TL;DR – I am doing poorly in a community college class due to a difficult situation at home with my mentally-ill mother. Would a W look worse than a B-/C+ on a transfer application to highly selective four-year schools?
Not sure whether to post this in the transfer or community college forum, but here it goes:
I am a second-semester student at a community college, and plan to apply to several selective institutions for Fall 2018. I am getting back to my education after having had to drop out of high school due to a difficult home situation. Last semester I took 16 credits and worked 40 hours, and received a 3.8. Although by pure academic performance I should have received a 4.0, one of my professors dropped my grade from an A to a B after one too many absences. (My manager would call me into work at the last minute all the time and it was near-impossible to turn him down for various reasons.)
Our family’s financial situation is set to improve significantly this year, so I drastically reduced my hours to around 20 a week for this semester. I signed up for 19 credits, and am doing well in them, except for one. I have a fairly low grade in my public speaking class due to a missed test, and missed participation points.
The reason that I am doing so poorly in this class is because it’s in the morning. No, it’s not a case of me not wanting to get up early, but because my mother has some severe mental health issues, and I often end up having to drive her to her therapist, or her psychiatrist, or sometimes even inpatient psychiatric in the mornings. Her mental health issues have flared up dramatically in the past few months, and I’m an only child. My professors are understanding of what a significant burden this is on my personal/academic life, and have been pretty flexible with many of my assignments. Unfortunately, a missed test isn’t something that can be fixed.
Should I withdraw from this class and retake it next semester? I will probably be able to pull off a C+ or a B-, but after already receiving one B due to “extenuating circumstances”, I’m not sure I could explain another one to admissions officers. Sure, a withdrawal is something I’ll have to explain, too, but it also doesn’t speak for itself in the way that a letter grade might. Plus, a letter grade will lower my GPA, obviously. I know it seems very silly and petty to an extent, but my top choice is Penn, and I am applying for many competitive transfer scholarships, and I really do need to do my absolute best in order to escape the poor/turbulent home life I’ve had my whole life.
I am absolutely sure I will not need to withdraw again during my college career, and that I can get an A the next time I take this course. I’m making arrangements to stay with a friend of mine next year so that all this home BS (as harsh as that sounds) doesn’t affect my academics.