Grad students, have you ever withdrawn during your undergraduate career?

[UWjcw]

I am a sophomore CS student and is thinking whether I should withdraw from an online course I am taking and retake it on-campus, since the quality of the online course is terrible.

Edited March 16, 2018 by UWjcw

[GreenEyedTrombonist]

Hey @UWjcw,

If the course is truly terribly online, I don't see a reason why you couldn't withdraw. Just be prepared for it to be just as horrible (though maybe in different ways) in person. 

I had 3 Ws on my undergrad transcripts. I could explain away each one, but was never asked for either my MA or PhD apps.

P.S. Just noticed you posted this question in more than one area. That's generally frowned upon here, just as a heads up.

Edited March 16, 2018 by GreenEyedTrombonist
Added PS

[Adelaide9216]

Hum, personally, I have never withdrawn from a course in my undergraduate studies, even if those courses weren't the easiest ones. My GPA did went down a little bit (but still managed to graduate with Distinction at the end of my undergraduate degree), but I still showed up in class and did the work that I needed to do because I still felt like the material was relevant to what I wanted to study in graduate school. So motivation was there.

In the end, it's up to you, it all depends on how much effort you want to put into it and if you feel like this course is relevant to your career plans/goals. Also, I'd say, if you feel like you can adapt on your own is another thing to consider. Like this term, I have a course where the professor does a terrible job in terms of clarity of the course material and of assignments...but I try to rely on my classmates (thankfully, I am not in a competitive field) for support, I look for more info/guidance online and read the textbook and try to develop those strategies on my own because I realized that I can't rely on that professor to make me understand the course material.

Make sure you withdraw before the add/drop period though!

[AB121212]

I withdrew from two classes my sophomore year (got two permanent W marks on my transcript). I would have otherwise utterly tanked my GPA. I explained my reasons for it in my SOP. Obviously an allied health clinical doctorate is going to have different acceptance policies than a science or engineering PhD program, but it did not seem to affect me at all and no one has asked me about it.

I do think it will probably matter if the class is in your major. Both of mine were gen eds. But I don't know whether a terrible grade in your major is worse than a withdraw in your major.

[throwaway-cyberfish]

Not CS, but I got into a few STEM PhD programs despite part-time loads and gaps in my transcript (due to withdrawals, leave of absence). The classes I dropped were in my case quite relevant to my target program. Also would have tanked my GPA otherwise. If you can demonstrate research competence while maintaining a decent GPA, I'm sure that the adcoms will look past a W or 2.

[LegDayEvyDay]

1 hour ago, throwaway-cyberfish said:

If you can demonstrate research competence while maintaining a decent GPA, I'm sure that the adcoms will look past a W or 2.

That sounds right. I have two W is my undergrad transcript. It got to the point where the work load would have been too much. It would have dragged down my overall grade for the semester. 

Dispite that, I just got accepted into a STEM graduate program. My advisor was happy with my work and research experience during graduate work. It was enough to push be pass the waiting list. 

[UWjcw]

4 hours ago, GreenEyedTrombonist said:

Hey @UWjcw,

If the course is truly terribly online, I don't see a reason why you couldn't withdraw. Just be prepared for it to be just as horrible (though maybe in different ways) in person. 

I had 3 Ws on my undergrad transcripts. I could explain away each one, but was never asked for either my MA or PhD apps.

P.S. Just noticed you posted this question in more than one area. That's generally frowned upon here, just as a heads up.

Thank you for your answer

sorry I am new to the forum. I won’t do it again.

[TakeruK]

I can't think of any reason for a professor to think less of a student because they have a few Ws on their transcripts. I wouldn't even ask the student to explain it. If there's some recurring pattern or the same course with W's over and over again, that might be questioned though.

[GreenEyedTrombonist]

No worries @UWjcw. Welcome to the forum!

[TwirlingBlades]

I withdrew from a class first semester of my freshman year. Utterly horrible professor, made me cry multiple times, would've tanked my GPA (in the first semester, which is hard to recover from). I retook it later and did well. I also changed my major after that first semester, so that helped as well! No one has ever said anything about it.