How bad does a "W" look on prestigious med school applications?

[CoolKid575]

Hi, I recently withdrew from a Medical Terminology course I was taking through Dual Enrollment; I had been struggling in it since the start of the year, but the last straw that made me quit is that I got due dates confused with my other class and thought everything was due on September 10th instead of the 9th, which made me automatically fail 2 entire chapters out of the 15 in the course and I ended up dropping the course this morning so I don't leave HS with a C or B already on my college transcript. I'm aware that I need to work on my time management / cutting it so close isn't something I should make a habit of (I'm doing much better in my other course & have an A, but doing DE has been a big wake-up call in general). But will having this W have a significant impact on my future applications to prestigious schools? Is it still possible for me to get into a good school like Harvard or Johns Hopkins?

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[wysdoc]

It will not have any effect.
Does your HS push dual enrollment?
If so, try to use it for things like your history and government classes as med schools will usually want you to take the hard sciences at a higher level of academic content in college rather than HS.

 

[LizzyM]

No one will care. The W looks bad when it appears to be a case of protecting the 4.0 GPA in undergrad. Also agree with @wysdoc

 

[Goro]

Ws are not Fs. Spread the word.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Is it still possible for me to get into a good school like Harvard or Johns Hopkins?

Hi there and welcome to the forums!

Are you talking about undergraduate admissions or medical school admissions? Either way, since these are DE courses, withdrawing may be the more mature decision and won't hurt you in medical school admissions. I can't imagine how it would negatively impact you for undergraduate admissions without knowing better your situation and resources that make you a desirable fit for those universities.

Please confirm you are a high school or undergraduate student. (MODS: we may move this to hSDN.)

 

[AJS59]

Is it still possible for me to get into a good school like Harvard or Johns Hopkins?

Hopefully this has been a good wake up call for you, I had similar experiences in my HS DE which were good learning experiences.

With all due respect (and I really do mean this!): If I'm understanding this right, you're in high school. Please please chill out about medical school admissions, especially to high tier med schools like Harvard and Hopkins. At minimum, if you're a senior in high school, you're 4 years away from even being able to apply to a med school in most situations. Barring a low grade (and I mean more like a D or F) of a DE class or doing something really stupid (i.e. criminal behavior or academic dishonesty) nothing you do right now will hurt you meaningfully for medical school applications. I encourage you to keep exploring the field of medicine right now to see what interests you (shadowing, volunteering, research, etc.), but don't forget to take the time to enjoy your high school life and undergraduate life when you get to it. You only do high school and undergrad once in your life!

 

[CoolKid575]

Hi there and welcome to the forums!

Are you talking about undergraduate admissions or medical school admissions? Either way, since these are DE courses, withdrawing may be the more mature decision and won't hurt you in medical school admissions. I can't imagine how it would negatively impact you for undergraduate admissions without knowing better your situation and resources that make you a desirable fit for those universities.

Please confirm you are a high school or undergraduate student. (MODS: we may move this to hSDN.)

Hi! Thanks for the welcome! I'm in my Senior year of high school and was asking about the impact it would have on med school admissions.