With Thanksgiving break so close you can taste the turkey and Finals Week creeping in as quickly as the six-month-long Happy Valley winter, it can only mean one thing. We’ve reached the time in the semester when you have to sit down and have a serious conversation with yourself. You have to say, “Self, I think it’s time we late drop this class.” With the deadline being this Friday, it really is time to consider your options. I’ve provided you with my top three reasons to late drop a class.

• You’re not really sure what this class is about. Maybe “Philosophy of Gender” is taught at 8 a.m. on Thursday morning and you’ve been a regular at Go-Go-Gadjet Wednesday nights at Cafe. Maybe you just don’t feel like trekking to Keller building at any point during the day. If you haven’t shown up since Syllabus Week, I’m not judging you, but you should probably consider dropping the class.

• Online classes seemed like a great idea last semester when you were scheduling. Except now you’ve missed three discussion posts, you haven’t done any of the reading on Ancient Mesopotamian Civ, and your Angel Grade Report is looking pretty sad. Most professors of online classes are pretty unforgiving. They expected you to be responsible (yeah, right) and, if you haven’t, they aren’t going to willingly shell out extra credit so you can pick up your grade.

• If you’re doing poorly in a class that won’t prevent you from graduating on time. Definitely check with your adviser first! Sometimes dropping a class has better consequences than hurting your GPA with a C or D in whatever gen ed you decided to take to fulfill your humanities or other cultures requirements. You don’t want to have to answer questions in an interview your junior or senior year about why you have a sub-par grade in a 100-level class.

This is by no means an exhaustive list. Your class schedule shouldn’t leave you in hives, hyperventilating about whether or not you’re going to pass (unless you’re in O-Chem. I hear these reactions are normal and actually expected). Before dropping any class, you should at least schedule a meeting with your TA or professor to talk about your situation. Check out your degree audit…you don’t want to make any drastic decisions. You can find that on eLion. And if you can’t find eLion, you may have bigger problems than just dropping one class.