To drop, or not to drop?

To drop, or not to drop… that is the question!

About a week ago, I was seriously considering dropping a class. I haven't had to face this situation yet in my undergrad degree, so I was pretty stressed out about it! Students have until November 9th to decide whether they want to remove courses from their transcript entirely, or credit a course. As I’m sure some of you are in a similar boat, I thought I’d write about some of the things I considered when deciding whether or not to drop a course.

First, I considered whether dropping the course would affect my degree.

Especially because I’m in my fourth and final year of university, I have to be careful not to mess up my degree when dropping courses. So, I made sure to carefully read over the degree requirements for my programs. I also contacted the department administrator at one of my programs to ensure that dropping the course would not prevent me from graduation.

Second, I considered whether dropping the course would affect my future plans.

Certain graduate schools, like some law schools, view students negatively who’ve dropped lots of courses or taken less than a full-time course load per term. I definitely recommend looking into future schools and their requirements before dropping a course! However, given the amount of stress and time the course I was considering dropping was taking, I felt like dropping the course to preserve my average was more important than the negative perception of dropping a course.

Third, I considered how I would make up the credit.

Personally, I realized that to make up the credit I was dropping, I would have to take a full-time course load next term. I realized that my courses next term were actually quite challenging—because of this, I decided to not drop the course, which allows me to potentially drop a course next term when my course load will be a lot heavier. I’m super glad I considered the implications of making up the course next term before I dropped it! 

Finally, I considered whether the course was as bad as I thought.

Reflecting on the course, I realized that a lot of my feelings about the course were anxious, but not necessarily realistic. I realized that if I took advantage of drop-in sessions and online help for the course, I could alleviate some of my anxiety and negative feelings surrounding the course and be able to successfully complete it.

Have you been in the same boat as me? How did you decide whether or not to drop a course?