Would you rather have a "W" or a "D/F"?

Student Lounge College Life
1

<p>I'm taking 5 classes right now. In 4 of them I have either a A or B. But there's a 5th class I'm really struggling in right now. My midterm grade is a 49% and even though she said she will scale the class, I am still well below average right now and am probably going to end up with at best a D in the class</p>

<p>Should I withdraw from the class and retake it in the fall or would you suck it up and finish the class even though you might fail? My GPA is really low right now and I want to keep up my A's/B's in the other 4 classes without having to worry about this class. Also, I'm going to be looking at an internship position soon and I wonder how an employee would view a W grade on my transcript.</p>

2

<p>Well at Purdue after a certain date (which already passed) a W will be considered a F when it comes to GPA. I would rather go with a W then a D/F since the GPA will go down no matter what but it would be a W instead of a D/F on the transcript.</p>

3

<p>I am pretty sure one or two Ws is no big deal.</p>

4

<p>as they say, w is for wisdom :)</p>

<p>but if you have time to put extra effort in the course, go to office hours, etc, it might help. office hours really helped me last semester when i was suffering in two courses. if you get to know a professor and ask them lots of questions, they might see that you are motivated.</p>

5

<p>^Why would it matter if they “knew you were motivated”?</p>

<p>You either get the answer right or you don’t, how much the techer likes you doesn’t matter… unless of course it is THAT kind of class.</p>

6

<p>Drop it! A few W throughout your college career won’t make any negative impact.</p>

7

<p>At my college a W doesn’t affect your GPA and as long as you don’t have too many it shouldn’t be a big deal. To be on the safe side talk to your advisor.</p>

8

<p>Well, if you withdraw while you’re failing a course, you could end up with a WF, which is generally treated as an F. You don’t want that.</p>

<p>However, if you withdraw while you’re passing, you’ll usually get a W, which is generally non-punitive. This is much, much better than a D or an F.</p>

<p>In short: make sure you don’t withdraw when you are failing a course. (And make sure to check with your adviser about your school’s policies – each school has its own.)</p>

9

<p>WF doesn’t exist at my school. It would just be a W. And I checked, the deadline at Clemson is March 18th so I can still withdraw.</p>

10

<p>Take the W</p>

11

<p>Remember that withdrawing from too many classes can make you ineligible for federal aid.</p>

12

<p>ohh one more thing, dropping this class would mean I would go from full-time student status to part-time student status (down to 11 credits)</p>

<p>Are there any negatives to this?</p>

13

<p>Check to make sure dropping below fulltime doesn’t affect your financial aid status…it usually does. In any case, it sounds like it would best to drop it if you’re having that much difficulty.</p>

14

<p>Is the class for your major and are you extremely scared of failing? If the class is some stupid GE that is irrelevant to your internship hopes just stick in it and try to get a C. If its a major class that is important you should take the W. A few W’s (2 or 3) dont hurt on a transcript. It’s not a big deal.</p>

15

<p>^Does it really not matter that much? I just found out that I was still enrolled in a class that I was sure I dropped at another community college. I have no proof that I dropped it and now I will receive a W on my transcripts. :(</p>

16

<p>Its probably best if the W’s occur towards the beginning of your college career and dont occur later on. Grad schools will see that as a positive trend. Just don’t take like 10 W’s, although my friend was telling me how someone they knew had 5 or 6 W’s and still got into a good grad school for math. </p>

<p>Dont worry too much.</p>

17

<p>Not a big deal to have a couple Ws.</p>