I am in my second year of college, with an overall GPA of 3.95, and science GPA of 3.92. I am taking three science classes this year, biology, physics, and organic chemistry as well as GEs. My professor for ochem is insanely difficult and I will probably end up with a C in that class. The stress and anxiety from the class has caused me to get panic attacks and has taken a toll on my mental and emotional health. I know the material and I know if I had the chance to take it again I would get an A. I was wondering if I should take the C and lower my GPA or just withdraw. Thank you!
Adcomms aren’t going to care about one W so long as you are enrolled as a full time student. (i.e 15-16 credits/semester or 12 credits/quarter) after you drop the class.
Dropping below full time enrollment status may have other repercussions–like affecting your FA or y9ur ability to remain in the dorms.
This is alarming–and bad sign if you intend to pursue med school. Please get yourself to your college’s counseling center and get some in help learning how to manage your anxiety. Med school is a very fraught experience and if ochem is stressing you this severely, I guarantee med school will break you mentally & emotionally.
At typical quarter system schools, 15-16 credits per quarter are needed to graduate in 12 quarters or 4 academic years, requiring 180-192 credits. The minimum to be full time for financial aid purposes is 12 credits. However, a credit on the quarter system is equal to 2/3 of a credit on the semester system, because a quarter is 2/3 as long as a semester.
@WayOutWestMom thank you, I think it’s just my professor since we averaged a 20% on our second midterm! I ended up scoring a 60%, but it’s still not good enough since an A in our class is an 86%; he does not curve individual exams. : (
Does the prof renormalize the class curve at the end of the semester?
Some professors don’t curve individual exams, but wait until the end of semester to see how the class has done as a whole to adjust grades distributions.
I second what @WayOutWestMom said in the above post regarding grade distubution and curves at the end of the semester even though the actual test scores aren’t curved. My D had a couple of difficult classes where she had resigned to getting a B in the class, but then when grades came out she was pleasantly surprised to have received A grades. She ended up with only one B in all of her college grades which wasn’t even a pre-med pre-req class. If you see that your test scores are on the higher end of the class, the end result will most likely be an A. Check the comments on ratemyprofessor to see if the he/she curves at the end, or ask some students who have already taken the course. Then make your decision. One W won’t impact your med school chances though.
“we averaged a 20% on our second midterm! I ended up scoring a 60%,”
This actually sounds very good to me. I have heard of similar grade averages in premed organic chemistry as well as a few other premed classes. If you keep getting at least twice the average on your tests you probably should consider yourself to be doing very well indeed. I am pretty sure that there are lots of doctor’s whose first B- was on premed organic chemistry as an undergrad. One daughter referred to organic chemistry as the most difficult B- that she ever had in her life.