Okay so I’ll start off with a little back story. I completed my first year of college at The University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and am now a student at San Diego Mesa College. I applied to a couple school for Fall 2016, even though I had a couple pre-reqs after this semester left, just to see if I could get it.
So far I have been accepted into Sac State, SDSU and Cal Poly SLO. I am waiting on a couple of UCs.
I am now in the position where I am not doing too well in Human Anatomy. It is 99.9% certain that I will receive a D, but more likely an F. I just completely underestimated the class, took on too much (20 credit hours), and had some personal stuff happen. I have strongly considered dropping and receiving a W because this at least will not effect my GPA. I have held on for as long as I can, but am now at the point where I can’t really bounce back because the grade in the class is only based off of 10 tests, no extra credit, nothing is dropped and nothing is curved.
I am worried that this is going to impact my acceptances to these schools. I am most interested in SDSU, because I live here, but Cal Poly is an awesome school. My major is Foods and Nutrition at SDSU and Nutrition at Cal Poly. The schools both have a C minimum requirement, so no matter what now my application is going to be evaluated.
Does anyone have any advice that has either been in this position, knows someone who has or has experience? I am thinking withdrawing is the best way to go so at least I keep my GPA, but am seeking any advice.
Also, I have considering sending in some sort of letter to admissions to explain my reasoning for what happened, will something like that help?
Thanks for any and all advice/opinions!
From my understanding, a W should not hurt you unless this is major class required to be completed this Spring. I would contact admissions at SLO just to confirm before dropping.
@Gumbymom I have contacted SDSU admissions, since I live here, and talked to my counselor. It is a major prep class, so it could effect me. From everyone I have talked to they have said it really depends on the year and how many students enroll, and they cannot give me direct advice because it’s all circumstantial. However, for SLO, it is a major prep for a concentration of applied Nutrition under Nutrition, and I did not declare any concentration, so maybe there it won’t effect me.
If SDSU states it could effect you, then more of a reason to contact SLO to make sure… Better safe than sorry.
@kpm2014 As far as I know, Nutrition is not the most impacted major at SDSU, so chances are you could be fine even if you dropped the class with a W. Before you drop, talk to your Human Anatomy professor one on one and try to explain the situation. Maybe there is something you could do to get a better grade, and you just don’t know about it? It never hurts to ask. If your professor is unwilling to help, then I strongly advise that you take a W. Life happens, people drop for numerous reasons, so W is explainable, while D or F is almost always viewed as a failure to comprehend the material.
@lenocturne Thanks for your advice. I did end up doing that and there were no extra points that could be offered. In order to skid by with the lowest C, I would have had to get a B on the rest of my tests. Which if I had been successful from the beginning might not have been a problem, but I just got too far behind. I will never take 20 credits at one time again! Otherwise, I currently have a cumulative 3.5 GPA, and will most likely get a 4.0 this semester without anatomy, so after hearing some input and taking to various counselors I am hopeful!
Hi i am in same situation as you, i was accepted to sdsu for food and nutrition and im doing bad in my microbiology class so probably i am going to drop it to get a W , but i dont know if it will affect my admissions, what your counselors said about it !?
@Anaisabelana Hi! I ended up dropping it to receive a W. After speaking with many people I cam to the conclusion that getting a W was better than getting a D or F. And I have a very high chance of getting a D. D’s and F’s are not allowed really what so ever, where W’s are more up in the air. Also, a D or F will bring down your GPA, whereas a W will not affect it.
Yes i will probably doing that , did you let sdsu know?