next »

[foxy_oxie]

This here is a similar problem, but not quite the same
http://chronicle.com/forums/index.php/topic,31417.0.html

Thing is, I am in my first year of a PhD. Haven't withdrawn from a class since I was an undergrad (which was a decade ago, so have had time to grow the hell up),  but am currently in a course that is not in my discipline and sooo not working for me. It is, being in another discipline and all, premised on a (massive) body of theory that I know only very superficially. 

I can get a withdrawal in good standing if I act in the next week or two, and want to propose that I do work for my supervisor in which I will write a lit review that he's hinted he wants me to do anyway (and, as I am a graduate assistant for a project of his, will need to do). That said, what is the collective wisdom on dropping a course that simply isn't clicking? If it helps, I have one paper accepted for rather a top tier journal in my field and another in the works. 

Many thanks, Oxfish (who is having her mid term manufactured panic)

[crowie]

If there are no serious penalties for withdrawing (eg. funding revoked for next year or something awful like that) why not withdraw if it is just not working out for you?  If you need to get those credits and the lit review proposal doesn't work out, you could take an extra course in the fall.  Might be tough (and choose wisely!), but not the end of the world, and better than continuing with something that really isn't working and won't get you where you want to go in the next few years (ie. help you, in some way, however oblique, towards your qualifying exams or Ph.D. project).  In 5 years you won't even remember this, and nor will your advisors.

[foxy_oxie]

Thanks, Crowie. Your comments reassuring. I took head out bum and spoke with supervisor about it today... given that there is no way I would end up with an A or A- in the course, he figures it is better that I get the W for good standing withdrawl (because the way outside funding applications work around here... typically those with highest grades get sent along to the next layer of assessment).

[chaud]

It's not a big deal if you don't make a habit of it.

[foxy_oxie]

oh, no. I made quite a habit of it in undergrad days. Def not a habit i'd like to bring into the new millennium.