Will withdrawing this course affect my chances for Grad School?

[Dawood]

Hi, I am in 6th Semester of Undergraduate in Computer Science at a university in Pakistan. My current GPA is 3.95 and I am at the top of my class. My goal is to get into a competitive graduate program in United States.

I am facing a difficult situation in this semester. I am taking a "Technical and Business Writing" course, and I have scored really bad in mid-term exam. I am thinking about withdrawing this class.

Now I have three options:

1. If I work hard on this course, I can secure an A- or A in it, but that will jeopardize my extracurricular research work, which I am doing for my research experience.

2. If I don't work that hard on it, and just go with the flow, I will get a B in it, which will affect my GPA.

3. I can withdraw this course and get a W in it. Then it will not count in GPA, and I will have to study it in my 7th or 8th semester. I believe that then I can get an A in it.

I have heard that withdrawals do not look good on a transcript. So what should I do?

 

[PsyDuck90]

One withdrawal doesn’t look that bad, and neither does a B. I would pick whichever option is the most appealing to you out of those. None of them will completely tank your chances of grad school admission.