It seems once a senior clears the first semester hurdle, they think the rest of the year is downhill and colleges don’t care about what they do. Little could be further from the truth.
Many parents have contacted me seeking approval for their child to drop a course midyear. They are not sure if it is okay, but their high schooler has tried to convince them that colleges won’t see their grades and it doesn’t matter.
Colleges will not see their final grades before the admissions decision is made, but most colleges will request an end-of-year transcript and a dropped course will be noted and may raise concerns.
Guidance counselors, with good reason, are vehemently against dropping courses. Some schools even require parents and students to sign a letter acknowledging the risk they are taking related to college admission.
Some students try to get creative and suggest substituting an online course instead of the one offered at their high school and this too is not looked upon favorably. According to Brown University, “The very fact that they want to take it online instead will raise eyebrows. If they are taking it anyway, why don’t they just stay in class? If there is a scheduling conflict with another advanced course and the school endorses the change for that reason, then we’ll accept that, but if they are simply substituting an online option for an in-class option, we will be less understanding.”
Colleges look at the transcript as a predictor of future performance based on the rigor of the courses taken. If colleges find out that students have dropped classes after they were admitted, it could be considered grounds for revoking the offer of admission. The bait-and-switch plan of signing up for a rigorous course and then dropping it after first semester is not worth the risk.
I checked out what College Confidential ( www.collegeconfidential .com ) had to say. CC is a great Web site with an online forum where students and parents ask questions and share information. Here’s what I found:
Question: I’m thinking about dropping a course so that I could have more time to concentrate on my more important AP courses. Do you think that doing so will have adverse effects on my acceptances? Could they revoke my admissions offer?
Answer: It may. What might happen is that you may not be told you got rescinded for dropping until late fall, too late to do anything. A friend dropped a class senior year and was told not to come to college the week before she was to start classes. It took that long for Admissions to review her final high school transcript and then they yanked her, a cautionary tale.
Hi,
I’m a senior and I’ve been taking a class called Virginia Teachers for Tomorrow because I thought I wanted to be a teacher. I now realize that I do not want to be a teacher and we are barely in our home school for the class. We are out at other schools teaching and observing. We have multiple assignment that are requird to be done within every 9 weeks. I don’t feel like I can keep up with all the assignments and leson plans not being in the classroom. Should I drop the class or stay in it until graduation in June?
Call URI right away and see what they say. Fingers crossed they say you can drop it.
You’ll need to contact the school(s) you are most interested in and ask them exactly how they feel about you dropping the course. If you receive their “blessing” then drop it, otherwise, stay with it.
Hi i am taking 6 ap/honors this year and I want to drop my ap computer science course. i have until tomorrow to do this without it showing up as an F on my transcripts. i am a junior in high school. How bad would it look on college aps.
Also, I’m a senior and I had to drop a World Geography pace (booklet) in order to have time for the online calculus course.
Contact the colleges where you’ve been accepted and/or applied and ask them how they feel about it.
what happens if i’m trying to drop a full-year course at the end of one semester? So my grade for the first semester has already come out, and i can make a choice between completing it or dropping it. Will it be bad for me to quit?
Are you sure your high school will allow you to drop a year-long course mid-way? Quitting doesn’t look good, but neither does a very low grade. What would you be replacing that course with?
I am a junior in high school and I signed up for AP US history, AP English, and Honors Chemistry. They are all yearlong course and needless to say, I bit off more than I could actually chew. I finished off the first semester with a C+ in history, a B in english, and a B- in chemistry. Spring sports will be starting soon and my school has a 10 day rule before students can no longer change their schedules.
I’m thinking about dropping my chemistry class since I was originally only planning to take normal chemistry instead of honors. But due to the classes and electives I chose, there wasn’t enough leeway for me to change my classes. So I was put into honors chemistry and the school newspaper class. I’m not that great at math and chemistry involves math, so it’s kind of like I’m taking two math classes.
In shorter terms, I plan to focus more on my other AP classes so I can get a better grade and so I think dropping this class will benefit my GPA. I would really like it if you could tell me thoughts before I turn in the papers to switch classes. Keep in mind that the year before I took all normal classes and I’m used to having at least a 3.8+ GPA.
Thanks for listening to my concerns!
It really depends on what you will take instead of chemistry and where you will be applying to college. I can help more if you give me more details.
My D is going to get her first C+ in AP English Lit for Fall senior year. She applied only RDs. The rest of her midyear is (Physics Honor A, Japanese 3 A, AP Stat A-, Independent Study A-, Sociology Honor B+, Multi-variable Calculus B, AP Econ B-, AP Eng4 C+). Would this be a serious blow for her at Ivys and other top schools? She is intended an engineering major.
Not necessarily – but if the colleges don’t require her to send her first semester grades then, don’t send them.
So it’s 2nd semester senior year now and I dropped AP Spanish after taking it first semester and getting an A. I’ve been the perfect student throughout high school never getting an A-, but I’m kind of worrying about getting rescinded for dropping this class. I don’t think that it’s a big deal but IDK. And yes, other than dropping AP Spanish, I’ve been taking the hardest coursework. Also, I have applied to the highest top tier schools (HYP). Is it no big deal that I dropped this class?
Congrats on your performance thus far, however, I think it might have been risky. You’ll never know. If you don’t get accepted you could blame it on dropping the AP, but honestly, it’s just too tough. Did your applications ask that you inform the schools if you have dropped the class? Ask your school guidance counselor. If you need to inform them that you dropped the class, you’ll need to have a reason for dropping it. Obviously, it wasn’t your performance. Good luck. I’d love it if you kept me posted on what happens.
I do not plan on informing them of my dropping the class and am waiting for admission results. They will not know that I dropped this class by the time they make admission decisions.
It isn’t explicitly stated anywhere to inform them that I dropped it and I don’t want them to know I dropped the class before admissions. Also, I asked my guidance counselor before I dropped it and he didn’t think it was a big deal but I really don’t know. Also, I dropped the class because I had a schedule conflict and started taking it at like this separate school attached to mine but it was getting really annoying and stressful.
But they will know when they see your final transcript.
I am currently taking an Online Accounting course and want to drop it because I have been having issues with my internet. I have swim practice from 1:38 P.M. to 5:00 P.M. everyday and don’t find myself with enough time to go to the local library as I have more important courses to focus on. The Accounting course is not an A-G required course but a career class I had to take to graduate. I know have the credits to graduate and was wondering if UC schools would be okay with me dropping this course.
You’ll need to contact the specific UCs directly. Sorry I can’t be of much help – it really is on a case-by-case basis. Good luck.
I’m currently in gr 11 taking a gr 12 class that I was planning to drop since I’m actually failing the course. I spoke to my vice principal about this and he told me that he would take it off my transcript and according to him, it’d be like I never took it. Will they still see that even though he took it off my transcript? I’m not sure if its better to stay and fail or withdraw.
I’m currently a gr 11 student taking a gr 12 course that I’m failing, and after speaking to my vice principal, he said that he’d take it off my transcript. Would universities still see this? I’m not sure if its better to fail the course and to stay or to withdraw from it. Do they see my gr 12 marks in gr 11?
Pretty surprising that they would take it off your transcript. Get a copy of your transcript and get it confirmed.
I would also like to add it would be the only class I’ve ever dropped.
I’ve never finished out the year with a class average below a C and it was only Chemistry last year that I did really bad in.
Call the college admissions office and ask. Most selective schools wouldn’t be pleased with a curriculum with study halls and art, even if you have enough credits to graduate.