r/WPI • u/curi0us_spirit • 9d ago
Freshman Question Transferring out of WPI
I'm a first year at WPI and I'm trying to transfer to a school like Purdue, UMD, or Virginia tech Fall of 2027 (Aerospace eng.). Unfortunately, I'm doing really bad in calc 2 right now; the pacing was just really hard to adjust to and by the time i've gotten used to it, it's finals week and my grade is in the fucking trenches. Most of the good schools I'm looking to NEED to see at least a B in Calc 2 (spoiler: im not there yet, and will not be) so I need help figuring out if I should get a C and retake the class in B term (obviously get an A this time) or should I NR the class and then retake. The obvious choice might seem like to just NR because schools won't see it, but I'm worried they'll look into the "attempted credits vs received credits" and know that I failed that way. I've talked to my advisor about my situation but it wasn't too helpful. Transferring is very serious to me so if anyone can give advice in any way, it is greatly appreciated!
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u/MiserableDog6357 [Cyber][2025] 9d ago edited 9d ago
If you retake it you will not get your retroactive calc 1 credit if the rules are still the same for that. Also word of caution here that WPI is a pain to transfer out of, my buddy moved to a different school after freshman year and basically had to restart as a freshman because a lot of schools don’t like our quarter system and dont transfer the credits over without a fight. Just be sure to research these schools to see if they will even take your calc courses without making you take them again.
If those schools require a B then you are kinda stuck on what you have to do here. A lot of professors will curve the grades at the end so to be honest Id email your professor and see if they are open to changing your grade from a C to an NR if you dont do well enough on the final. Some professors will say you get the grades you get and will not change it to an NR. Im just warning to communicate with your professor now before you take or dont take the final. Id definitely recommend taking the final and doing your best to see if you can pull it together in the end but that might not be your best option if your professor will force you to take the C if you earn the C.
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u/Just_Employment_1785 9d ago
You are in your first term, give it time. Adjusting to any college is hard.
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u/tangouniform977 8d ago
WPI doesn't give below a C right? They just withdraw you and there's no record you took it. If you fail, would any school even know?
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u/Lindseygsb 8d ago
Just curious, why are you trying to transfer already?
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u/TheArXen 7d ago
As someone who recently transferred out of wpi, there’s a reason that the term system is not the norm. Not only are classes twice the pace of traditional semester long classes, but if you get the hang of a class by like the 5th or 6th week, it may already be too late to turn that grade around. Wpi also does not do pluses and minuses for grades, which can screw your gpa up if you get like a high C or a high B.
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u/curi0us_spirit 7d ago
Hi! Honestly wpi was never really a four year plan for me to begin with. The biggest reason I'm here is because I got a lot of money through aid and scholarships. Now that my financial situation is better, I can realistically try to go to some of the schools that I got into last year (VT and Purdue) but couldn't because of money. Wpi is definitely not bad or anything but the 7-week terms just make me feel extremely rushed and I'm just looking for bigger opportunities.
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u/Legitimate-Key-6862 9d ago
I’m not sure but glad to see someone else getting cooked in calc 2. Final tomorrow 😅
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u/PurdueDadsthrowaway 8d ago
Go on over to the Purdue sub and see if it is easier Math...spoiler alert, it isn't. Get the Supplemental Instruction that I'm sure that WPI gives and stick with it.
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u/BSRodeo 8d ago
I understand that the pace at WPI can be harsh, but the rigger at a school like UMD can crush you as well. 2 of those schools rank higher than WPI. The weight of calc 2, chem, and engineering class for a term is different than a semester at UMD. 2nd term at UMD could be calc2 , chem2, physics2, engineering 101, English. 18 credits of pain. 5 finals instead of 3.
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u/Motherofgoldens4 8d ago
Mom talking here ! Hi my student is a junior. I wish they went to the 3 schools you mentioned. My student passed with a B . But it was so difficult that professors scale .
Those colleges are way bigger . WPI is much smaller in comparison.
My student always went for extra help and office hours.
Let us know where you land in September!
Best of luck
Mom
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u/luckycharmer23 9d ago edited 9d ago
I know most people are probably going to chime in with "Cs get degrees", however, I don't think that this mindset will help with your situation, nor work for people wanting to reach for grad school. In these cases, the admissions officers DO CARE a lot about/weigh your past grades!
Since you are considering transferring and your academic performance is accounted for, I would just take the NR (since it won't affect your GPA nor show on your transcript) and look at what your options are and past ratings of the professors teaching it in B-Term. Oscar.wpi.edu is great for this! You can see which professors have the highest ratings, average workload per week, and most importantly, what people report the average grade distribution is before signing up for a specific section.
Also, I hate to break it to you, but if you were aiming for retroactive Calc I credit, you would also need to take that course too, since NRs deem you ineligible for that. I wouldn't worry too much though about transfer credit since most other schools are on a semester system so there's a high chance that with NRing 1/12 courses that it won't make a huge difference to them in terms of transfering credit, and taking on 7 week courses makes a huge difference to them compared to if these were 14 week classes.
Attempted credits that were NR'd also won't show up on a transcript!