has anybody tried/failed/accomplished this before?
what was the process like and what were your reasons for needing the semester expunged?

5/12/2012 12:55:34 PM

I had a semester dropped for medical reasons. Had to get notes from the doctor and it signed off by my department etc. It took awhile to get it finalized but it was worth it. You'll have the classes still show up on your transcript but it'll say "W" next to them.

5/12/2012 1:03:24 PM

I have several friends who did this. The just went in and said they had personal reasons (death in family, substance abuse problem, etc, etc) and had entire semesters dropped. I can't remember who they actually went to talk to, but it is very doable

5/12/2012 1:04:17 PM

i think you need a severe mental/physical health reason to get something like that done. family death counts as a mental health excuse as does depression/bipolar disorder etc

never had it done myself but a friend of mine did for severe anxiety/depression issues

5/12/2012 1:06:12 PM

I went from dean's list my first two years to tanking down to academic probation and clawed my way back up to dean's list my final year (08). I had a lot of shit going on at the time between my father's medical issues and girlfriend's diabetes problems, not to mention just general lack of interest in my initial engineering courses. I also worked a lot more than I should have instead of studying.

It wasn't until a few months before graduation (and seeing I'd need to take a few summer courses to pull my cumulative GPA up did I realize you can expunge a semester with one of a half dozen legitimate excuses such as family death, medical emergency, etc. Essentially I had to write a formal letter to the dean of the engineering dept and provide proof of the medical receipts and forms along with letters vouching for me from my profs. I spent literally over 30 hours a week camped in the library my last year to make up for it and honestly I bellieve if I didn't show the turnaround in grades they wouldn't have approved it even with the medical proof.

5/12/2012 1:07:52 PM

i'm pretty sure to get this done you have to have documentation that you've been seeing a shrink or doc or whatever... you can't just walk in and tell them to drop it for "X" reason.

5/12/2012 1:09:20 PM

I know someone who got an entire semester dropped retroactively

I'm Krallum and I approved this message.

5/12/2012 1:14:10 PM

that is what i am afraid of. i had some family stuff go on one semester and i ended up missing several weeks and i basically just fell apart. the problem is that i dont really have any documentation of any 'issues'. i even missed final exams. none of the classes are useful to me so it isnt like i would lose any valuable credits. it all just needs to go away.

5/12/2012 1:18:08 PM

that sucks

i'd drop my entire college transcript and start over again if i could

[Edited on May 12, 2012 at 1:20 PM. Reason : sub 3.0 GPAs isn't really my calling card ]

5/12/2012 1:20:44 PM

One option is to start regularly seeing a shrink, talk about said issues, and see if they'll agree to write you a letter explaining the issues to make your case. I know someone who did this with one of the shrinks at Student Health Services successfully.

5/12/2012 1:24:40 PM

I did it and you had to go thru the Heath Center when I wast at state.

You had to see one of their shrinks and they'd sign off on it.

I guess if you were already seeing one, that could be used too.

5/12/2012 1:32:12 PM

^I'm pretty sure that is what my friends did

5/12/2012 1:34:35 PM

yeah i went through some shit and went to the health center, but i only fucked up one of my classes that semester and the teacher wouldn't help me out, so i just got a W for that one class. I can tell you what my friend did though if you pm me, its not bad or anything i just don't know if its something that should be said publically

I'm Krallum and I approved this message.

5/12/2012 1:40:33 PM

Damn, apparently they make that shit easy at State.

5/12/2012 1:47:41 PM

Well, it's not like you get a refund, so I think the fact that you're spending the cost of two semesters weeds out most of the people who'd do it on a whim.

5/12/2012 1:50:24 PM

the purpose obviously isnt to get money back, but to get rid of horrid grades and salvage a gpa!

5/12/2012 3:24:59 PM

i had a semester withdrawn 2 full years after that semester was over, i had several deaths in my family and was suffering from chronic insomnia. I literally had zero documentation because i refused to go to a doctor for my sleep disorder( i didnt want to become reliant on sleep meds).

I went to the student health center and talked with one of the counselors there. The whole process was much more painless than i thought it would be, especially considering i had no documentation. Probably didnt hurt that the semester in question definatly stood out as an anomaly when compared with the rest of my courses.

5/12/2012 3:43:34 PM

^^ I understand that, but jaZon said "damn that shit is easy" as if people would do it all the time because of a few bad grades.

5/12/2012 4:35:16 PM

that's cause jazon is a butt hole

5/12/2012 4:37:33 PM

It is very doable, just tell them you have chronic masturbation addiction and it interfered with your semester schedule.

5/12/2012 4:37:51 PM

Tldr but i have done this so pm if you have questions

5/12/2012 5:51:50 PM

I did this when I constantly slept and couldn't think straight. I would forget how to get from school to home. I went to the doctor and he gave me anti-depressants (turns out I was having an allergic reaction to aspartame) Then I went and talked with the guidance counselor and got a semester withdrawn.

5/12/2012 6:04:21 PM

I dropped a semester and it was basically like the entire semester never happened. It was really easy for me. I just went to a counselor at student health and filled out some paperwork, citing depression and insomnia. I left like 8 weeks into the semester and went home for counseling. It was the best thing that I ever did for myself. BUT I probably had an easier time than most just because it was the Fall of 2001 (9/11). It didn't really have anything to do with 9/11, but student counseling services saw a lot more folks than usual that year.

5/12/2012 6:16:14 PM

Quote :

"Well, it's not like you get a refund, so I think the fact that you're spending the cost of two semesters weeds out most of the people who'd do it on a whim."

Quote :

"^^ I understand that, but jaZon said "damn that shit is easy" as if people would do it all the time because of a few bad grades."

From what people have posted, it sounds way too easy to retroactively withdraw. I know a dude at another "fine" institution (ECU, lulz) that is fucked - The cray cray slit his wrists (across the road now down the street) and they refused the retro withdrawal because "everything seemed fine the last time he saw a counselor on campus."

Quote :

"I went to the student health center and talked with one of the counselors there. The whole process was much more painless than i thought it would be, especially considering i had no documentation. Probably didnt hurt that the semester in question definatly stood out as an anomaly when compared with the rest of my courses."

This is what I'm talking about. No documentation and still got it taken care of? That's awesome - Hell, I want to go back and get a semester taken off now.

[Edited on May 12, 2012 at 6:45 PM. Reason : ]

5/12/2012 6:43:33 PM

I don't know about retroactive withdrawal. I did mine mid-semester. I don't know why you wouldn't pull out mid-semester. If you're really having issues, you know it long before exams.

5/12/2012 10:06:23 PM

I had a couple classes late late late dropped and then I took the next semester off (was able to get a refund from student housing that semester)....jaZon helped out alot with his expertise to get it done.....haha



[Edited on May 12, 2012 at 11:22 PM. Reason : w]

5/12/2012 11:17:35 PM

^ ha ha ha, I remember that

5/12/2012 11:23:29 PM

I have gotten multiple semesters dropped after the fact and I've also gotten a suspension lifted from my transcript. It is all very doable but there are two main things you need:

1. You need to have something in writing about why you want the semester dropped. This can be either personal or medical reasons, but you have to at least make a case for yourself. This is very important, especially for removing suspensions (although this doesn't seem to be an issue for you).

2. You need to show that you have made some kind of improvement since the semester in question. This likely won't be an issue if its your first time or if you are looking to get one semester dropped if you follow #1 above. This is actually very common for students to do for various reasons. However, if you drop an additional semester they will likely want to see that you are at least putting forth an effort as opposed to abusing the system. The second time I went in to get a semester dropped they waited until my final grades were entered before following through.

[Edited on May 13, 2012 at 5:06 AM. Reason : .]

5/13/2012 5:06:01 AM

I had back surgery that was accompanied by 2 months of bed rest. right in the middle of a semester... they gave me the option of trying to complete my classes or getting a medical withdrawl.

one of my prof's let me finish the class online, so I did that online and Medical Withdraw'd the other 4 classes. wasn't a problem, just had to show the documents to student health and they took care of everything

5/13/2012 7:12:03 AM

I dropped out in the middle of a fall semester due to a confluence of crazy stuff going on in my life compounded by a bullshit conflict with a professor. Being that the latter half of the semester was thereafter a waste of time, I dropped out to attend to the other matters in my life so that I could return later on and focus primarily on school. It never occurred to me to withdraw from the following spring semester for which I'd already registered.

Fast forward four years and I'm going back to school. Was a year-long process even getting readmitted and approved for some financial aid, yadda yadda. My GPA has been murdered by two semesters of Fs, but I figured I had enough of a case for a retroactive withdrawal. Cue another year-long process of being the gopher in the administrative circle-jerk that is the counseling center, the engineering college, and registration and records. Had to provide doctors notes and written statements from involved parties at the time, as well as all kinds of explanation on my part. Was told all along that being withdrawn from the spring semester shouldn't be a problem at all as long as I can prove I never attended class, and that I had a good case for the fall semester.

FINALLY get a call saying I'm approved for a withdrawal...but only one. Which is crap because I'm really only asking to get one true semester withdrawn, the second is fixing what amounts to a clerical error. So I have to choose which group of Fs to get removed, while my GPA eats the other. Fucking pain in the ass.


tldr; Retroactive withdrawal can be done with the right documentation but it's not a gimme and the process will be the cause of much consternation.

5/13/2012 3:51:03 PM

^ That's weird. I never had any problems like that and I don't know anybody else who did the same thing who ran into those kind of issues. Maybe the school got stricter on withdrawals.

5/14/2012 2:14:55 PM

I tried to have a semester dropped because it was killing my GPA. Several friends had semesters dropped just by going to Student Health and getting diagnosed with A.D.H.D. Apparently it was a pretty easy thing to do back then. I tried and failed. Hence, I had to take an extra year's worth of bullshit electives just to bring up my GPA so I could graduate.

5/14/2012 2:18:02 PM

It might be worth it to try again if you've made significant improvements since the semester in question. Student health waited until the end of the semester at one point before deciding to drop one of my earlier semesters because they wanted to see my grades.

5/14/2012 2:21:45 PM

take your Fs like a real man

5/14/2012 2:22:13 PM

^^ I graduated 10 years ago

5/14/2012 2:22:58 PM

Yup. Nervous breakdown, eventually diagnosed ADHD and depression. Retroactive medical withdrawal from that semester on counseling center's recommendation and development of a plan to deal with it.

EDIT: To clear up, I had (undiagnosed) depression and ADHD issues before they just came to a magnitude unseen before that semester. Nervous breakdown might not have been a good description haha

[Edited on May 14, 2012 at 3:05 PM. Reason : .]

5/14/2012 3:00:58 PM