How bad does a withdrawal look in these circumstances?

[TimUCF]

Hi everyone,
I currently have a 4.0 GPA going and am in my junior year of undergrad. I am currently in a class on nanobiotechnology, and I made a big mistake and missed that there was a change in the date of my exam. I missed class for the first time last week because I accidentally set my alarm for pm instead of am, and that is when the professor announced the syllabus had the wrong date. She also posted it to our online class page, but I managed to overlook it. Because of this, I was completely unprepared for the exam and I almost certainly failed it. There are only 350 points in the class and this was 100 of them, so there is very little room to make up for it either. I'd be okay with getting a B in the class and I know that would look better than a W, but would a W look better than a C if I was able to explain what happened in an interview? This would be my only W. I just don't like the thought of getting a C and lowering my GPA quite a bit because of a fluke mistake. Thanks for the input!

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[TimUCF]

1) Explaining this mistake under these circumstances would make you look like an idiot
2) Taking a W over a C is ridiculous
3) Having the neurotic premed mindset for a perfect 4.0 and are willing to withdraw over frankly makes me question your judgement

This isnt a fluke mistake; your are responsible for your own actions and your actions caused this situation.

Take the C, accept the GPA, never have to explain it nor should you even mention anywhere on your application
No one but you will care about a single C nor the incredibly small hit it goes into your GPA from a 4.0 to a 3.98

In no way am I trying to avoid taking responsibility for this. I realize it is my fault, but it is a mistake that doesn't really reflect my ability, which in my opinion is the point of grades. I guess you could say it makes me look irresponsible, but that's about the extent of it. However, I appreciate your opinion that a C looks better than a W and will take that into account.

 

[lpp06]

You can explain a C in the scenario much easier than a W. Imagine how the response would look when you address the course in a med school app:

W Explanation: I dropped after poor early performance and I did not want to jeopardize a perfect GPA.

C Explanation: I performed poorly at the start of the course but worked diligently to master the material and maximized the grade I could earn.

Which paints a picture of a more desirable candidate? Remember - 4.0 GPA's are a dime a dozen, so that alone will not tell your story.

 

[Obnoxious Dad]

1) Explaining this mistake under these circumstances would make you look like an idiot
2) Taking a W over a C is ridiculous
3) Having the neurotic premed mindset for a perfect 4.0 and are willing to withdraw over frankly makes me question your judgement

This isnt a fluke mistake; your are responsible for your own actions and your actions caused this situation.

Take the C, accept the GPA, never have to explain it nor should you even mention anywhere on your application
No one but you will care about a single C nor the incredibly small hit it goes into your GPA from a 4.0 to a 3.98

I have seen some really dumb posts on SDN but this takes the cake. If you can withdraw from the class without hurting your GPA or delaying graduation, go right ahead. Medical school admissions officers do not go over every transcript with a fine tooth comb. They can't distinguish a class in physical chemistry from a class in physical education. First and foremost they look at your GPA, science GPA and MCAT score. A 4 credit hour C would take your grade point from a 4.0 to a 3.933. ((4*116) + 2*4))/120) =3.933. The poster above needs to take an arithmetic class.

In the extremely unlikely event that some interviewer asks you about a SINGLE W on your transcript, tell him or her that the professor made a mistake about the exam date and you paid for it. If you can register for the class in a later term and perform well, that would back up your story if some interviewer schmoe actually brought it up.

 

[Obnoxious Dad]

And why should a student who is irresponsible about a class and exam and so OCD about a 4.0 that he/she even spends time worrying about it is ridiculous. Besides the blatant unethical use of the W, and the possible need for another course to replace it, why would anyone waste time and effort over a C in a non prereq class? And the need he/she feels to have to somehow explain any of this? My God, The worry this poster has over it is why some 4.0 students get rejected from medical school. The compulsive need to keep a 4.0, the willingness to take an unethical W, the inability to see that 3.98 is outstanding. Just ludicrous that any time, energy or focus is used even worrying about it.

Once again, Einstein, his GPA would be reduced to a 3.933 and not a 3.98. Can't you read? What is unethical here about a taking a W for the class? Please explain that, Thomas Aquinas. It was his instructor who started this parade of errors and not the OP. I think he has every legal, moral and ethical right to drop the class and take the W.

He's not being OCD about getting a C. He's worried about being competitive for admission and maxing out on merit based aid. With the insanely high GPAs required for admission and the low GPA standard deviations among accepted applicants, he'd be stupid to allow his GPA to drop by almost .07 because some jamoke would think taking a W is unethical.

 

[Goro]

Still living up to your name, I see. THIS Adcom member and his colleagues do look over transcripts with a fine tooth comb. When you start serving on an Adcom, then your comments canbe taken a bit more seriously.

Once again, Einstein, his GPA would be reduced to a 3.933 and not a 3.98. Can't you read? What is unethical here about a taking a W for the class? Please explain that, Thomas Aquinas. It was his instructor who started this parade of errors and not the OP. I think he has every legal, moral and ethical right to drop the class and take the W.

He's not being OCD about getting a C. He's worried about being competitive for admission and maxing out on merit based aid. With the insanely high GPAs required for admission and the low GPA standard deviations among accepted applicants, he'd be stupid to allow his GPA to drop by almost .07 because some jamoke would think taking a W is unethical.

 

[Obnoxious Dad]

W have always been intended for dropping a class for reasons external to normal academic issues

Please cite your source for this statement. All you have is your uninformed opinion. These boards are full of trolls who try, in the hope of making admission less competitive for themselves, to convince medical school applicants to take the most difficult path imaginable. This is where your coming from Mr. Gonnif, and you are living up to your username.

 

[Obnoxious Dad]

Still living up to your name, I see. THIS Adcom member and his colleagues do look over transcripts with a fine tooth comb. When you start serving on an Adcom, then your comments canbe taken a bit more seriously.

Here are the latest numbers of applications submitted to allopathic medical schools by institution.
https://www.aamc.org/download/321442/data/factstablea1.pdf
Are you going to state for the record that the admissions committee at George Washington University's med school gives every one of its 15,000 applications a thorough examination? Please make everyone laugh.

Medical schools do not normalize transcripts to account for the rigor of applicants' undergraduate colleges and majors because they simply lack the staff to perform that task. This is the reason that the applicants who major in the physical sciences get brushed aside in favor of non-science majors who take the absolute minimum number of science classes and play "pick a prof" to get the easiest graders. That's why chemistry and physics majors account for less than 12% of med school matriculants and non-science majors account for 35% of medical school classes. It's also the the reason that one withdrawal from a class, particularly when the blame can be laid at the feet of the professor, is not going to jeopardize this kid's chances of getting into medical school.
https://www.aamc.org/download/321496/data/factstablea17.pdf

 

[Obnoxious Dad]

It is unquestionably true that AMCAS helps medical school admissions offices organize the data and it is true that at the 20 or so most selective medical schools there is some normalization of transcripts. However, at most medical schools in the U.S. there is no attempt to normalize transcripts to account for the admissions standards and grade inflation at undergraduate institutions. Furthermore, there is no effort to adjust transcripts to account for the difficulty of undergraduate majors. I asked one old biddy on an admissions committee why no effort was made to normalize transcripts at her relatively prestigious state medical school and her reply was, "How could we?"

I'm afraid that you are missing the point. While chemistry majors have to take 16 or 17 math and science classes to graduate and meet med school prerequisites and physics majors have to take 21 or 22 classes to accomplish those goals, the people who major in the social sciences or humanities take 10 such classes and never crack a calculus book. The easier path allows higher GPAs. AMCAS doesn't do diddly to account for that. The fact that social science and humanities majors can slide in at a rate that approximates the success rates of physical science majors proves my point and not yours. Furthermore, because there are economic costs, measured in time and cash, associated with applying to medical school, people who attend tough colleges and major in the physical sciences with resulting lower GPAs exclude themselves from the admissions process. They are faced at every turn with advisors and professors who tell them that they have no shot because their GPAs are too low even though anyone with a lick of common sense knows that physical science majors are better scientists.