Withdrawal from a course in highschool

Hi! I am currently a Sophomore in highschool. I’m currently taking a Yearbook class where you basically just create the yearbook for the school. I recently (3 weeks into school) learned that the requirements and activities you had to attend are very strenuous, and I want to drop the class. BUT, I learned that yesterday was the last day I could drop the class, so now I have to withdraw and get a big fat W that colleges can see when I apply, according to my guidance counselor. I’ve never dropped or withdrawn from a class before. Yearbook is an elective as well, not academic. I want to withdraw because it’s starting to affect my schedule and my time for my other classes too much, and it’s giving me a ton of stress and work. Is it worth it to withdraw, though? My guidance counselor stated that it would be negative towards me when I try to apply for colleges, but right now that class is really draining me mentally. What should I do??

It’s fine. Drop it if you want. No harm.

I don’t think dropping yearbook will have an impact. It’s not like you are dropping an academic class or anything. This is more like dropping an activity.

Oh, okay, thank you. I was worried because Yearbook is an actual class, and my guidance counselor was making a huge deal about how colleges would see it and it isn’t good.Thank you.

Even if there is a negative impact from the W (and I’m not on the admissions committee so I can’t say 100% that there won’t be), the negative impact of your grades suffering because you’re stressing out about the yearbook or of your inability to actively participate in other extracurriculars that you care about or of you being exhausted all the time because yearbook is adding too much strain on your schedule will be much worse. It’s better to drop the class if it’s something you aren’t interested in and will be a burden on your schedule, especially since it’s not a core academic class.