Explaining W's to schools who don't ask on secondaries?

[misosoop]

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Hi, some of the schools I'm applying to don't have a space to address academic inconsistencies/"other information". I withdrew from 3 courses in one semester due to a family death and I feel like so many withdrawals at once would definitely raise some eyebrows and warrants an explanation. Should I try to wiggle an explanation into the secondaries that don't explicitly ask about this?

Thanks for your insight.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Prepare to answer when prompted. It should be obvious something happened with a semester withdrawal, but if they don't ask on their secondaries, you can ask the admissions team whether it's something they want to know. Believe it or not, some adcoms don't care once you get to interview stage.

 

[wysdoc]

Hi, some of the schools I'm applying to don't have a space to address academic inconsistencies/"other information". I withdrew from 3 courses in one semester due to a family death and I feel like so many withdrawals at once would definitely raise some eyebrows and warrants an explanation. Should I try to wiggle an explanation into the secondaries that don't explicitly ask about this?

Thanks for your insight.

If they don't ask it on the secondary, I wouldn't stick it in to some other essay.
Your grades didn't appear to suffer so it wouldn't fit the academic inconsistency prompts, but it might be a better fit for an essay asking for difficult situations you have gone through. Or they might ask in an interview if they have your whole file in front of them.

 

[misosoop]

but if they don't ask on their secondaries, you can ask the admissions team whether it's something they want to know.

By this, do you mean emailing admissions directly?

Believe it or not, some adcoms don't care once you get to interview stage.

This is reassuring, thanks. I worry that unexplained W's will make it more unlikely to make it to the interview stage.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

By this, do you mean emailing admissions directly?

This is reassuring, thanks. I worry that unexplained W's will make it more unlikely to make it to the interview stage.

Email the admissions office if they need this information for screening your file. That's the only way I can answer your question for programs that don't ask in advance.

 

[Goro]

Hi, some of the schools I'm applying to don't have a space to address academic inconsistencies/"other information". I withdrew from 3 courses in one semester due to a family death and I feel like so many withdrawals at once would definitely raise some eyebrows and warrants an explanation. Should I try to wiggle an explanation into the secondaries that don't explicitly ask about this?

Thanks for your insight.

If they don't ask for it, why should you mention it?

 

[GoSpursGo]

I agree, if there isn’t a place to naturally discuss in a secondary then I wouldn’t shoehorn it in. It might come up in an interview but honestly it shows maturity for you to recognize that you needed to take a break rather than trying to pull yourself up by your bootstraps

 

[polymerization]

If you're one of those people who don't have anything to put in Other Impactful Experiences, this is one of those things that goes in there, I think.

Not to make excuses for/explain away the withdrawal, but just to put it in the evaluator's head that you experienced a sort of life-shattering event while in school. When they come across the W's, they'll say "oh, that makes sense, it must have happened this semester" and keep it moving.

 

[misosoop]

If you're one of those people who don't have anything to put in Other Impactful Experiences, this is one of those things that goes in there, I think.

Not to make excuses for/explain away the withdrawal, but just to put it in the evaluator's head that you experienced a sort of life-shattering event while in school. When they come across the W's, they'll say "oh, that makes sense, it must have happened this semester" and keep it moving.

Yes, unfortunately primary is already submitted! I will reach out directly to admissions.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

I also think that if your application GPA is a 3.85 with a 525, I am not sure pointing out your semester withdrawal is going to address any academic inconsistencies. Prepare appropriately and answer when prompted. I don't think you need to put it into OIE, but it is there in case you had to use it. Other schools have their own version of OIE in their secondaries; hopefully you have sussed them out already with pre-writing.

I know many premeds think they should contrast being superhuman by pointing out the smallest imperfections (though I'm not saying OP is doing this deliberately). One must balance pointing out interruptions in one's education with sounding way too neurotic. Many premeds (maybe some admissions advisors?) think the way you "win" is to highlight how broken you are underneath the veneer of perfect grades and scores.