If you are in trouble in a course

Every semester, I have one or two students who stop attending and stop submitting papers, BUT they are still on the books as students. Because they are missing major papers, they end up failing the course.

This is not good for their GPA. It takes a lot of work to overcome an “F.”

What to do if you are sinking

Your first step should always be to discuss your problem with your course instructor. You may have some options to save your grade.
If the issue is that you simply weren’t prepared for the course, working with our tutoring center might be your best choice.
Before you make any major changes, discuss things with your academic advisor. Perhaps it would be wise to withdraw from the course. A “W” on your transcript doesn’t kill your GPA, and you are always free to try the course again at a later date.
- While you are in your academic advisor’s office, ask the question whether you are in the right major. If your problem is that you are burnt out because you realize you are in the wrong place, we have TONS of other academic options which might fit you far better.

Warnings about withdrawing

If you are on a scholarship which requires you to have a full-time course load, you should do your arithmetic very carefully before withdrawing from a course. If you drop below full-time, you could lose your scholarship.
If the course you are withdrawing from is part of a sequence, you could delay your whole academic progress if you drop a course.
The deadline for withdrawing from a course is November 15, 2022.

About that “Incomplete” grade

The Incomplete “I” grade is intended for students who were doing well until a last-minute emergency (hospitalization for example) prevented them from finishing the last bit of work. It’s not for students who just couldn’t get around to doing everything. Here are the rules:

The student must request it. The instructor cannot initiate this process.
The request must be approved by the instructor’s supervisors. There must be good reasons (beyond “I just couldn’t get it all done”) for the request—and I suggest some sort of documentation to help your case.
There’s a final due date for the work to be completed, and you will be informed of the date. If you don’t get the work finished by that date, the “I” grade becomes an “F”.

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