The Wednesday of the second week in each fall and spring terms is the “notation deadline.” This is the deadline for students to drop a course or withdraw from the university without having the course(s) appear on the transcript. (Please note that there will still be a notation on a student’s transcript indicating that the student had withdrawn from the term.) Courses dropped after this date will appear on the transcript with the date of the drop and with a “DR” in the grade field.
The DR does not communicate failure or irresponsibility — it reflects that a student made a choice to discontinue a course. L&S does not backdate drops to remove this notation for cosmetic purposes.
Please note that a DR notation will appear on a student’s records if a student swaps the course after the Wednesday of the second week in each fall and spring terms. Swapping a course just retains a student in a class until they secure a seat in the new course. The only time a DR will not appear is when a student swaps sections in the exact same course. For example, a DR notation should not appear if a student swaps from SOC 131 DIS 301 to SOC 131 DISC 311. For more information about swapping, please see Course Search & Enroll – Swapping a Class.