What is the difference between Drop and Withdraw?

Sometimes we change our minds about things, and the decisions we have made about education is one of them. Some people are confused by the terms to drop and withdraw. Hopefully, the following explanation will clear things up. Individual classes or the total schedule may be dropped only during the drop period. This period is different when the class is dropped. The whole course is eliminated from the schedule, and you are not held accountable for that class. It all depends on the time you dropped as to whether you will get a full or partial refund. Once the drop period has ended, the students must withdraw to cancel classes. The students can withdraw for any reason up until the withdrawal deadline. After this time, the request needs to be made through social services. The withdraw phase begins immediately after the drop period ends. There are no refunds when you withdraw, partial or otherwise. Since it is a withdraw, it is not calculated into your GPA.

The words drop and may have different meanings, but they are usually mistaken for each other, most especially in the academic field. When a student drops a class or a particular course, it means he/she has decided to cancel all the classes scheduled for that course. The reason for this might be anything. When a student drops a course, the course will be removed from the schedule. However, the implication is that the grade for that course will not appear on the student’s transcript. A student who drops a class is entitled to a partial or full refund, depending on the policies of the school he/she attends. On the other hand, a student can withdraw after the drop period has passed. This is usually processed by the Student Support Services of each university. Although the grades will not be calculated if a student opts for a withdrawal, they will appear as Withdrawal passing (wp) or Withdrawal Failing (WF). Also, no refund will be made if you withdraw from a class.

You will normally use the terms drop and withdraw when you are in school. For example, when you say withdraw, this means that you are stopping yourself from taking the course after the proposed deadline. This means that you may have already tried checking out the class but you have decided that you do not like it. When you withdraw, this will not affect your GPA. When you drop the course, this means that you are going to stop yourself from taking the class before you start attending. Dropping a class is also better as compared to failing one because this will at least raise your GPA considerably.