This time Nerdify decided to speak up on a kinda tuff theme: a decision to drop a class.

When a college student feels like dropping a class, the moment comes with an endless stream of questions, apprehension, uncertainty, and stress. It does not matter whether you have registered for a class that was not exactly what you have expected or you cannot cope with a part-time job and doing well in each class, – you still want to know when (and if!) a decision to drop the class has to be made. The choice is never an easy one because it may feel like you have given up your future and failed. No, it is not the case and it does not mean that you are not smart enough! On the contrary, it is an important decision that a student can make due to a variety of reasons. The question is in how will it affect the graduation schedule, financial aid, and your life in general.

Dropping a Class or Withdrawing?  

Before we dive into the depth of decisions and the reasons, let us learn the difference between dropping the class and withdrawing, which is not always the same! The difference is that the majority of colleges and universities have a clear policy, which allows for two week period to add or drop the class at the start of each semester. It is a period that allows you to schedule your classes and carry out the changes without a penalty. If you choose to drop the class during this particular period, the class will not appear on your official transcript list. In other words, there will be no sign of your enrollment anywhere. However, there is one thing to keep in mind that relates to financial aid program! If the class is dropped, there is a return of funds policy that may come in power in most cases. Now when the two weeks period is over, your action is defined as withdrawal, which is an entirely different matter! To cut the long story short – your official transcript list will have a “W” mark next to the class you have withdrawn from.  

Some Things to Be Aware Of:

If you choose to withdraw from the class or drop it, as most students still refer to the practice, you should be aware of the following:

• It is possible that you will be charged for tuition fees in certain conditions, so make sure to review the terms and conditions before you make a final decision.
• Keep an eye for specific dates and the deadlines that you have to follow! Make sure that your schedule with the other classes is not affected by the change.
• Your overall progress may be affected in case you do not have a sufficient amount of study hours.
• While you will have a “W” on your graduation transcript if you withdraw from the class, a “W” grade in any class dropped will NOT affect your GPA!
• In order to receive a financial aid from your college or university, you have to complete at least 70% of your classes taken successfully. It means that F or W is defined as unsuccessful, unlike D or anything better!
• You need at least twelve credit hours to be considered a full-time student. Do not ever drop below 12 credit hours, so you do not find yourself in a situation without insurance and financial aid!
• Check with your college or university about special class dropping policy in terms of your progress through the semester and other rules that may be applicable!

Before You Drop The Class:

Before you decide to drop the class and implement changes to your life and professional career, always talk to your college advisor first! One of the crucial reasons to do so is that they may be aware of specific implications and future challenges that you may not even know about! As you talk to the advisor, make sure that you ask these questions to help both of you to decide what to do and see whether it is right or wrong:

• Will dropping of this particular class affect my graduation date and an overall academic schedule?
• Are we dealing with a prerequisite course that a student can only take once a year?
• Is this particular class necessary for graduation this year? In other words, if you already two semesters close to graduation date, your decision may affect the day.
• Will dropping of this class affect my financial aid support and the scholarship?
• Will I have fewer credits in total? If so, how will it affect my financial state and is there a funds return policy?
• Will dropping a class influence my full-time student status? It is always better to ask because it affects your applicability for financial student aid and a scholarship among other things your college or a university may offer!

Now it is only you who can decide whether you should drop a class or not, therefore, ask yourself these three simple questions:

• Why do I want to drop the class and what is the true reason for that?
• Can I settle down the issue without dropping?
• What kind of help and what changes do I need to continue with the class?

While it is hardly possible to list all the reasons that may be suitable or not suitable for dropping the class, it is most likely because the class seems to be “too difficult” or you “have to work and just cannot manage it all”. No matter what your particular case is, let us deal with the aforementioned situations and see what can be done.

You are trapped in a situation when you have to work way too much to keep yourself going or to earn a little extra. The first case is a reason to ask for additional financial aid if you are determined to do your best academically, but financial struggles get in the way. Now the second case is not really worth ruining your studies because it is much wiser to avoid dropping the class and focus on your long-term goals instead of treating yourself with additional earnings. Ask yourself about what matters more to you, but remember that it is your life and that studying well always rewards you in the future!

Now the second case is when the class seems to be too difficult or not what you have expected it to be. If it is the first case and things seem unclear to you, remember that dropping a class is not the best solution since you can ask your university tutor or a college professor for help. A bit of a guidance and a list of your concerns addressed may help you to receive that missing link to feel better about the class and see all the benefits. Challenge yourself and try to learn more about the class while you can! Still, if the class is really not what you thought it would be, talk to your academic advisor to weigh in all the pros and cons, read of the possible consequences, and do what you feel is best!

Several Valid Reasons to Drop The Class:

• You need to drop the class in order to maintain your scholarship.
• You do not have sufficient time to complete the class due to personal circumstances.
• Dropping the class will not damage your overall academic progress.
• You have a sufficient amount of credit hours and you can safely switch the class and make changes, while there is a “two weeks” period.
• You are dealing with a military duty.
• Adding a different class will be more beneficial to you!

Do not forget that when you struggle with a particular class, there are still special rescue courses that usually start in the middle of a semester! However, if you have to deal with an illness or major changes in your life, the best thing you can do is withdraw from all classes entirely. Likewise, with the military duty, you can apply for special programs that meet your situation and allow you to receive all the necessary credits.

Even if you decide to drop the class and have already talked to your college or university advisor, always sign up for the rescue class and give it one more chance! Trust Nerdify, talking things out always helps to see the situation clearer and do what’s best for you!

As a college student, we know how tough things can get for you. From managing challenging assignments to struggling between part-time jobs, exam preparation, getting time for yourself and your family, and hanging out with your friends. All of it gets too heavy on a student’s shoulders. 

During these busiest hours of your life, you can encounter severe challenges that can leave you emotionally drained and badly impact your college success. So how do you control your emotions? With this emotional roller coaster ride, you may experience academic success constraints. This is why Nerdify reviews six tried and tested strategies for you to control your emotions and get your excellent student record back!

6 Tips From Nerdify Reviews Experts to Improve Your Emotional Intelligence

A student who is capable of bravely managing personal emotions can lead a rewarding individual and professional life. It doesn’t work in a way that you have to bottle up your emotions so it doesn’t flow out. To improve emotional intelligence you need to respect your feelings and emotions without shutting them off. 

The emotions that are regulated without getting suppressed help enhance your mood, build stronger connections, and, most significantly, allow you to make some solid decisions. 

1. Notice the Impact of Your Emotions

Every emotion isn’t bad. Some expressions of these emotions make our lives fun and exciting and fill them with colors and laughter. Emotions represent us as human beings who still feel life, who have hearts that beat, and minds that think. All of these beautiful, warm feelings let us express our emotions.

As we feel so much more, sometimes situations can become a little overwhelming. It is fine to let others know what you feel, but the real issue occurs when you aren’t able to control these stormy emotions. 

Nerdify reviews a bunch of students and confirms that these aggressive emotions can lead you to various issues like problems in focusing on your studies, waking up early, attending classes on time, not being able to understand college assignments, emotional outbursts in front of your professors, or conflict in friendships.

So, you need to give yourself some time and ponder over what’s going on and which areas of your life are troubling you. Once you figure it out, you can start paying attention to it to make things better!

2. Work on Regulating Your Emotions

As mentioned earlier, suppressing or repressing your emotions can make your mental and physical health worsen over time. It can include symptoms like depression, sleep issues, anxiety, muscle pain, and more.

You need to get creative to control your emotions. You can identify what’s triggering you at your college, work, or home and try to reduce the triggers by engaging in affirmative self-talk, choosing how to respond to various situations, seeking out a therapist, etc.

3. Try Thinking of Alternatives

Everyone has major triggers in their life. As a college student, you may have to deal with many as well. Once you are triggered by this specific situation, you need to take a deep breath and think of alternatives to make your emotional health better.

Let’s suppose you have worked really hard for this exam. Even after attempting to complete a paper and writing relatable answers to every question, you aren’t able to pass this college course.

What will you do now? Nerdify reviews it as a way to question yourself and reframe your thoughts to help you relax your extreme emotions. You can take numerous steps to overcome a similar experience the next time, like talking to your teacher, asking what you wrote that led to marks deduction, and more. This wider understanding will relax your mind, and you will easily respond to the situation accordingly. 

4. Track Your Moods Using a Mood Journal

To work on improving your emotional intelligence, you can always invest in those mood journals. You can pen down what you are feeling and later track your moods. This writing experience will let you understand your emotional pattern after getting triggered.

A mood journal will help you to reflect on your emotions once you are no longer in your triggered phase. Nerdify reviews this strategy to lead you into more productive days – as you can manage your emotions easily. You do not need to stress over a college issue, work trouble, or something that’s bugging you at home anymore.

Apart from that, daily journaling helps you stay organized, which will significantly boost your college success. Whenever something steals the peace of your mind, jot it down in your mood journal. Tracking your triggers and working on them will keep you on the right journey to becoming a better student!

5. Take a Deep Breath

It doesn’t matter if you are feeling at peace or burning aggressively; taking a deep breath won’t harm anyone. You can always sit in a calm place and practice deep breathing. It will regulate your mood, and you will get a chance to step back from the current event and think about what actually happened.

The practice of deep breathing will prevent you from reacting in the heat of the moment and giving extreme reactions to the triggering situation. This breathing method is perfect for controlling your emotions. You can do it by starting with taking deep breaths, holding it for a few seconds, and then letting it out slowly.

6. Consult a Therapist

We understand you are going through some stressful patches in your life. We totally respect it and want to ensure that you’ll soon be over such emotions. The things that trigger you now won’t even matter after a few months if you pay good attention to your mental and physical health.

You can always talk to a therapist and seek professional assistance for your mood swings, reactions to triggers and traumas, and more. 

Conclusion

As a college student, you often find it hard to control your emotions due to various reasons like excessive assignments, exams back-to-back, late classes, or several other reasons. All you need to do is weave a perfect strategy to easily deal with your emotions including mood swings, trauma, reaction to triggering events, and more by journaling, practicing deep breathing, consulting a therapist, etc. Follow our guide with simple yet effective strategies to regain control over your emotional well-being. 

Nerdify reviews team strikes again! 

If you haven’t tried educational podcasts yet, it’s high time to choose podcasts to ease your learning. With your academic success in my mind, Nerdify reviews top-10 podcasts that raise learning to a whole new level! So, fasten your seatbelts, and we’ll start!

For those of you who do not have a clue what a podcast is, we strongly recommend consulting a dictionary, where you’ll learn that podcast is “a broadcast that is placed on the Internet who wants to listen to it or watch it.” Sounds boring? At all! These ten podcasts will change your perception of learning as a tiresome process!

1. TED Talks Daily

It’s probably the best podcast one could ever imagine! Every weekday, a new episode is waiting for your attention! What are these episodes about? Well, I can’t imagine a topic that hasn’t been discussed in TED Talks! Social problems, zoology, archeology, artificial intelligence…The whole vibrant world is just a click away!

2. School Psyched!

In the upcoming study year, Anna, Rachael, and Rebecca will be your best friends! Reasons? No doubt, they are enormously cool!!! Just imagine three ladies discussing a myriad of educational topics, starting with time management and to ADHD strategies. Willing to join the conversation? Then, be ready to find yourself in the company of outstanding personalities like Dr. Richard A. Cash. You’ll definitely like Dr. Cash for he’s got a wealth of experience as an international education consultant.

3. The Knowledge Project

What is the Knowledge Project about? Well, it’s a pretty tricky question; so, I’d better tell you what it is not about. The Knowledge Project is not about…boredom:)

The Knowledge Project is ready to introduce you to dozens of great people, and they are waiting to share the secret of their success with you!

Test the coolness of the Knowledge Project by starting with:

• Life Lessons from a Self-Made Billionaire: My Conversation with Ray Dalio
• Getting Better by Being Wrong, a conversation with Annie Duke, former professional poker player and an author of the book Thinking in Bets: Making Smarter Decisions When You Don’t Have All the Facts
• The Science of Doing Good with William MacAskill, the co-founder and President of the Centre for Effective Altruism.

4. Back to Work

I can bet that the talk show with Merlin Mann and David Benjamin will completely grab your attention! So, be aware that conversations about productivity, communication, and time management are so exciting that you can easily lose track of your time when listening to them:)        

5. WorkLife with Adam Grant

Good conversations are never enough, and Adam Grant is ready to discuss a bunch of interesting topics with you.! Did you know that people spend around a quarter of their life at work? Some of them are happy with the fact, while others are not. If you are one of those unfortunate, you’ll want to learn about things that make a workplace great. By dissecting the world’s coolest workplaces, Adam Grant comes up with a series of worthy suggestions:

• trust people
• don’t be afraid of criticism
• understand your hidden personality

Everything that makes one a happy worker is at your disposal in WorkLife with Adam Grant podcast!

6. Revisionist History

History is terra incognita, but you’ll definitely enjoy discovering hidden events or reexamining misinterpreted ones if you have Malcolm Gladwell as a guide.  Gladwell is the author of the bestseller Outliers, so he’s probably the best companion in your travel along intricate historical trails!

Could you imagine that: “Saigon, 1965 is the story of three people who got caught up in that effort: a young Vietnamese woman, a refugee from Nazi Germany, and a brilliant Russian émigré. All saw the same things. All reached different conclusions. The Pentagon effort, run by the Rand Corporation, was one of the most ambitious studies of enemy combatants ever conducted — and no one could agree on what it meant.”?

In case you couldn’t, just keep in mind that Malcolm Gladwell has many more historical discoveries for you!

7. The Guardian’s Science Weekly

Everyone is familiar with the British news outlet called The Guardian, but a few know that they produce The Guardian’s Science Weekly. It is, without any exaggeration, an awesome project that will show you the world of science from a totally unexpected angle! Heatwaves, biomimicry, radiophobia, killing asbestos, and e-cigarettes are just a small portion of discussions that won’t leave you indifferent!

8. Moving at the Speed of Creativity

Moving at the speed of creativity is all you need this study year! It is a truly awesome podcast where you can learn about “education, twenty-first-century literacy, blended learning, technology integration, and educational leadership.” Being part of a vibrant intellectual community is the best experience one can ever have!

9. Mixed Mental Arts

Mixed Mental Arts will teach you…stealing! But don’t be scared; you’ll steal “the best cultural software from everywhere and apply the core principle of Bruce Lee’s Jeet Kune Do. Adapt what is useful, reject what is useless, and add what is specifically your own.” In other words, Mixed Mental Arts will teach you to be an efficient personality in this turbulent world!

BTW, of all the mentioned podcasts, Mixed Mental Arts has the most extensive content. So, you’re guaranteed to have an exciting time browsing through it!

10. 101 Series – Innovative Language!

Good news for those who are waiting for Monday to start learning a foreign language! With 101 Series – Innovative Language! there are no more excuses to keep language studies on the back burner! Choose from hundreds of audio and video lessons, pdf notes and flashcards to notice progress from the very first lesson!  

Nerdify reviews team has piled dozens of podcasts here to provide all the information that you need to succeed. Learning is always fun if you have the right tools in your hand!