While withdrawing from a course will preserve your GPA, excessive withdrawals (W‘s) will delay how long it takes you to complete your degree and may impact your financial aid. To remain in good academic standing, you must maintain a 2.0 GPA; otherwise you will be penalized. Those penalties may include a cap on the number of units that you may take in future terms.
- Withdrawing from a course after the refund period indicated on your schedule always has financial consequences. If you paid for the course yourself, that money will not be reimbursed to you. If financial aid paid for the course, you may need to give back some of the money you received. See your financial aid advisor for more details.
- If you are on financial aid, your credit eligibility will be affected. For example, if financial aid pays up to 90 college units towards an AA or AS degree, then the number of units financial aid will pay for you will be reduced based on the number of courses you withdraw from.
- Whether you have financial aid or not, if you withdraw from the same course twice, the third time you take that course, you will have to pay the full cost of instruction. The repeat surcharge is approximately three times the regular cost of the course.
- Some programs limit the number of W’s you may have in certain classes. For example, certain programs at MDC’s Medical Campus limit the number of withdrawals you may have in science classes like anatomy, chemistry, microbiology, etc.
Remember, if you drop a class, you will have to pay for it again…whenever you re-take it in the future!