Will a W at this point kill me?

[skah-uh]

So I've posted here before. 3.7-3.9 liberal arts BA from a UC, good work experience and extra-curricular work. No quantitative courses. I'm presently enrolled in stats and microecon. I'm doing well in both courses right now but I'm wondering what would happen if I dropped a course and took a W in order to create a little breathing room in my schedule. I'm afraid that if I don't, I may not pull an A in both courses. If, however, I withdraw from one course and take it again next quarter, I'll surely get an A in both. But then I might be able to land an A in both courses at the same time...

I just don't want an ad com to look at my transcript and think that I couldn't handle the rigor of two quantitative courses.

What do you think?

[Lisa Anderson]

Dear skah-uh,

I think you have to decide your risk tolerance on this one and if you think you can achieve the A in both classes or not. It is certainly not a deal breaker for business schools if you earn a B in a quant class. Obviously an A is best, but a B is still quite good.

If the course is interfering with your performance in all of your courses, then it might be worth considering a withdrawl as you don't want to bring down your overall GPA. A W is not going to be a deal breaker either. However, you should understand that many admissions folks will assume you withdrew from the class because you were failing it--not because you were making a B. In the big scheme of things, neither a W nor one B will have a large impact on your admissions decisions....but I would rather take the B and be done with the class then take the W and repeat it. That's just my two cents...

Good luck,
Lisa