<p>I am considering withdrawing from school for the whole quarter. Basically, it'll be as if I didn't take any courses for Fall. There is a lot of work left for my classes and I just want to focus more on my research project.</p>
<p>The classes I'm taking now are useless and don't count towards my major (I changed majors).</p>
<p>Would grad schools care about this? I know I can do well in the rest of my academic career here. Thanks</p>
<p>Surely withdrawing for a quarter can't be any worse than me enrolling and doing nothing but intermediate ballet and TAing for credit :) </p>
<p>(had to stay enrolled to get my TA stipend, go figure ...)</p>
<p>I don't think you will be able to withdraw from school this late into fall quarter without having a valid reason (i.e. family tragedy, personal injury/unstability, etc.). </p>
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There is a lot of work left for my classes and I just want to focus more on my research project.
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<p>That is not a good enough reason.</p>
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Would grad schools care about this? I know I can do well in the rest of my academic career here. Thanks
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<p>I don't think grad schools will look at it too favorably. Regardless of the classes being for your new major or not. It shows immaturity and the inability to do course work and research.</p>
<p>I can't say for sure, but to me it's better than doing poorly on the courses (if in fact you would). My winter semester grades last year were MUCH lower than I'd like and I knew it was only going to get worse (I was caring for my mother who has cancer). I took this year off and just took some personal enrichment courses at the local community college. Will it be popular with grad schools, probably not; but I know my limits and felt it would be better to come back next summer with A's then to get two more semesters of B's and C's.</p>
<p>Is a quarter half of a semester? If that is the case, then I doubt it would be that big of a deal if you just have W's for one out of 16 or so quarters. You may find though, that you can't continue to work in your lab while not a student. Alternatively, maybe you could drop just one course and pick it back up when you feel more motivated.</p>
<p>A quarter is a bit more than half a semester. We have three quarters per academic year (and the summer is the fourth quarter) as opposed to two semesters.</p>
<p>1 of 12. This probably is no worse than having studied abroad for a semester. If you can fill this time productively then I wouldn't stress too much. If this is burnout, think long and hard about the possibility of burnout in grad school too. If this is about blowing off courses that don't really matter to devote more time to research, it's understandable.</p>
<p>burnout definitely plays a factor here, not to mention my mom needs me at home. but graduate school is different right? There aren't many classes, and for the most part it seems "self-paced." Am I wrong?</p>
<p>Umm...there are still deadlines, meetings, presentations, written papers, events to plan. You may only do courses for the first year and a half, but you will be doing lab presentations, journal clubs and the like throughout the whole time.</p>