Withdrawing from course

[yoyo17]

I'm currently a PhD student and I am enrolled in a summer class.  The problem is that on the first day, I realized that I won't have time to meet other obligations (research/teaching) while taking the class.  Also the class goes over advanced material that I'm currently not prepared for but with time I can easily handle.  It's just right now there's a lot on my plate. 

 

So I'm wondering what are the repercussions of withdrawing from the course and having a W on my transcript, preserved forever in my student record.  Is it really bad in terms of graduating from grad school? How do fellowship application comittees or employers look at a W?  What are the adverse consequences?  Need a decision, soon, only have until 7/8 to make final decision but would like to hear the bad things that might happen even if responses come late.  Thanks!

[Taeyers]

Two things: 

 

1. Really?? If you leave the course on day 1, you have to take a W? At my institution, you don't get a W on your transcript unless it's been 2 weeks since the class started, even for shorter summer courses. I have often dropped courses within the first week, and never saw anything on my transcript from that. Just make sure you've read your school's policies closely, because you might be stressing about a non-issue. 

 

2. I have 2 W's on my transcript, but it's from my undergrad years. Nonetheless, no one has ever brought up these grades to me at all, and I have a fancy shmancy internal fellowship. I can't speak to what would happen if you applied for external funding with a W from your grad school career, but it doesn't seem like it should be a kiss of death on any applications. 

[yoyo17]

Two things: 

 

1. Really?? If you leave the course on day 1, you have to take a W? At my institution, you don't get a W on your transcript unless it's been 2 weeks since the class started, even for shorter summer courses. I have often dropped courses within the first week, and never saw anything on my transcript from that. Just make sure you've read your school's policies closely, because you might be stressing about a non-issue. 

 

2. I have 2 W's on my transcript, but it's from my undergrad years. Nonetheless, no one has ever brought up these grades to me at all, and I have a fancy shmancy internal fellowship. I can't speak to what would happen if you applied for external funding with a W from your grad school career, but it doesn't seem like it should be a kiss of death on any applications. 

 

Yeah you can only avoid the W and get a full refund if you drop the class a couple days before class starts.  If I were to drop the class now, I would only get a 50% refund after the first 2 days.  thankfully I'm a TA so it was free for me.  Not so lucky for others.  Yeah my institution is pretty greedy, it's public too...

 

I'm just worried how a W might affect my chances for applying for external funding in particular but any other consequences would be much appreciated.

[TakeruK]

Policies for W vary so much between places. A friend went to a school like yoyo17's and also had to drop before classes start to avoid W. My undergrad allowed 3 weeks. My current school allows you to drop courses up to Week 8 (and the quarter is only 10 weeks long!!).

 

Because they vary so much, sometimes transcripts (the official ones, maybe not the unofficial one you can see online) contain an explanation of what the letters mean and the policies. If so, then maybe that is good enough. But if you are worried about it, you could consider writing (or asking a LOR writer to write) about your school's W policy.

 

However, I don't think Ws are that bad at all. The only concern a professor might have is that you were about to fail so you withdrew. But that would only be concerning if you had many of these Ws. Also, I don't think this will be an issue for you because there are lots of reasons to have a W, there's no reason for a prof to assume it was because you are failing. Just my opinion!

[Taeyers]

Sorry to hear your institutions's policies are so unfriendly... Sadly I can't offer any advice about W's and external funding, but I feel like your school wouldn't give out W's so easily if it had grave implications for their grad students' fellowship applications.

 

Considering that the alternative would be staying in the class and possibly facing outcomes like letting your research, or grades slip, I would probably withdraw anyway and hope for the best. Getting a C or neglecting your lab work for a whole summer seems worse than a W. I'd think showing good productivity and strong grades overall would greatly outweigh something so small on an application.