be very difficult.... sometimes he will just not be that smart in that field. That is OK... Few people graduate with 4.0s ........ if he has 1 C freshman year or eve 1 D , in the end as long as the majority of his grades are good, he will do well.</p>
<p>I had to withdraw from all classes late in a semester one year due to a family crisis. I was getting an A in all of those classes at the time and the withdraw was approved by each teacher and therefore did not impact my GPA. But, all of those classes do show up on my transcript as a Withdraw. Graduate schools (and even some of my early jobs) looked at my entire transcript, not just the GPA, and definitely asked questions about the Withdraw. I can't imagine trying to explain the purpose was to avoid getting a C. That would be much more likely to kill the grad school or job acceptance than a low grade, in my opinion.</p>
<p>What field is your son studying? Depending on the field and the school, struggling in one (or two) classes each term may very well turn out to be the norm. My son was an excellent student in high school, with an A average and the occasional B+. He did his work, and never struggled. He was also an A student in his first two terms at college. Struggling in any academic class would have been a foreign concept to him. He then transferred to a tougher school. </p>
<p>Now he is in a tough major (EE) in a tough school (same as edad's D, I believe). He has struggled, really struggled, in one course each of the past two terms. His school and major is a seriously non-grade-inflation situation. He had a C+ in each of these "struggle" courses as his final grade. I cannot tell you how proud we are of him for these two C+s - prouder than we have been of any of his high A's in high school or college. Because he has learned so much in the process of getting these two grades, and shown so much of who he will be - someone who does not fold under pressure, someone who will find a way to face a tough situation and work his way through it. I have told him that this is a much more important life skill than the ability to ace a test. Any day.</p>
<p>Like, perhaps, your son, he has worried about his GPA. Who doesn't, I guess, in today's college/grad school/job environment? 3.0+ was never his standard before. 3.5+ was. He has altered his standards and I am glad. There are more ways to measure one's success - in school and in life - than the GPA. I measure his success by his ability to find ways to work through the struggle - studying longer hours, visiting prof ofc hours, seeking a new study group, in one case buying an alternate text that worked better for him than the one assigned. And, mostly, by his unwillingness to give up.</p>
<p>BTW, my son got a great summer internship in his field with his below 3.5 GPA. All is not lost.</p>
<p>OK, slightly dissenting opinion here. I agree that you need a clearer idea of what is going on. Is there more than one problem class? Are there other health or emotional problems?</p>
<p>How will this look on the transcript? As noted, depends on the rules of the college. If he can withdraw, and simply retake all his classes later with no negatives on his record, and he is in more trouble than you think, this could be the strategic move. </p>
<p>Depending on where he wants to go, and what kind of grad school, it might well have a strong effect on admissions. For many PhD programs, they are more interested in research potential than freshman grades, and one lousy grade will not matter at all. On the other hand, for admission to an elite medical school this could be a significant problem, particularly if the bad grade is in one of his required courses.</p>
<p>I've known professors who admitted that they screwed up grade wise freshman year. They now have PhD's.</p>
<p>Just a quick follow-up. My son stayed with the class and rc'd a good grade in the class. He was glad he didn't drop the quarter and has been able to laugh about the situation. The importance of a high GPA for grad school admission is very important to him so we may encounter something like this again. My other college student is not so driven.</p>