Withdrawing from a general course ?

[NBAJam100]

I want the lowdown on withdraws before i make a decision here, I am hoping you guys can help me out.

I recently found out this semester that I am transferring next semester to a school where i will be commuting to. I will be taking summer courses and will of course need gas money to get there (its about 45 min away) and my summer job won't start until about 3 weeks into my class. I have a job at school, and if i dropped this course I would be able to work and earn more money so i can afford to drive to my summer course. I got my credit evaluation from my new school and although i would get credit for this course, it won't count for any requirement, it would just be an extra course. That being said, the course in question here is a general studies course. I don't consider this putting other priorities over academics, i consider it dropping a course because a.)its not essential to me graduating b.) This general course includes lots of basic math, which I am well versed in, so I am not learning much c.) those I am combination with the need for money to drive to my summer courses. So technically, this is advancing my knowledge indirectly by allowing me to take my summer course, which IS essential to my degree.

Do you consider that an acceptable reason to drop a course and receive a W?

I have earned mainly all A's and B's in my math/physics/science courses (i am an engineering physics major). If I am applying to graduate school and they see a W for a general course but all of my other grades are A's and B's within my major, will they take much notice? This course is however a general course in flight i guess you could say, and i would possibly want to major in aerospace engineering in grad school. Would that look bad? I just don't want anyone on a potential graduate committee getting the wrong idea and thinking that I dropped the course due to a potential failing grade.

 

[Pengwuino]

Withdraws carry no information as to what the reason for withdrawing was. For all the person reviewing your transcript knows, you could have been failing, you could have found out it wasn't required and didn't want to waste your time (perfectly acceptable), you could have been called off to inspect russian missile silos for the UN, whatever, they won't know and can't assume anything. Everyone has extenuating circumstances and that's what withdrawing from a class is there for.

 

[n!kofeyn]

Well some schools make a distinction between drops and withdrawals. Sometimes they even notate whether you just dropped the course or you dropped the course because you were failing. This would be something to check into with your current school.

When you transfer schools, they most likely will notate on your new transcript the courses that transfer, but leave everything else off from your old transcript. This means that the committee would see that that course was dropped prior to you switching schools, and depending on how long you've been in school, they may not even pay much attention to your first transcript.

I also don't think a graduate school committee should or would hold a drop against you, even if it is in a potential area of graduate school study. This is especially true since you are transferring and the course won't apply to your degree. In my opinion, not being stressed about money during your summer courses seems like it would help your studies. So dropping your course and earning money now looks beneficial to me.

 

[NBAJam100]

awesome, thanks a lot guys