Dropping and Adding Courses

Not every course your student takes is a right fit for them. Therefore, during any academic term, students may drop some courses or add others to improve their schedule. Rest assured, dropping and adding courses isn’t always a bad idea.

Why Drop a Course?

There are several good reasons for dropping a course. For example, a student may be in the wrong level course. One of my students registered for a biology course for majors and didn’t know it. Clearly, she should have enrolled in the more general biology course to fulfill her lab science requirement. Dropping the first course made perfect sense.

Another good reason to drop a course is when the student sees a mismatch between themselves and their professor. There’s no need to assign place here: not every student can learn from every faculty member. One word of advice for the student who drops the course for this reason: if they decide to take the course at another time, they shouldn’t take it with the same professor.

Student may also drop courses when they’re so far behind that they just can’t catch up, regardless of the reason. They may also chose to drop a course when they know they won’t earn a high enough grade in the course to continue to the next one. In this situation, better to drop the course and take it in the future when they’re better prepared for it than to sink. But as  Karen Dentler notes, earning a C or B instead of the usual A is not a reason to drop or withdraw from a course without another reason.

When Not To Drop a Course

Mind you, there are times when students shouldn’t drop a course. The first is when they find themselves going below full-time status (if they’re full-time students). A large percentage of students receive financial aid, and remaining full-time allows them to receive the maximum aid. Full-time students are also eligible to live on campus and to participate in co-curricular activities, such as athletics. Should they become part-time students, they won’t be able to do that.

Another poor reason to drop a class is when the student changes their major or otherwise doesn’t think the course counts for their major or minor. Well, students take lots of courses that don’t count for their major or minor, but they do count as part of general education or and as part of the credits necessary for graduation. Dropping a course because it isn’t their first choice—when they could still pass it—is foolish, because it may require the student to overload or take summer courses later. This is an unnecessary expense most can’t afford.

Side Note: Dropping Versus Withdrawing

Dropping a course at most colleges means the course is removed from the transcript: it’s like they never took the course at all. This is only an option during the first part of the term. Withdrawing is the same process, only the student will receive grade of W on their transcript. You may hear all kinds of horror stories about Ws being looked upon badly by employers or graduate schools. But if the student has two or three over the course of four years, that’s not a big deal, though your student should be prepared to explain them. What grad schools and employers worry about is students who have Ws during every semester of college. If your student has a number of withdrawals, they should be prepared to explain them and also to explain that they have the ability to stick with things in a job or graduate school.

The Process

Perhaps the most important thing your student should do is make sure they follow the process for dropping and adding courses their school requires. For some schools, students can drop the course with a simple paper or online form. Done! Other schools may charge a fee to drop a course after a certain date. Encourage your student to follow the procedure exactly. The most important part of that process is the deadline. The last thing you want them to do is to be ready to drop or withdraw from a course, but find they have already missed the deadline. Finally, as the parent of a college student, be patient with them. They may make some errors in course selection and need to make schedule adjustments along the way. That’s all a part of them finding their way in college.