Caption: Students in a Geology course work collaboratively on lab exercises. Students benefit from policies that give them every opportunity to be successful in and out of the classroom.
Every college has a policy for course withdrawal. A student may be unable to complete a course for any number of reasons; by withdrawing from the course, a student receives a W on their transcript in place of a grade. At the college where I work, a W appears on the student’s record next to the course from which they withdrew, and their grade point average (GPA) is not impacted.
My institution, Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA), is one of 23 colleges in the Virginia Community College System (VCCS). NOVA policy permits students to withdraw from a course until a certain date, after which they may no longer withdraw and are essentially committed to earning a grade.
At NOVA — and indeed all other VCCS colleges — students can no longer withdraw once a course is 60% complete. At that point, they can expect to receive a grade at the end of the term. This 60% mark isn’t arbitrary; in fact, that’s when a student’s financial aid has been fully committed to a course. If a student withdraws from a course prior to that date, they may owe funds to the college, the total of which is determined in a Return of Title IV Funds (R2T4) calculation.
At the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, many colleges moved their withdrawal date to the end of the spring semester, which seemed appropriate amid the chaos of 2020. Seeing other colleges shift the withdrawal date made me question the withdrawal policy at my own institution.
Can we move the withdrawal date?
In short, yes, we can.
That wasn’t the answer I got when I first started asking around, though. Most people I asked said they didn’t know — or something like, “Not without impacting a student’s financial aid.”
So I did some research. According to the Federal Student Aid Handbook, the R2T4 date is the point at which a course is 60% complete, based on either attendance or clock hours. If a student has withdrawn prior to that date, they may need to return funds that have already been disbursed to them. After the R2T4 date, a student has earned 100% of their Title IV funds.
Simply put, students who withdraw after the R2T4 date don’t return Title IV funds because those dollars have been 100% committed. Students who know this tend to withdraw as close to the R2T4 date as possible.
Consider figures 1 and 2. In NOVA’s Spring 2024 semester, the last day to withdraw for the 15-week term was March 23. (Other terms had later withdrawal dates.) NOVA saw 200 to 300 withdrawals each day as the R2T4 date approached. In fact, 24% of the 6,607 withdrawals in Spring 2024 occurred during the week leading up to the withdrawal deadline.
Figure 1. NOVA withdrawals, Spring 2024.
Figure 2. NOVA withdrawals, March 2024.
Students can still withdraw after the R2T4 date, but they must submit a form describing the unique circumstances that warrant a late withdrawal. The form gives examples of such mitigating circumstances as a major medical emergency, death of a family member and mobilization or deployment. For each of these circumstances, students are required to provide necessary documentation for review by college staff.
What happens when students don’t withdraw?
According to VCCS policy, a student who has not withdrawn from a course but has stopped attending will receive an F. VCCS policy even requires that faculty record a student’s last date of attendance, which carries the assumption that a student failed a course because they stopped attending. Thus, a failing grade may not represent failure to master course content but in fact failure to withdraw on time.
While both an F and a W affect a student’s satisfactory academic progress (SAP) in the same way, an F has consequences that a W does not. An F lowers a student’s GPA, which can lead to academic probation and limit the number of courses a student can take. Ultimately, an F sends a clear message that a student may not be ready for college-level coursework.
Figure 3. Unduplicated students with F or W in Spring 2024 who enrolled for Fall 2024, by ethnicity.
Consider Figure 3. Roughly 47% of students who received an F in Spring 2024 returned to take classes in Fall 2024, compared to 50% of students who withdrew. It is important to note that 6,085 withdrawals were completed by students, while 11,342 F grades were assigned to students. While the students return at similar rates, the volume of nonreturning students who received an F is nearly double that of nonreturning students who withdrew.
What opportunities exist for moving the withdrawal date?
As mentioned earlier, colleges across the country shifted their withdrawal date to the end of the semester during the coronavirus pandemic. While institutions did their best to rapidly transition all courses to an online format, they recognized students simply needed more time to figure things out.
We’re no longer in a pandemic, but students can still benefit from more time to make important decisions about their education. A withdrawal date corresponding to 60% course completion means 40% of the course remains — plenty of time for a college to mobilize its support services to help students at risk of failing.
Figure 4 illustrates how a grade in a typical calculus class might be determined, with four quizzes, four regular exams and a final exam distributed throughout the semester. In this class, 62% of a student’s grade will be determined after the last day to withdraw. A student who may have struggled in the beginning of the course, perhaps receiving a poor grade on the first quiz and first exam, would have only a few weeks to take advantage of available classroom supports before reaching the point of no return in Week 9.
Figure 4. Example assessment map for Calculus course (withdrawal deadline at Week 9).
The pace of quizzes and exams every four weeks could support the academic needs of students, but requiring students to commit to receiving a grade in the ninth week doesn’t allow those who may have had a rocky start to take advantage of remaining course time to improve their performance.
When a student withdraws from a course, regardless of their reason for doing so, they’re not participating in it anymore. They’re not likely to seek tutoring services for a class they’re not enrolled in. They’re not able to preview material they might see the very next semester if they decide to reenroll. A student who withdrew from the aforementioned calculus class in Spring 2024 would have done so on or before March 23, with the option to reenroll either two months later for the summer session or five months later for the fall semester. Additionally, some classes (like upper level STEM courses) are only offered once a year due to low enrollment. Withdrawal from those classes could result in a longer wait time to reenroll and may potentially delay graduation or transfer.
With regard to a student’s SAP, withdrawing from a course and failing a course are essentially the same. With regard to a student’s GPA and the possibility of academic probation, however, withdrawal from and failing a course are very different.
The alignment of the academic withdrawal deadline with the financial deadline for R2T4 appears to disadvantage students, prioritize the assignment of failing grades and limit students’ progress toward degree.
Where has your college placed the withdrawal deadline?
A more thorough review of withdrawal dates at institutions across the country would be helpful in determining how individual community colleges as well as state and regional community college systems set their withdrawal deadline.
A cursory review has revealed that withdrawal dates vary by state and even by institution. For example, Connecticut State Community Colleges permit course withdrawal until 80% of the semester is complete. Eastern Arizona College allows students to withdraw up to the last day of class, excluding final exam days. Some colleges even permit professors to withdraw students after excessive unexcused absences.
An interesting grading policy at Prince George’s Community College in Maryland differentiates between failing a course (F) and failing a course because of nonattendance (Fx). When a faculty member assigns an Fx grade, they report the last day of that student’s attendance. Both grades have the same impact on a student’s GPA. The withdrawal date at Prince George’s Community College is the day before final exams begin.
Next steps
Community colleges must examine their withdrawal policy to determine how it serves students. NOVA’s current policy allowing course withdrawal until only 60% completion limits the college in its own efforts to support students in- and outside the classroom. A larger data pool to allow for exploration of both withdrawal policies across the country and the rate at which students persist in their degree plans could help inform colleges considering adjustments to their withdrawal date.
Moving the withdrawal date also presents challenges for institutions. First, such adjustments could be a heavy lift for some colleges, especially large state systems. Second, results aren’t guaranteed; shifting the date may not yield improved retention and success rates for students. Despite such uncertainties, however, colleges have an opportunity to welcome withdrawn students back to class through a number of approaches.
Acknowledgements
Hallie Schachinger – Complete College America
Author(s)
