Withdrawing From a Course

<p>Early last semester (fall), I chose to switch my path in life. I was on track to become an Architectural Engineer, but eventually decided to abandon this path and pursue what I think is my true calling, and that of course is Medicine; it's something that I've been considering for a long time, it just took me awhile to work up the confidence to pursue it.</p>

<p>After I made this decision, I sent a professor in one of my AE classes an e-mail and asked if he'd recommend me dropping his class. It wasn't a particularly interesting class, and I was most likely going to end up with a B... it essentially states in the syllabus that an 80% is a good grade in the class. Normally I don't buy into things like "this is a gpa killer class," but I feel that the reason is because students that take it are already in the AE major, and thus grades are no longer of great concern... so I suppose the professor views the class as a sort of wake-up call?</p>

<p>Anyway, that's not the point. My professor responded and advised that I drop the course, and wished me luck on my new path. At my school, classes that are late dropped are given a WP (withdraw passing), WN (withdraw no grade), or WF (withdraw failing). I was told by my professor that I would receive a WP on my transcript, because I was in fact passing at the time--I simply was dropping the class because a) it no longer interested me, and I couldn't justify getting a B in a class that didn't fulfill any degree requirements whatsoever, b) it would allow me to focus on my other classes that did fulfill degree requirements, and c) it was a very early class and dropping it allowed me to sleep in a bit more twice a week. :)</p>

<p>Here's the problem. I've just received my semester grades; all very good, As and A-s. However, I received a WN for my AE course, because when I withdrew from the class, my grades disappeared (some professors use an online grading system at my school, my professor didn't realize they would disappear as soon as I withdrew). Because of this, he did not have my grades, thus the WN. I've e-mailed him about this, and I believe he is making an effort to find my grades so that he can address the problem, but he has stated that he doesn't feel there is much of a difference between a WN and a WP, as neither is a WF.</p>

<p>This is a bit long-winded, but here is my question. Would a WP (or a WN) on my transcript have an adverse affect on my chances at getting into medical school? Will a medical school admissions committee recognize that I simply dropped the course because I was no longer interested, as opposed to being forced to drop the course because I was failing?</p>

<p>This is the only smudge on my transcript; I'm currently sitting at a 3.84 cumulative in my second year of undergrad, and I hope to continue improving. I feel like I'm doing a pretty good job so far, and would hate to see it all go down the drain simply because I was told that dropping the class wouldn't affect my future attempts at med school.</p>

<p>If it is in fact a terrible thing to have dropped a class, what can I do to remedy the situation? I'm pretty sure my school has an appeal program, so I suppose I could try and get the WN removed from my transcript, but I'm not sure how successful I'd be.</p>

<p>Thanks in advance for any answers!</p>

<p>Hmm… am I not receiving replies because the answer to my question is obvious or was my question too detailed (drawn out)? I apologize regardless, but this is something that has been nagging at me for quite some time.</p>

<p>Basically 1 or 2 W’s don’t matter. Med schools probably won’t care why you dropped the class and won’t bother to guess the reason. Don’t worry about it.</p>

<p>Thank NCG, I appreciate your response!</p>

<p>1) 4 hours is not a very long time on this board. Especially when most people are on winter break. In the future, actually give your post time to mellow before pulling a “why won’t people answer me?” post.</p>

<p>2) I’m with your prof. You weren’t failing.</p>

<p>3) If you’re really worried about this in a couple years when going through interviews, you can bring it up then, and just mention what the class was and how it corresponded to your timeline of deciding to pursue medicine. You won’t be penalized.</p>