Hi guys! I'm currently a sophomore taking 16 credits. I'm doing my classes online this semester and have been struggling a bit with keeping up. My ochem class is completely online; we don't have lectures and my professor rarely uploads lecture videos to canvas so we literally have to teach ourselves the entire course. The average for every test we've had so far has been in the low 50s. I've gone to the class tutoring sessions, watched videos on YouTube, and even got a friend who has taken this professor before to tutor me but nothing helps. I scored higher than average on the first two tests, but I had so many tests before my third ochem test that I didn’t have as much time to study for it and I crashed and burned. Ever since then, I’ve felt very lost in the class and am considering withdrawing from it since I don’t think I’ll be able to get a good or even passing grade. This will be my first and hopefully only withdrawal. What would be better for me to do, take a low grade or withdraw and take the class again? And if you think I should withdraw, will it hurt my chances of getting into med school, especially since I’ll be at 12 credits if I drop? Any advice is appreciated!!
Should I drop ochem?
- Thread starter sasageyo
- Start date
- Joined
- Mar 14, 2019
- Messages
- 8,428
- Reaction score
- 9,784
One W will not kill you. Neither will one bad grade, especially in ochem, which happens to a lot of ultimately successful premeds. 12 credits is considered full time at most schools, so that's totally not an issue.
So just do whatever will work best for you. It sounds like you might benefit from a W and waiting until you can take the class live. Any single class will have a negligible impact on an application, so that concern should not drive your decision. Good luck!!!
Last edited:
D
deleted889094
Exactly this. I got a C+ in O chem. Now an M2. Slip ups happen, you just need a successful trend.
If you drop it won't kill your chances of medical school. The others are right in what they say regarding some premeds having lower grades in O-chem, but realistically I'd rather have a single "W" than a single "C" because the "W" isn't factored into the GPA. One semester at 12 credit hours wouldn't kill you under normal circumstances, but definitely wouldn't during Covid-19. If someone asks the reason for the withdrawal (very unlikely by the way), you can explain that there were difficulties with learning o-chem remotely during the pandemic and you wanted to wait for face to face classes to resume before retaking it.
- Joined
- Aug 15, 2018
- Messages
- 257
- Reaction score
- 602
I agree with the above: one poor grade or one W will not substantially hurt you. That said, prior to withdrawing, consider if you can adjust your own study habits to improve your performance (yes, this may be difficult and require dedication, but so does medical school) and whether or not dropping the class will actually help you in the long run. No point in dropping just to get a C when you take it again.
- Joined
- Apr 28, 2020
- Messages
- 3,581
- Reaction score
- 2,631
I'd drop it and consider spacing some non-science classes in along with your science classes next semester, to make things easier.
At my school we had something called WF ("withdraw fail") and WP ("withdraw pass"), which meant that a WF counts as a F if you drop after a certain deadline. Check with your school's website and maybe talk to someone in the counseling office to verify that this isn't the case, 'cause it may be past the deadline.
I checked w/AMCAS and WFs count as a F for their purposes. Not 100% sure about AACOMAS.
Good luck w/whatever you decide to do.
