How would withdrawing a subject in my last year affect my grad school application?

[madameclaws]

Hello,

I am currently a year away from graduating from my undergrad, and I am now in a pretty tight position with one of my classes.

I am in a proof-based Linear Algebra course and things are not going well. I have been failing this teacher's quizzes which are 25% of the grade and I recently got a 62 on the first exam which was curved to a low C, but this guy's grading policy is all over the place. The exams are worth 50% of the grade. I am considering dropping this course now before it affects my GPA on my transcript later.

Right now, I am past the dates to drop the class and have it erased from my record. If I do drop the class now, it will show up as an NC on my record. I only have one other NC which was from last year when I had to drop Proofs when my mother was in a car accident. I did retake proofs for a B that following Fall semester. My school has a last grade standing policy where if you take a class again and get a better score if you either did poorly or dropped, then that grade stands and the previous grade would go into a NC status. The NC though does not get erased from the transcript so I'm going to have a couple of classes that I have retaken for higher grades on that transcript as well.

I am just really worried now if it is better for me to get a low grade in a class (i.e. C or D) or to withdraw as far as graduate school applications so it does not hurt my current GPA. I have only started looking at graduate schools to apply to, and I know GPA is a hot button issue but I am worried that course completion is just as much of an issue as well.

Any advice someone out there could provide me would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!!!