D or incomplete - which is better?

victor5555
Thu, 28 Jul 2011 20:48:51 +0000

This is definitely a dicey situation! What course of action will benefit you the most depends on a lot of factors.

If you are confident that you can “pull” at least a B trying to complete the course on your own with, say, help of tutors, lots of office hour visits etc., then taking the incomplete would be the better course of action in my opinion. (Of course, this also assumes that you have enough material - exams etc. left to be able to make up the grade).

Otherwise, taking the D and repeating would be better (BTW, UCs will see EVERYTHING regardless - and you have to list it, transferable or not). While having the D on the transcript by itself might have a slight “psychological negative impact”, when UCs evaluate your application it would not factor into your gpa or put you at any particular disadvantage per se. And if your major is not “math-related” (hard sciences, engineering etc.) then it probably wouldn’t matter at all.

Overall, I would say if your major, generally speaking, does not have anything to do with math take the D and repeat.