Drop a course

[bobsykins]

I'm a mature student in second year. I'm stuggling with a difficult language course and am wondering if I can drop it without jepordizing my medical application. The semester is practically over so, if I do drop it, my record will show that I didn't have a full coarse load this semester. I'm not sure if that is a problem for medical school or not. Does anyone know?
Thanks.

[Octavius]

Can't confirm but it does look bad. At this point, my school (Waterloo) would assign it a grade of 32 and that will adversely affect your GPA. I don't know what your school's policy is. But if the policy is similiar you may be in ****.

[human instinct]

its cool here at UTM now...they have introduced a new withdrawal policy that allows you to withdraw from a messy mark on the last day of classes without having effect on your GPA and its not a petition...
Anyway i would suggest OP to check for possibility of your university policy on petitioning a course as I think that may be the only option to prevent a late dropped course from effecting your gpa....

[Paulhammer]

Here at U of C, when you withdraw from a class you get a W mark on your transcript, which is infinitely better than F. I did this with first year chemistry, retook it the next year and got an A!

[medaholic]

Having a no full-course load is a major no-no.

The only time to safely drop a course is if it's before the drop-date, so you get a withdrawn instead of a fail, AND that if you drop the course, you still maintain a full-course load.

[smm99]

Originally Posted by Paulhammer

Here at U of C, when you withdraw from a class you get a W mark on your transcript, which is infinitely better than F. I did this with first year chemistry, retook it the next year and got an A!

Just don't do too many of those, especially in later years... I would imagine that would look as bad as an F - "if I can't do well, I'll just quit" - not saying that's what you were doing, of course

Getting a W is definitely better, since, if you get an F and then retake the same course and get a better mark, they factor BOTH grades into your GPA!

[Paulhammer]

Originally Posted by smm99

Just don't do too many of those, especially in later years... I would imagine that would look as bad as an F - "if I can't do well, I'll just quit" - not saying that's what you were doing, of course

Getting a W is definitely better, since, if you get an F and then retake the same course and get a better mark, they factor BOTH grades into your GPA!

Yeah, it was just the one time, and was largely due to my parents getting divorced during that time - something I explained in my additional comments sections.

In my mind an F is as good as a void stamp on your application.

[Rach]

Originally Posted by bobsykins

I'm a mature student in second year. I'm stuggling with a difficult language course and am wondering if I can drop it without jepordizing my medical application. The semester is practically over so, if I do drop it, my record will show that I didn't have a full coarse load this semester. I'm not sure if that is a problem for medical school or not. Does anyone know?
Thanks.

Well if as a mature student you are working and not even taking a full course load, then it might have been OK ONLY if you are not past the drop date (here at U of Guelph the date was a few weeks ago and you get an F if you drop now). I dropped a class this semester but I was only taking 3 to begin with and am now at 2. Just upgrading courses though and have already completed a degree so my advice might not help you if you are doing the regular 5 course semesters for your degree.