How many W is okay?

[Ryomagoku]

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I'm retaking classes at community college right now but I want to withdraw class(not a retake) so I can do better on my retake course.
But I withdrew once at my university and at this community college before.

Will 3 Ws look bad?

 

[TheLeadSeed]

I currently have about 14 spread throughout the past 3 years, and I'm a traditional student in my senior year. Haven't had the best time prioritizing and balancing my academics and extra curriculars. Have around 3.2/3.4 sGPA/cGPA and taking MCAT next spring. 3 DO letters.

Not gonna let the W's stop me!


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[change4med]

The less W's you have the better of course. But better to get a W than a C.

Whether or not it looks bad depends on your interviewer, I had 3 W's my first two years of college (Calc and Physics) and was grilled on it a bit at the last interview I went to ("Why did you drop calc this year?" I answered something like 'Wanted to do better in other classes since I was taking a lot of units and working", and they continued with "In med school, you aren't able to drop any classes and your workload is much higher, what makes you think it wouldn't be a problem?"). But I also know other people with similar amount of drops who told me it wasn't brought up, so YMMV

 

[Ryomagoku]

The less W's you have the better of course. But better to get a W than a C.

Whether or not it looks bad depends on your interviewer, I had 3 W's my first two years of college (Calc and Physics) and was grilled on it a bit at the last interview I went to ("Why did you drop calc this year?" I answered something like 'Wanted to do better in other classes since I was taking a lot of units and working", and they continued with "In med school, you aren't able to drop any classes and your workload is much higher, what makes you think it wouldn't be a problem?"). But I also know other people with similar amount of drops who told me it wasn't brought up, so YMMV

I currently have about 14 spread throughout the past 3 years, and I'm a traditional student in my senior year. Haven't had the best time prioritizing and balancing my academics and extra curriculars. Have around 3.2/3.4 sGPA/cGPA and taking MCAT next spring. 3 DO letters.

Not gonna let the W's stop me!


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile app

Can I ask wen will be considered early in application?

Is July considered early? Or maybe early August?

I'm fairly new with the application.

Can I put two classes in progress or will be taking, submit the application early as in June then update with grades? Would updated GPA get counted or just the GPA that I submitted in June before update?

 

[OverlyRomantic]

Can I ask wen will be considered early in application?

Is July considered early? Or maybe early August?

I'm fairly new with the application.

Can I put two classes in progress or will be taking, submit the application early as in June then update with grades? Would updated GPA get counted or just the GPA that I submitted in June before update?

For DO August will still be early. Yes, you can submit classes in progress and submit grades later.


For what it's worth: I had 1 W and it wasn't a problem. It wasn't brought up at any of my interviews, but I had my pre-med counselor tell me that any more than two W's will look like a red flag on your app. He was stating his opinion, so take this with a grain of salt!

 

[change4med]

Can I ask wen will be considered early in application?

Is July considered early? Or maybe early August?

I'm fairly new with the application.

Can I put two classes in progress or will be taking, submit the application early as in June then update with grades? Would updated GPA get counted or just the GPA that I submitted in June before update?

For submitting secondaries, I'd say anything before September is very early.

Just the GPA that you submit in June would be counted. When you're able to update (I think it was October1-30th) or something, then you could update your application, but then again only some schools would get the updated one, (I had a school I interviewed in November not know I got an A on my anatomy class my interview because it was IP and they had an outdated copy of my primary).

I think it depends on your grades, but usually I think it's better to submit early and update later, than to apply late with a slightly stronger GPA (at that point it won't matter too much anyways)

 

[Ryomagoku]

For submitting secondaries, I'd say anything before September is very early.

Just the GPA that you submit in June would be counted. When you're able to update (I think it was October1-30th) or something, then you could update your application, but then again only some schools would get the updated one, (I had a school I interviewed in November not know I got an A on my anatomy class my interview because it was IP and they had an outdated copy of my primary).

I think it depends on your grades, but usually I think it's better to submit early and update later, than to apply late with a slightly stronger GPA (at that point it won't matter too much anyways)

I want to take anatomy course for summer but the summer course ends on early July to mid July. By then my GPA will be near 3.2. Without that it will be around 3.1

Should I just submit with 3.1?

 

[deleted610572]

I currently have about 14 spread throughout the past 3 years, and I'm a traditional student in my senior year. Haven't had the best time prioritizing and balancing my academics and extra curriculars. Have around 3.2/3.4 sGPA/cGPA and taking MCAT next spring. 3 DO letters.

Not gonna let the W's stop me!


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile app

14... That's quite excessive lol

 

[change4med]

I want to take anatomy course for summer but the summer course ends on early July to mid July. By then my GPA will be near 3.2. Without that it will be around 3.1

Should I just submit with 3.1?

Your call, in my opinion I would submit primary after your grades come out mid July (4-6 weeks processing time would still be mid August) and prewrite your secondary essays (look at the essay prompts for this year under school specific ones) so that the moment you receive your secondaries you can submit (most likely before Sept or latest mid September).

 

[GypsyHummus]

I had about 4, and I still got an interview.

 

[TexasSurgeon]

Generally, as long as it isn't some sort of trend: EX- you drop a hard class every time you take it or something, then I think you should be okay. That being said, don't have a ton all over the place. I had to take one because of an emergency family situation, and then I had to take another one almost 4 semesters later when I got extremely sick.

Basically it shouldn't look like you're just trying to cop out of hard classes or in a string of them every semester or something.

Holy moly 14 W's is insane. My place only lets you get a certain number

 

[Ryomagoku]

Generally, as long as it isn't some sort of trend: EX- you drop a hard class every time you take it or something, then I think you should be okay. That being said, don't have a ton all over the place. I had to take one because of an emergency family situation, and then I had to take another one almost 4 semesters later when I got extremely sick.

Basically it shouldn't look like you're just trying to cop out of hard classes or in a string of them every semester or something.

Holy moly 14 W's is insane. My place only lets you get a certain number

It kinda is not. I was biochem major but I had to drop developmental bio class because i had to sign up for research course and that class was not part of my major classes. I had to drop immunology class at a CC but it was online. I wanted to take it in person, which I have not. And the class I want to drop is animal behavior. I think I can get a b for sure. But that will not increase my GPA. It's a hard decision. 🙁

 

[TheLeadSeed]

14... That's quite excessive lol

Yeah I wish I took my classes more seriously. It's not that I can't handle the classes; I should have made smarter decisions and been less involved on campus.

With 14 W's over the past 3 years, do you guys think I can still net interviews if I have average GPA and MCAT with great EC's and 3 DO letters?


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[mathnerd88]

Yeah I wish I took my classes more seriously. It's not that I can't handle the classes; I should have made smarter decisions and been less involved on campus.

With 14 W's over the past 3 years, do you guys think I can still net interviews if I have average GPA and MCAT with great EC's and 3 DO letters?


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Maybe @Goro can give some input on this.

 

[Goro]

I think that the Ws can come up in interviews, and might be an issue when the adcom meets if the interview is meh. Now, 3 W's as in the OP, that's not an issue, but 14 Ws scattered about?

That brings up a worry that a student can't handle a full course load, much less a medical school course load, which will be 3-5x more intense than anything in UG.

The only way to alleviate Adcom concerns is consistent and sustained academic excellence.

Maybe @Goro can give some input on this.

 

[costales]

Texas has a 6-drop rule that says you can't drop more than six classes during your entire undergraduate career. It is actual state law.

 

[metoo]

I have about 19 Ws. I was homeless for awhile during undergrad and I'm the first person in my family to even graduate high school. I was not ready to for college, especially the science classes. In the county I'm from there was a girl who graduated valedictorian of her high school class. Her dad is a doctor and she (as far as I know) had a well to do life. When she went to college in Utah with me she failed gen chem. I 3 times in a row. She gave up becoming a doctor. I'm in a SMP with a 3.4 gpa. I hope I can do well enough on the MCAT to show adcoms that I can handle med. school.

Good luck to you OP!

 

[deleted610572]

I have about 19 Ws. I was homeless for awhile during undergrad and I'm the first person in my family to even graduate high school. I was not ready to for college, especially the science classes. In the county I'm from there was a girl who graduated valedictorian of her high school class. Her dad is a doctor and she (as far as I know) had a well to do life. When she went to college in Utah with me she failed gen chem. I 3 times in a row. She gave up becoming a doctor. I'm in a SMP with a 3.4 gpa. I hope I can do well enough on the MCAT to show adcoms that I can handle med. school.

Good luck to you OP!

You should do well those are extenuating circumstances. Extreme circumstances

 

[metoo]

You should do well those are extenuating circumstances. Extreme circumstances

Thanks for your reply. I home adcoms agree with you.

 

[DrMikeP]

I have about 19 Ws. I was homeless for awhile during undergrad and I'm the first person in my family to even graduate high school. I was not ready to for college, especially the science classes. In the county I'm from there was a girl who graduated valedictorian of her high school class. Her dad is a doctor and she (as far as I know) had a well to do life. When she went to college in Utah with me she failed gen chem. I 3 times in a row. She gave up becoming a doctor. I'm in a SMP with a 3.4 gpa. I hope I can do well enough on the MCAT to show adcoms that I can handle med. school.

Good luck to you OP!

Hopefully, you've shown an upward trend and you should definitely include your story and how you overcame the obstacles in the application. Just don't come across as sounding like you are making excuses. Best of Luck!

 

[metoo]

Hopefully, you've shown an upward trend and you should definitely include your story and how you overcame the obstacles in the application. Just don't come across as sounding like you are making excuses. Best of Luck!

Thanks for the reply and advice.

 

[dreee]

Yeah I wish I took my classes more seriously. It's not that I can't handle the classes; I should have made smarter decisions and been less involved on campus.

With 14 W's over the past 3 years, do you guys think I can still net interviews if I have average GPA and MCAT with great EC's and 3 DO letters?


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I had 3 W's and was accepted to 2 DO programs.
14W's is a bit...excessive. Just remember, you are competing against other applicants. My wild guess is at least 90% of the applicants have less W's than you. You have to give the school a reason to turn down the other 30-40 students who are fighting for your one seat to instead pick you.
I wish you all the best 🙂

 

[TexasSurgeon]

It kinda is not. I was biochem major but I had to drop developmental bio class because i had to sign up for research course and that class was not part of my major classes. I had to drop immunology class at a CC but it was online. I wanted to take it in person, which I have not. And the class I want to drop is animal behavior. I think I can get a b for sure. But that will not increase my GPA. It's a hard decision. 🙁

Okay, but shouldn't you have worked out all the scheduling and class timings before you started the semester and everything? Or did something come up randomly? I know colleges give you a few weeks at the start to drop a class without a "W" on your transcript if you need to drop it.

I'm a biochem major as well. I know the struggle and understand. But school comes before all else. Dropping a class where you yourself are to blame (I'm not saying you are) is bad