Undergraduate students will normally be permitted four Q-Drops during their undergraduate studies; however: State law prohibits students from having more than six dropped courses from all state institutions attended during their undergraduate career if they entered higher education as a first-time enrolled freshman beginning the 2007 fall semester or after. Q-Drops in one-hour courses will not count in the Texas A&M limit of four but will be included in the State-mandated limit of six dropped courses. If a lecture and companion lab are dropped at the same time, this will count as one Q-Drop rather than two. (Texas A&M University Student Rule 1.18.2)

The Texas Legislature passed Senate Bill 165 in the summer 2021, impacting Q-Drops in courses during Spring 2020, Summer 2020, as well as academic year 2020-2021 (Fall 2020, Spring 2021, and Summer 2021). The law stipulates these drops can be exempt so that they do not count against the student’s institutional and state drop limits. Academic records were retroactively updated by the Office of the Registrar in response to SB 165 in August 2021. For the specified terms, all Q drops originally recorded as a “Q” grade now appear as a “W” grade and will no longer be included in a student’s total count of total Q drops. 

Q-Drops for STUDENT-ATHLETES (including practice players, managers, and trainers) that drop the student below 12 hours require additional approvals. Once approved, online Q-Drop requests for these students should route to Athletic Compliance. Athletic Compliance will route requests to the Office of the Registrar for completion. 

**Please note the online Q-Drop process includes the additional steps for routing and you will not need to notify anyone once you approve.

Please contact the Records Administration & Archives Team in the Office of the Registrar at (979) 845-2658 or recordsadmin@tamu.edu for information regarding questions or training on Q-Drop processing.