How bad do Withdrawals look on your transcript?

JaCkaL829

it was my first time...
For all you college people out there, I'm wondering how bad a "W", Withdrawal looks on your college transcript??? Reason I ask is I'm thinking about dropping my Spanish 2 class and just taking it in the summer. This is probably one of the worst semsters for me with 3 upper level classes for my major(Sociology) and an upper level requirement. I'm not lazy when it comes to school, but I do know my limits, and I really don't want to seriously jeopardize my entire GPA because of this extra class. I already have a "W" on my transcript from my first semster, I'm wondering if another one will make my transcript not look as great. I plan on going to grad school after I graduate, so thats why I have this concern. I have a hard enough time taking placement tests, that I don't need this to further increase my chances of not getting in. I would talk to my advisor but he was really rude to me the first time I met him, and I just prefer not to see him. Well any college alumni or students, let me hear your thoughs on my situations, I have about 5 days to drop this class. :dunno
 
A withdrawl will be better than harming your GPA. GPA is very easy to drop, but very hard to raise. At the University I went to, if you withdrew or dropped a class before a certain time, it would not hurt your GPA. You might want to check with the registrars office and see if that's the case in your situation. When I had my transcript sent to the university I am attending now for my graduate studies, the only thing the lady told me they were checking for was that all the pre-requisite classes had been taken and my GPA. Hope this helps.
 
Yeah, check with the registrar. It may only cost you the tuition for the class, and that is much better than gettting a failing grade or a grade that will bring you down.
 
I'm not concerned about the refund because I pay a flat fee because i'm full time. Its the fact that when I apply to grad school they will see 2 Ws and get a little cautious even though I have a good GPA.
 
When applying to further you education, whether it be medical/law/grad, the admissions person(s) interviewing you will ask why it is there. They have been around long enough to realize that you were either doing poorly in the class or were simply overwhelmed by a surprisingly heavy work load. I have one "W" on my transcript from freshman year when I tried to jump right into college and take 18 credits, needless to say that I found the work to be more than overbearing. About 6 weeks into the semester I decided that Intermediate Latin had to go and I was 3 weeks late of the final "drop" day. When asked why it was there at interviews I simply gave an honest answer saying that it was too much work too fast and the admissions people laughed and agreed, one even commended my trying to jump right into the experiance without any hesitation.
There is a difference between "dropping" a class and "withdrawing" from a class. A drop is usually during the first ~3 weeks where you may simply realize that the class is not what you originally expected and you can get rid of it without penalty, A withdrawl is an option when the semester is usually about half way over and your grade is suffering; a drop does not show up on transcript.
 
JaCkaL829 said:
Its the fact that when I apply to grad school they will see 2 Ws and get a little cautious even though I have a good GPA.

I wouldn't worry too much about that. Like I said earlier, they didn't really concern themselves with an withdrawls. At least that's what they told me.
 
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