Most of the time dropping things is not good. Dropping catches can cost you a game. Dropping a tray of food as a waiter/waitress can cost you your job. Dropping your phone can lead to weeks of miniature glass slivers in your fingers because you have a shattered screen on your phone. Accidentally dropping your flight ticket when you are late to catch a plane never ends well either. The point is, most people associate dropping things in a negative way.
In academics however dropped courses do not always need to have a negative connotation behind it. There are many times in talks with students where dropping a course is the right thing to do because the course is not going well, but there are many different strategy plays when thinking about dropping a course.
In this week’s article I’ll talk about what dropping a course really means according to your student transcript.
The first thing to know is that there are typically two different types of drops. A clear drop and a W-drop. A clear drop does not show up on your student account whereas a W-drop will. Basically, the W-drop means that you dropped the course after the clear drop deadline.
One quick thing to note about a W-drop: It can have an impact on your financial aid. If you are dropping below a full-time status, you may forego some or all of the cost of that course.
Dropping a course should ideally be done in the context of a large-scale graduation plan. If a student plans to take 15 credits every semester and graduate in four years, then one dropped class will mean picking up an extra summer or winter course to stay on track. It’s not the end of the world to drop a course, but you should plan out your next few semesters and see where you can fit the extra class in the future.
Drops do not always mean that you need to re-take that specific class. There are certain times within your major where you will need to get through a specific class, but if you are taking the course as a general education requirement or an elective course, you do not necessarily need to retake that specific class, rather you would need to make up a different class that covers that specific requirement.
Dropping does not mean that you would otherwise fail the course. Sure there are times where the first test goes poorly, but there are many cases where students take more classes than they can physically handle. Other times students will get a second or third job to help pay for school. College is expensive. I get it! In some cases, let’s call it what it is, LIFE just gets in the way of school, and that class becomes less of a priority. That’s OK. The university has a policy for these exact reasons.
It is good to know that students have up to four W-drops that they can use throughout their time at UW-Stevens Point. You get four separate chances to get out of your classes if they either aren’t right for you, or the timing isn’t right to take the course. If you fail to drop a course by the drop date, then you are stuck with the final outcome once the grade is posted. Hopefully that isn’t an F.
Dropping courses can be a difficult concept to grasp at first because nobody ever INTENDS to drop initially, but it is great to understand them and have them in your academic arsenal for future uses.
Thanks for reading. If anyone wants any specific questions answered, feel free to email them to me at mtrzebia@uwsp.edu.
– Max T –
Max Trzebiatowski ’13 is the advising director in the UW-Stevens Point School of Business and Economics. He can be contacted at 715-346-2695, mtrzebia@uwsp.edu or in CPS 100.