Consequences of a "W" on a transcript?

I finished my BA in good academic standing. Recently, I've been taking undergraduate courses at a community college for professional development, but I've found one course isn't as useful as I hoped, and want to drop it. If I drop now, a "W" will appear on the transcript. In a few months, I'll be sending the transcript and the transcript from my BA to the Master's program and also I'll apply to financial aid when I study for a Master's.

Could the "W" give me any problems in my application or in requesting financial aid?

 

If you have completed the BA and are not using financial aid at the community college, then you should be fine.

Even from an admissions perspective, dropping a random course for professional development shouldn't be too onerous.

The only problem I could see is the scenario if you are currently using financial aid at the community college. It seems that you are not, though.

 

Okay, I paid for the community college courses entirely with my own money. It seems a shame I can't get a partial refund on my money as I've only finished half of the class.

 

That is a shame. You could always talk to the business office. It never hurts to ask.

Think of it this way, though: at least it was a CC class, so it probably didn't cost you thousands.

Too bad you had a poor experience, though.

I have thought about doing some foreign language classes at my local cc (literally just down the street from my house), but the class times never work.

 

It's true, it is a shame but you'll never get your money back. All this is spelled in somewhere in something you signed and they will hold you to it. At the same time, there are so many good ways to explain a W that no one will ever bother to ask.

 

No biggie.

 

I can't comment on the financial aspect (most schools I've seen offer a partial refund through 50% of the class), but I have a "W" on my undergrad transcript, simply because I got too ambitious and tried to take too many courses at once (5 while working full-time), so I had to take a step back and drop a course with no penalty (other than partial loss of tuition).

After going through the application processes and being accepted to 3 Master's programs (I accepted/completed 2 and turned-down 1) and a doctoral program, that "W" has never been raised on any level.

 

No consequence at all. Look, people withdraw from courses all the time for all sorts of reasons. Withdrawing from a course before the withdraw deadline means absolutely nothing, other than for some reason you decided you couldn't complete the class.

There can be consequences to current financial aid if you drop below full-time, but future financial aid should be ok. If you are under a specific program (i.e. GI Bill), you should, of course, check the rules and regulations of that program.

 

I agree. One "W" is not going to matter at all. There are numerous reasons why someone might drop a class and most of us have one or two of them in our records somewhere. If financial aid is not a question, then you have no problem.