<p>I received an early morning phone call from my son who is worried about school, his classes, work, and personal stuff in general. He's a junior this year and has carried an 18 credit load every semester since freshman year.</p>
<p>This is the first semester he has worked too so he's feeling the pressure of trying to balance everything at once.</p>
<p>He has one class that meets once a week and is having problems with it. He mentioned withdrawing from the class but at this late date it would show up on his transcript as a "W" and supposedly not effect his GPA.</p>
<p>What are the pros and cons to having a "W" on your transcript? I know he can turn this around but from our discussion, he feels that he may not be able to do so. Plus he's having other time related problems with two of his other classes and he feels this may be the best solution.</p>
<p>I don't have a problem with him withdrawing from this class, but is there something I'm missing? Looking for advice from the "been there, done that" crowd.</p>
<p>I would think one “W” wouldn’t make any difference to his getting a job. I did the same thing eons ago and no one cared. If he’s pre-med, then he has to explain it if asked during a med school interview.</p>
<p>with apologies up front to Oldfort, to whom I was a complete jerk and idiot the last time we had this conversation on CC, there seem to be a few schools of thought on this, but, in general, one W is seen as benign and explainable by all.</p>
<p>I don’t think w’s matter, but some think too many are a real problem going forward.</p>
<p>Considering your son’s circumstances, I don’t think it’ll affect him too much if he explains it to prospective employers. </p>
<p>Only negative effects I can see are its impact on LSDAS GPA calculations if he has law school plans as it will be factored in as an F. This applies even if the course is made up with a passing grade as both the W and passing grade are averaged in that calculation.</p>
<p>If your son could pull off a C or better, I would take that rather than a W. My D was doing very badly in one non major course. She thought about withdrawing, but was told it was better to get a grade. She worked her butt off to get a B.</p>
<p>He should check what the school rules are for Ws. For example, some schools limit you to one W a year. So, if you drop a hard class in the fall you won’t be able to drop anything in the spring.</p>
<p>As far as employers: IME I have never been asked about a W by an employer. After he gets his first job the transcript won’t matter any more (unless he goes into academia).</p>
<p>I withdrew from two courses in college, both times because I foolishly overloaded with multiple languages and lab courses that semester. I had no problems getting admitted to PhD programs. </p>
<p>It may have been a factor that my undergrad notes WP (withdraw passing) or WF (withdraw failing) on transcripts - not sure if all colleges do this.</p>
<p>Switching the course to pass/fail may be a solution if he doesn’t want to withdraw.</p>
<p>My transcript has a ton of Ws and even a few Fs. I was admitted to a number of graduate programs without any problems. One W is completely harmless.</p>
<p>I just went to the basement to check my UG transcript, because I didn’t remember if I had withdrawn from anything. I do have a few Ws on there. As I now recall, there were a few courses that were not essential to my program, and it became apparent early in the semester that they were either not my cup of tea, or that they would take too much time and effort away from my higher-priority courses.</p>
<p>I went on to become a lawyer. Nobody has ever asked me about it, and I got into several law schools, including my first choice.</p>
<p>I think WF (withdrew failing) is very different from W. I think a heavy credit load in other semesters, as I also had, shows the ability to move through a lot of material, and dispels any suspicion that a W reflects an inability to keep up.</p>
<p>FWIW, I graduated from UG and went through law school in the 1980s. I don’t know if things are different today, in terms of how the W is seen.</p>
<p>One W your junior year is not a big deal. But recent tightening of federal Financial Aid regulations for SAP, Sarisfactory Academic Progress, can mean too many Ws could be an issue. If the student has federal financial aid, then the student’s hours are 'frozen" at a certain point. At the end of the term, student must have earned 75% of those hours. Overall progress toward a degree, called Pace, has to be at 67% or greater. So if a student frequently withdraws from classes and the threshhold for either term hours completed or pace is not met, then there could be a SAP issue.</p>
<p>As long as the grade is W (official withdrawl), it is going to be harmless because these withdrawls are done by the deadline to officially withdraw from a course without penalty. </p>
<p>If the grade were a WU (unofficial withdrawl) or a WF (withdrawl failing), which are usually given as grades by the professor, these are punitive withdrawls and would be counted as an F on the transcript and the LSDAS.</p>
<p>I agree with college_query about SAP, but if this is the only class that he is dropping, it should not pose a problem with financial aid.</p>