I am a current senior planning on applying to med school after taking 2 gap years (haven't taken MCAT yet). I'm starting to think (very preliminarily) about applications, and wanted to throw a question out there about W grades on transcripts. I unfortunately have 2 - one in gen chem 2 my freshman year, and one in orgo 2 the summer after my junior year. The first W occurred just because I was a stupid freshman and terrified of getting anything other than an A so I dropped the class when it got hard - bad decision I know. The second W occurred due to unexpected family/Covid-related circumstances that required me to travel back and forth across the country to take care of my family several times - it got to be too much and I had to drop the course. The gen chem class I retook during a semester that was pass-fail due to Covid at my school, and I'm planning on retaking orgo 2 in the winter. I feel confident that I can do well because I am planning on having an otherwise light class load and have been self-studying since I dropped the class.
So, my question is, does anyone have an idea of what impact these two W's will have on my application? I know that it doesn't look good that they're both in important premed classes. My overall GPA is 3.71 and I am pretty confident that it will remain there or go up this year. I know that a lot also depends on MCAT, but I am planning on dedicating 3-6 months of full-time study to it immediately after graduation and hopefully can do well. At this point, I'm just trying to gauge what range of schools I should apply to - i.e., do my W's mean that I should apply to schools with lower average GPAs than mine as target schools? I believe that the rest of my application is pretty solid, with lots of research, EMT experience, shadowing, and volunteering. Thank you so much for your input, I really appreciate it.
