I will be a junior and I already have 2 W's, a C, and a C+
how screwed am i?
how screwed am i?
How many W's are too much?
- Thread starter kts
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Depends on
(a) What does your overall GPA / sGPA look like
(b) What classes those C's / Ws were in.
The Ws / Cs might raise some flags if they were from pre-reqs.
(a) What does your overall GPA / sGPA look like
(b) What classes those C's / Ws were in.
The Ws / Cs might raise some flags if they were from pre-reqs.
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From LizzyM:
A single W isn't a red flag unless you have a gpa >3.95 and then it looks like you have perfectionist tendencies and you took the W to protect the perfect gpa.
The beauty of the W is that it doesn't affect the gpa whereas a reall F or D does. Drop and move on without fear, just don't make a habit of it. No more than 2 Ws in your career.
Good luck
LizzyM
A single W isn't a red flag unless you have a gpa >3.95 and then it looks like you have perfectionist tendencies and you took the W to protect the perfect gpa.
The beauty of the W is that it doesn't affect the gpa whereas a reall F or D does. Drop and move on without fear, just don't make a habit of it. No more than 2 Ws in your career.
Good luck
LizzyM
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We have this thing called quoting here...
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I like that people have somehow determined that an arbitrary number of _______ will impact your application negatively. See above.
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Also it depends on the circumstances which led you to withdrawing. Obviously we have things like "excused withdraws" but you might not always have enough paperwork to warrant those. So I guess it just depends where you are getting these w's. If you are getting them in specific classes, like maths, that might not look to well since they can assume that you obviously are having specific problems with those classes. Similar goes for sciences. In general, they have to be spread out among different type of classes. You can not just continuously be withdrawing from classes that are specific to your major, as that might raise suspicion that you are simply in a major that you should not be in.
So preferably there has to be some sort of trend in the withdrawals. And even better if they happen within a semester or two together as that might support something like "having personal issues" that caused you to withdraw. However, it is not good if it just all over the place, like if you are withdrawing from specific classes but are passing "easier" classes with flying colors, that might not look to well.
Basically, people withdraw from classes for varied amount of reasons. Just as long as it does not look like you are withdrawing simply because the class is hard, you should usually be fine with having a number of w's.
Even after all that, the most important thing is to have some sort of an upward trend after the w's, anything that will show that the w's were just a one time thing, and that in reality you are capable of doing so much better.
So preferably there has to be some sort of trend in the withdrawals. And even better if they happen within a semester or two together as that might support something like "having personal issues" that caused you to withdraw. However, it is not good if it just all over the place, like if you are withdrawing from specific classes but are passing "easier" classes with flying colors, that might not look to well.
Basically, people withdraw from classes for varied amount of reasons. Just as long as it does not look like you are withdrawing simply because the class is hard, you should usually be fine with having a number of w's.
Even after all that, the most important thing is to have some sort of an upward trend after the w's, anything that will show that the w's were just a one time thing, and that in reality you are capable of doing so much better.
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Honestly nobody is sure the effect W's have on an application. It is commonly suspected that many W's will bring hard questions on interview days but doubt anyone in their right mind would think X amount of W's will bar you from medical school. It is better to have W's then bad grades. Stuff happens and we all screw up. I know a long time ago there was somebody on here that had 12 W's and got into medical school. He also had a hard past of bad grades that he had to make up for and for sure had the saddest application I have ever seen he did get in or so said his MDapps. ( You can search for it if you would like). F's, W's and a screwed up past will not bar people from med school but immaturity, Low GPA, Bad MCAT scores and a powerful felony record sure will.
