What is a W the grade equivalent of?

[jwmd]

At what point should we drop a class? Is a W equivalent to, say, a C+? I am currently in a science course that I think is a prereq for many schools, and am not doing well- do med schools assume that a drop means that you were going to get a certain grade or lower? What if my current gpa is very close to a 4.0- is it better to have a W or a bad grade? I also had a light semester (but was busy with other things like work and family issues), so if I were to drop, I would have fewer than the full-time student hours..

Thanks ahead of time for the advice! Also, I know there are similar posts, but those were from several years ago and didn't seem to reach a consensus or determine just how bad a W is (equivalent grade)- hope it's ok for me to post this.

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[Goro]

A W is a W. It is NOT a grade.

Too many of them scattered about suggests that you're trying to protect your GPA, and this is not good. A W here and isn't going to hurt you, though.

 

[jwmd]

Thanks- I just read some posts that adcoms sometimes assume that a student will drop only if the grade will be a C or lower, so was worried about that. I have heard that getting one W or one C won't really hurt you in the long run, but wasn't sure which one was worse..

 

[doctorbob23]

W is way better than a bad grade. There is no equivalent. It's the lack of a grade

 

[Sjlucas15]

At what point should we drop a class? Is a W equivalent to, say, a C+? I am currently in a science course that I think is a prereq for many schools, and am not doing well- do med schools assume that a drop means that you were going to get a certain grade or lower? What if my current gpa is very close to a 4.0- is it better to have a W or a bad grade? I also had a light semester (but was busy with other things like work and family issues), so if I were to drop, I would have fewer than the full-time student hours..

Thanks ahead of time for the advice! Also, I know there are similar posts, but those were from several years ago and didn't seem to reach a consensus or determine just how bad a W is (equivalent grade)- hope it's ok for me to post this.

A W stands for Withdrawal, which means you withdrew from the class. I got a W on Calculus this semester and my advisor (head of the pre-medicine department) said it's completely okay to have SOME W's on your transcript. Just try to keep them to a minimum to show that you can grind out whatever problems might arise.