GPA hit vs. Pass/Fail vs. W

[lowkeyy]

Looking for some advice. I am a sophomore in college taking a science course this semester - Physiology - that is not required for my major and is not a prereq for medical school since I completed two semesters of Bio last year. It is looking like I will be getting a B (hopefully) in the course. My current GPA is 3.84 and sGPA is 4.0. I'm trying to keep my sGPA as high as possible now because I will be taking some difficult upper level science courses required for my major (biochem) that will likely drop my GPA in the future. Since the current course isn't required, do you think I should:

- Withdraw and repeat it next semester
- Withdraw and never repeat it
- Take the class Pass/Fail
- Take the hit to my GPA and take the B (hopefully not a C)

Thanks for your advice.

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[LizzyM]

Science GPA of 4.0 with a W looks like protecting the GPA. Not a good look (could be a perfectionist).
Withdraw and never repeat it or withdraw and repeat. No one will care one way or the other.
In the scheme of things, out of at least 120 grade points you might earn this academic year (30 units X 4), losing 4 or even 8 of them is not huge (B rather than A is 4 grade points lost from a 4 credit course, a C is 8 grade points lost). On the other hand, it is a slightly bigger ding on your sGPA. It is also somewhat related to medical school curriculum but usually much lighter than med school physiology which does put your capacity to do well in medical school into question if anyone were to look that deeply into your transcript which many adcom members will not.

So, overall, I would suggest withdrawing and never repeat it. Move on, take something you'll enjoy and do well in.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

It's okay to take the B.

 

[atriablack]

I will be taking some difficult upper level science courses required for my major (biochem) that will likely drop my GPA in the future.

Don't risk the C. Also your cumulative gpa will fall. Withdraw and don't repeat.
Avoid taking any other Ws in the future. Try to balance out your course load better for future classes. Ask seniors about non-prereq classes that are notoriously hard (i.e. don't take that Philosophy class where half of the class get a C or the neuro class where the prof barely lectures and has insane exams)

 

[Goro]

Take the B.

 

[eigen]

Take the B.

I see students benefiting more from challenging themselves than protecting their GPA in the long run. You need to show you can succeed even in hard classes, and don't want the take-away message to be that you withdraw if you're doing less than perfect.

 

[chssoccer7]

Take the B, if for no other reason other than to get okay with not being perfect. You don't need a 4.0 to get into medical school and stressing over one is far more harmful to your mental health than being proud of your 3.9 or whatever you end up with.

 

[GoSpursGo]

The answer is definitely not withdraw. Even if not required for your major, you presumably need 120ish hours to graduate, so you would still need to take another course to make up for this later. While it seems straightforward to imagine that you will "take something easier" in the future that you can more easily get an A in (and that is probably true), there can be a bunch of unintended ripple effects that are somewhat hidden. Chiefly, that means you have an extra class distracting you later on when you are taking those upper division science courses and also possibly studying for the MCAT. Additionally, you've already sunk something close to ~100h into this class between attending lecture, lab, and studying--that is time you just lose if you withdraw now, plus the time that you will "save" over the course of the rest of the semester will probably not be optimally allocated.

The bottom line is that you can't think of your GPA in a vacuum, because the opportunity cost of the time you lose and the distractions you gain later in college is likely to be worse in the long run than just taking smaller hit to your GPA right now. For this reason, I almost never recommend people withdraw even with an isolated C.

There usually is a limit to how many P/F credits you're allowed to apply to your degree, so check with your school. If you can switch to P/F with essentially no repercussions, that might be a reasonable option. Just keep in mind that if you use that now you probably will have less opportunities to use it in the future.