• CR/NCR,  late withdrawal

    CR/NCR, LWD, or just lie down and cry

    March 10, 2015

    Hi, right now I’m considering doing a course as CR/NCR and I’m in my 3rd year . I’m aware that my graduate school program of choice (sciences) looks at both your third year and fourth year marks. If I drop this course, I will have 1 course short of full course load, so I was wondering if having a Cr/NCR course on the tran script would be a bad idea, and if I should just drop it. This course is also a science course. Thanks!

    ———————————————

    hey there,

    the first thing you need to do is figure out if the graduate schools you’re looking at care if you’ve maintained a full course load in your third and fourth years. most grad schools don’t, though i know medical school is a real stickler about it.

    a CR/NCR is generally preferable to an LWD, since 1) you actually have a chance of getting the credit and 2) LWDs will usually impact any grad school application negatively. CR/NCR – not so much (as long as you pass the course, i mean).

    if you don’t think you’re gonna pass the course, an LWD might be a better idea. if you’re feeling really torn about it, a chat with your registrar’s office is never a bad idea.

    or you can just do what i do: don’t drop any of your courses, don’t sleep, cry, and get behind on your work in every class! whoo! trust me, it’s proven to work.

    good luck with whatever you decide,

    aska

    P.S. i know that some registrar’s offices are being a bit more lax about the CR/NCR deadline because of the strike, but if you do decide to CR/NCR it, i’d still recommend hightailing it to your registrar asap – just in case.

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  • late withdrawal,  UTSC

    UTSC LWD (we sure do love our acronyms)

    March 9, 2015

    I heard you’re the (wo)man to talk to.
    I just bombed two of my midterms horribly 🙁 and the deadline to drop courses has passed! As I just came off probation, I don’t want to mess up my GPA anymore — so I plan on using LWDS again (I have already used 1.0 of my 3.0 credits). So I tried to go on eService but it doesn’t show any of my courses! What’d I do wrong?! Is it because I still have a balance on my school account?
    On a side-note, while looking at some of your previous LWD-related answers, how bad do LWDs look on transcript (like in my case) for future employers? Would I still be hireable?

    ———————————————

    hey there,

    if the courses you want to LWD are S-section courses, then the request period doesn’t open until march 23rd. so that might be why.

    other than that, i can’t do much more than guess at reasons why you can’t see your courses – mostly because i’m not a utsc student and i didn’t know what eService was until i just looked it up to answer your question.

    if you’re thinking about LWD’ing a course, and especially if you’re just off probation, you should probably be talking to your registrar’s office before making this decision anyway. while you’re there, you can ask why you can’t see your courses online. it might be because of your financial account, or it might be an entirely different reason – i’m not sure. but you should for sure talk to someone about it.

    as to whether you’d still be hireable, that kind of depends on the job you’re gunning for. generally, LWDs are more of an issue for people applying to graduate/professional schools.

    if you’re applying for a job straight out of undergrad, your employer probably won’t even know what LWD means, if we’re being real. in either case, an LWD is not damning by any means.

    two LWDs are a little bit worse than one, but again, not the end of the world. but definitely do talk to your registrar about the specific implications of an LWD on the jobs you’re thinking of going after.

    cheers,

    aska

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  • academic offense,  late withdrawal

    LWD’ing an academic offence

    March 3, 2015

    Hello,

    I was wondering about the Late Withdrawal policy with an academic offense. In summary, I have been alleged of an academic misconduct during an exam, but it was nothing too serious like it was not cheating or hidden notes. It was because of possession of an unauthorized aid which was a cellphone, but it is still an offense. But I did not look at my phone at all during the whole time. Anyways, I might have to go through the very complicated process of meeting the prof, chairman of the department, dean and so on. So, I was wondering when I could be able to drop the course and place a withdrawal?

    Specifically, if the dean decides to punish me by like a 30% mark reduction on the exam, and I want to drop the course. Is that allowed? I heard that once you are caught with academic offense in a course, you no longer have the privilege to ask for a LWD. I mean, I know I did something bad by not following the rules and I regret so much by not putting the phone in my bag. But that is really going to impact my course grade and destroy my GPA…

    I know that if the Dean/Chairman decides that it is not an offense to them, then I would be allowed to easily drop the course with LWD, but I don’t know how it will go and what will be my fate.

    Thank you for your time,

    I hope someone could help me out and I feel so depressed from what happened to me this week.

    ———————————————

    hey there,

    you are not allowed to drop the course while the investigation of academic offence is happening – that includes late withdrawal. you are also not allowed to drop the course if they impose a sanction. unfortunately a 30% mark reduction is an example of a sanction, so no, you wouldn’t be able to LWD in that case.

    i know it’s tough to feel like a silly slip-up has cost you so much. no one likes to deal with an academic offence – literally no one. however, this is not the end of the academic road. i know it seems like a huge deal now, but you can recover from this (and so can your GPA).

    most importantly, there are people who can help you. i highly recommend you talk to your college registrar so that they can guide you through this process.

    best of luck with it,

    aska

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  • late withdrawal,  Transferring

    how much LWD is too much LWD

    November 10, 2014

    Hey Aska!
    I was wondering if you know how LWDs affect chances of transferring, for example, from UTSG to UTM, UTSC to UTSG or etc.
    Thanks!

    ———————————————

    hey there,

    LWDs aren’t particularly harmful all on their own. if you have had a reasonably good time at whatever uoft campus you’re at, and there’s an LWD somewhere on that transcript, that’s not a big deal. the important thing is that you have a competitive CGPA and AGPA, and you meet any program prerequisites.

    however, if you have a whole bunch of LWDs and your marks aren’t that great, then what that indicates is that you just generally haven’t been having a great time of it academically. if that’s the case, then yeah, your application might be affected.

    however, if that is the case, you can always write a letter explaining any extenuating circumstances relating to your academics to the university. as long as the extenuating circumstances aren’t, like, you preferred to play video games instead of do your assignments. the university doesn’t like that so much.

    cheers,

    aska

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  • admissions,  late withdrawal,  pharmacy

    LWDs are annoying as butt, aren’t they?

    December 5, 2013

    Hi,
    I am a first year student at UofT and I am troubled by the the LWD on my transcript. I did terrible on my midterm for chemistry(failed) and I decided to use drop the course with a LWD shown on my transcript. I am planning on taking the chem course again in the second semester. What I am worried about is if the LWD will affect my chances of applying to pharmacy school because it is one of their prerequisites? I know this question has been mentioned a lot but I am on edge of breaking down. I know I am only in first year but having one LWD on my transcript can break my chance of entering a professional school, especially pharmacy. I really do feel like I have ruined myself! Please tell me what I should do!

    ———————————————

    hey there,

    ok, so i’m just gonna get the bad news right out of the way first, like ripping off a bandaid: the LWD may have some impact on your admission to pharmacy. this website is the only one i’ve found that makes any mention of them, and this is what it has to say: “Any failed/repeated subjects, grades below class averages, history of withdrawal, ‘Credit’ designation, etc., may influence the final decision on the application.”

    now i know that seems bad on first glance, but let’s do some close-reading, shall we? So obviously any credit/no-credits, failed classes or bad marks will influence their decision, as they say, but one LWD doesn’t seem to be that significant. A “history of withdrawal” means that you’ve gotten multiple LWD’s, not just one. On top of that, they say “may influence the final decision,” “may” being the operative word.

    all in all, it seems like a pretty lukewarm statement to me: “if you’ve racked up a whole bunch of LWD’s, then we might have to start taking that into consideration” is not the same as “one late withdrawal and you’re no longer eligible.” so i wouldn’t worry. also, an LWD is oodles better than a failing mark, so you made the right choice.

    that said, the LWD won’t exactly work in your favour, so don’t just think you’re in the clear and keep going as you have before. now is the time to work twice as hard as you have been, get the best marks you can in the rest of your classes (and chem when you repeat it), and make sure not to get any more LWDs.

    so yeah, it’s not great, but you can totally recover from this. i have faith in you.

    good luck,

    aska

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  • late withdrawal

    the strange case of the lost LWD

    April 25, 2013

    hi

    i wanted to drop my course but since i forgot to do it before the deadline, i had to go with LWD.

    my final grades for some of the courses are already up on ROSI . But the marks for the course for which i did LWD is also up without mentioning anywhere on the transcript that i went with late withdrawal. does this mean that my LWD was not accepted ?

    ?????????

    Yo!

    Whether or not your late withdrawal was accepted is something you SHOULD know? Did you not have to go to a meeting or fill out any paperwork for it?

    But yeah, if you were allowed one, there should be a LWD on your transcript in place of a grade.

    Bottom line is that you?re going to have to head over to your college registrar. If you went through with the proper procedure to get a late withdrawal, there will be note of it on your student record, so if it was approved, they should be able to fix things for you!

    xoxo,

    aska

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  • late withdrawal

    on being late and having to wait

    March 28, 2013

    Hey Aska

    I have a few questions!

    I’m a first year student and I’ve already failed one course and am about to fail another – Psychology for which I plan to apply for late withdrawal for. How does late withdrawal work? My reason for almost failing my Psych is that I had a PoliSci paper due the same day and I was sick all that? week so I couldn’t study. Do I have any chance of being granted late withdrawal from the course?

    Also, I wanted to declare a double major in Health Studies and Poli Sci for the first request period but I don’t think I can since I probably won’t have 4 credits by the end of the school year. The thing is, the second request period ends pretty late…like past the time of course selection. So even if I do get in to the Subject Posts, won’t I be waitlisted for all my courses anyway? Help!!! I don’t wanna be kicked out because of my poor course selection the first time around.

    Thanks for answering!!

    ?????????

    Yo!

    Simply put, a Late Withdrawal is what you get on your transcript when you decide to withdraw from a course after the drop date. What happens is that the course you withdrew from will still appear on your transcript, but beside it you’ll have a little “LWD” instead of something like a “42.”

    To get approved for this, you’ll have to make an appointment with your college registrar and appeal to their kindness so do that as soon as possible because appointments can be a pain to get!

    Now for your situation — if you’re actually failing, then yeah, you’ll probably be granted a LWD. If your situation is just a matter of really poor time management skills and you still have some things to hand in within the next few days, what you might just need is a well-written letter to your prof begging for an extension on x assignment and explaining why you deserve one.

    And as for getting into your POSts, yes, you’re going to have to wait until the second round to enroll into Health Studies and Poli Sci. Students are required to enroll in the session after they complete 4.0 FCE.

    But for the Poli Sci courses, you won’t actually have to face that many restrictions. Have you checked out the timetable yet? This is for 2012-2013, yes, but they don’t change that much and there are actually plenty of 200-level POL courses that don’t have restrictions like POL200Y (which you need for the major, be-tea-dubs) and POL201Y. So while you will have to wait around for entry into your Health Studies courses, you can at least fill up on Poli Sci. 🙂

    Cheers!

    aska

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  • late withdrawal

    just another question about lwds

    March 27, 2013

    Hello Aska! So I’m in a bit of a dilemma here, and I thought, who else would be the best to answer the question but ASKA!

    So, I’m just ending my first year, and I feel like I’ve been doing okay…there is just one course that’s really giving me some trouble. It’s a full year course, and I haven’t been getting the best marks in it. I can’t calculate my average now because the marks are arranged so weirdly :/ I’m considering a late withdrawal. Here are the questions I have:

    1) At what point should I actually consider LWD being a good idea? In your personal opinion, at what point do you think it’s okay to say, “Oh, maybe I should LWD this?”, and when should I just try to plow through the rest of the course?

    2) Do the pros overweigh the cons in the long run? I mean I’m only in first year…. the only problem is that I’d have to make up the credit in summer school… money money money.

    My more important question is the first one. I’m struggling with whether my situation is really deep enough to LWD. I’m really afraid for the final exam, I don’t even know what I’m getting in the course because the marks are spread out so weirdly, and I really don’t want to risk a GPA hit. Help?

    Sincerely,
    Eternally Stressed

    ?????????

    Eternally Stressed,

    A LWD is a good idea when you’re failing/think you’re going to fail, but if you just “haven’t been getting the best marks” — as in you’re getting a B when you want an A — your request for one probably won’t be granted. So personally, I don’t really recommend a LWD if you’re not actually on the brink of a 50. Especially since it’s a Y course since that would be the greatest waste of time, and, as you point out, money.

    Now a LWD isn’t really something I’d reduce to pros and cons. Like if you’re failing, you’re failing. That’s quite the wake up call to ask to get out, don’t you think? And that doesn’t necessarily mean you have to spend money on summer school — although it might be the best choice if you do get a LWD. The only perk about the flat fees is that while the person taking 4.0 courses pays as much as person taking 5.0, they also pay as much as the one take 6.0 courses! 🙂

    But if you still don’t feel confident, make an appointment with your registrar ASAP because they’re the ones who get to decide if you get a LWD or not.

    Cheers!

    aska

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  • late withdrawal

    third time’s the charm! usually…

    March 19, 2013

    Hi there I was hoping for some advice regarding late withdrawals.? I am in my 4 the year and have a tough year due to many factors. I was forced to
    late withdraw 2 courses last semester and now I am at the risk of getting a. Low mark in an elective course which will bring down a GPA I am trying to build.I will be applying for withdrawal without penalty but am not sure if that will be granted. I will be coming back an extra semester and then plan on applying to post grad so I’m wondering how bad will a third LWD look on my transcript! Is it worth it? Such a hard decision! Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

    ?????????

    Yo!

    Will a third LWD look bad on your transcript for grad school? Okay. Well. See, my opinion is that any LWD would look back on your transcript for grad school. Yeah, sometimes there are some inescapable circumstances that get in the way of, you know, doing well, but the fact that it’s happened multiple times reflects quite poorly on things like your work ethic and deductive reasoning. If you knew you were doing poorly in a course — especially an elective — you could have made it CR/NCR for example. So if you do apply to grad schools, you should definitely include a little tidbit explaining all the LWDs of this year.

    But since you’re coming back for another semester, there’s no harm in appealing to your registrar for a LWD and taking something else. 🙂 It would probably be the better option. And again, since it’s just an elective, you can probably just make it a CR/NCR and avoid hurting your CGPA at all.

    Cheers!

    aska

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  • late withdrawal

    but what of the punctuation?!

    December 13, 2012

    hi..the school health centre suggested that i withdraw form my courses due to the level of my sickness but then i will have to do summer school if i withdraw how bad will it be?

    ?????????

    Hey there!

    Alas, we arrive at the classic case of the vague “it”!

    Note: profs hate that. Likewise, it kind of sort of really irks aska.

    Now your confusing question can take multiple scenerios based on multiple factors that are important for contextualizing.

    • If this is an F course, you can no longer do a late withdrawal. The last day for that was December 5.
    • If this is a Y course, you have until February 18 for a late withdrawal.
    • If by “it” you mean “life” in your question of “how bad will it be?” then, well, it’ll suck to waste some money I suppose, but it will also suck if you demolish your CGPA.
    • If by “it” you mean “summer school” then no worries, summer school is kind of a breeze — granted, that totally depends on the person taking it and their capacity to remain disciplined.

    kind of confused,
    aska

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  • late withdrawal,  UTM

    a little late for a late withdrawal

    December 13, 2012

    Helloo,
    I’m currently a second year student at UTM and am hoping to get into criminology in April. This semester I all of a sudden thought I was some sort of scholar and took 6 courses!! With a job and other hobbies it was really hard for me to keep up with my courses. I started to panic because I also happen to be on academic probation. Yikes! Anyways, i ended up dropping a course and now I’m pretty sure I’m failing another one, however I can’t afford to because I need to bring up my GPA. Even though the exam for this failing course is a few days away I’m considering doing a late withdrawal. My question is, should I do a LWD to avoid my GPA dropping and just enrol in the same course again next semester? I was planning on doing that considering they also offer it next semester. I know my money is basically lost however sometimes you gotta do watchya gotta do. I just need a little bit of advice. Please and thank you 🙂
    all the best!!

    ———————————————

    Hey hey!

    Okay so I checked the calender and apparently the last day for a late withdrawal at UTM was December 3… Had you sent me this message a few weeks ago, I definitely would have recommended doing the dropping-and-retaking thing if you felt really badly about the course. Alas, we are at a standstill.

    Right now, the most you can do is study, study, oh, and maybe do a bit more studying — and of course take a few breaks here and there! Since a late withdrawal is no longer an option and you actually will have to finish the course by writing the exam, maybe try taking a few days off and ease away from the time-consuming hobbies to concentrate. The only other thing to do would be deferring your exams but I highly doubt that would be allowed, so study hard and wreck that exam.

    I believe in you! 🙂

    aska

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  • late withdrawal

    LWD me baby

    March 2, 2012
    So, the question isn’t really on how LWDs work, but rather if you know how strict they are on that 3.0 limit.
    I have used 2.5 on LWDs already and would like to use one on a full year course, but that would get me 0.5 above the limit.
    I’m going to talk to the registrar of course, but just thought I might ask you beforehand to see if you knew anything.
    Thanks in advance.

    -David

    ??????????????????????-

    Hey David,

    My guess is that its pretty super de duper strict. The LWD is pretty new and it was implimented to?save the asses of first years who are a little confused.?

    If there is a special reasons you need to drop this course … like prolonged illness, death (sad face) … umm pregnancy, than you can?try to petition to get out of the class.

    Needless to?say, you need to?put on your super cute, pity face and?head to your registrar’s office.

    happy course dropping,

    aska?

     

     

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  • late withdrawal

    late to the late withdrawal

    January 8, 2012

    Hi,I’m in my fourth year of an anthropology and history major with a minor in english. it is now the last few days of school and under some mad stress and learned about the option to apply for late withdrawal from courses. I have two classes that due to some crazy personal stresses + increased work load have not been able to put enough effort in and now that finals are here, I’ve realized my chances of passing these courses are slim to none. I can make up the credits lost in summer school, so i am not worried about that, but it seems from the u of t website that applying for late withdrawal is a lengthy/complicated/not-guaranteed process. Is this the case? I am worried now that i will not be able to drop these courses and have to face the damage of two failed classes on my record.Help!

    ???????????????

    Hi 4th year anthro dude/dudette,

    Well, my stint in rehab may have made this post a little useless for your purposes. Who knows … maybe this will happen to you again this semester.

    You have until the last day of classes to Late Withdrawal from a course. In order to do this, you will have to make an appointment with an academic counsellor. They will go over your situation and determine if you actually need to late withdraw from a course.
    Shockingly you actually have to be likely to fail the course in order to be taken out of it.

    Side Bar Ted:

    Reasons that do not count for late withdraw

    1) Having an A and wanting an A+

    2) Having a B and wanting an A+

    3) ?Having a C and wanting an A+

    4) You have a B but really just don’t want to write the exam

    5) Wanting to go dancing the night before your exam.

    Hope to this helps anyone … absolutely anyone.

    forever precious,

    aska

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