Summer 2012 Voluntary Withdrawal Dates

Fall/Winter 2012-13 Voluntary Withdrawal Dates:

Fall Term - November 14, 2012

Winter Term and Fall/Winter (spanned courses) - March 20, 2013

NOTE: Some faculties have courses with irregular withdrawal dates; see your faculty's general office for more information. 

A Voluntarily Withdrawal (VW) is when a student decides to officially discontinue their studies in a class after the official start date of the academic term. You may decide to VW from a class for a variety of reasons. Common situations include:

• The course subject matter was not the same as originally expected;
• Your overall courseload is too demanding - withdrawing from one class will leave more time for others;
• Your faculty focus has changed and the course is no longer required;
• Your mid-term grades were not satisfactory - withdrawing is better than receiving a low or failed grade.

Voluntary Withdrawals are used to achieve the best GPA possible for entrance into a target faculty.

If you decide to voluntarily withdraw from a class, be sure to:

• Talk to a University 1 Academic Advisor about courseload, study strategies, and options for possibly repeating the course later;
• Refer to the U1 Start Book to make sure you know where that class fits into your target faculty's entrance requirements;
• Refer to the UM Undergraduate Calendar to see if that class is required for upper-level courses within your degree;
• Look at next term's schedule to see if the course is offered again;
• Look at the Summer Term schedule - this is a great time to take classes if you felt overloaded in the Fall/Winter.

Frequently Asked Questions: Voluntary Withdrawals (pdf)

Other Information

• Students may not withdraw from a class after the VW deadline, except for reasons that would qualify for an Authorized Withdrawal.
• Withdrawals made within the Registration Revision Period (up to September 21, 2011 and January 17, 2012) will not be recorded on official transcipts and a 100% tuition refund will be credited to your student account.
•  Voluntary Withdrawals after the Revision Period are recorded as a "VW" on your transcript. There is no limit to the number of times a student can Voluntarily Withdraw from any single, or total, number of classes; VW's are almost always preferable to an F or D grade.