Nervous about my W's and early undergrad F's

[NervousbutExcited]

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Hi guys, I know you probably see posts like this all the time, but I would greatly appreciate if somebody lays down the law and puts me out of my misery (lol) or hopefully gives me some peace of mind! I would be very grateful to whoever reads my story!

Long story short: I started undergrad at CC in 2011, as a 17-year-old with absolutely no ambition or quite frankly, desire to be in college. I just enrolled because my friends did. I got 4 F's in the first two semesters, and then quit school. In 2014 I decided I wanted to re-enroll, and I retook all of those 4 classes and gotten A's in them. I pretty much received all A's and B's for the rest of my AA courses, until my last semester where I got another F, a D, and a few C's. I was an avid weightlifter and during this semester I had a really bad weightlifting accident where I herniated disks and ended up with spinal stenosis, which made me really depressed that semester and I lost a bit of motivation to finish those classes.

Anyway, I saw a physical therapist, who was tremendous in my recovery and she provided incredible inspiration for me to continue on and work towards a DPT program, and after transferring to a University, I've gotten all A's and B's, 1 C, but 6 W's. The W's, unfortunately, were part of my senior year, and ultimately it came down to me biting off more than I can chew. I was working 40 hours a week at a Hospital 60 miles away... and the semesters where I withdrew, I was taking 5 classes and 4 science classes each time, while working full time. Obviously, I should not have done that to myself but I wanted to expedite the undergrad process so bad. When I had those W's, I took Physics 1, Orgo 1, Immunology, Pathophysiology and Trigonometry, and ultimately withdrew from two of those classes. But gotten A's in the other ones and A's and B's in all the ones I withdrew from in general.

So, here I am, 9 credits away from graduation, and I'm a bit nervous about my chances of getting into the next cycle, and would greatly appreciate any advice. My cumulative GPA is a 3.22, and my upperclassmen (last 60 credit hours) GPA is a 3.735. My prerequisite GPA for the programs I would like to get into is ~3.6, with Physics II still left next semester. I have not yet taken the GRE and have 50 hours inpatient and outpatient volunteering experience. But I have 4 F's from ~6-7 years ago, and 7 W's total, with 5 of them in my junior/senior years. I'm not as nervous about the F's as they were from so long ago and I believe I can explain that, but I'm very stressed out about the W's I have during my senior year as a result of overloading myself.

Sorry for all the additional details about my personal story, but I was hoping to paint a picture to anyone who would be kind enough to read this and get an opinion as to whether or not it'd be valid reasons during an explanation in my personal statement.

TLDR: I have 3.2 cGPA, 3.735 upperclassmen/last 60 hours GPA, ~3.6 prerequisite GPA with one course left, but 4 F's and 7 W's on my transcript....... is there any chance a committee could overlook my W's and focus on my GPA/GRE/Personal statement and have a chance to still get an interview?

I want to thank anybody in advance for reading this. Cheers and happy hollidays to all!

 

[Zimbabwe9]

Hi guys, I know you probably see posts like this all the time, but I would greatly appreciate if somebody lays down the law and puts me out of my misery (lol) or hopefully gives me some peace of mind! I would be very grateful to whoever reads my story!

Long story short: I started undergrad at CC in 2011, as a 17-year-old with absolutely no ambition or quite frankly, desire to be in college. I just enrolled because my friends did. I got 4 F's in the first two semesters, and then quit school. In 2014 I decided I wanted to re-enroll, and I retook all of those 4 classes and gotten A's in them. I pretty much received all A's and B's for the rest of my AA courses, until my last semester where I got another F, a D, and a few C's. I was an avid weightlifter and during this semester I had a really bad weightlifting accident where I herniated disks and ended up with spinal stenosis, which made me really depressed that semester and I lost a bit of motivation to finish those classes.

Anyway, I saw a physical therapist, who was tremendous in my recovery and she provided incredible inspiration for me to continue on and work towards a DPT program, and after transferring to a University, I've gotten all A's and B's, 1 C, but 6 W's. The W's, unfortunately, were part of my senior year, and ultimately it came down to me biting off more than I can chew. I was working 40 hours a week at a Hospital 60 miles away... and the semesters where I withdrew, I was taking 5 classes and 4 science classes each time, while working full time. Obviously, I should not have done that to myself but I wanted to expedite the undergrad process so bad. When I had those W's, I took Physics 1, Orgo 1, Immunology, Pathophysiology and Trigonometry, and ultimately withdrew from two of those classes. But gotten A's in the other ones and A's and B's in all the ones I withdrew from in general.

So, here I am, 9 credits away from graduation, and I'm a bit nervous about my chances of getting into the next cycle, and would greatly appreciate any advice. My cumulative GPA is a 3.22, and my upperclassmen (last 60 credit hours) GPA is a 3.735. My prerequisite GPA for the programs I would like to get into is ~3.6, with Physics II still left next semester. I have not yet taken the GRE and have 50 hours inpatient and outpatient volunteering experience. But I have 4 F's from ~6-7 years ago, and 7 W's total, with 5 of them in my junior/senior years. I'm not as nervous about the F's as they were from so long ago and I believe I can explain that, but I'm very stressed out about the W's I have during my senior year as a result of overloading myself.

Sorry for all the additional details about my personal story, but I was hoping to paint a picture to anyone who would be kind enough to read this and get an opinion as to whether or not it'd be valid reasons during an explanation in my personal statement.

TLDR: I have 3.2 cGPA, 3.735 upperclassmen/last 60 hours GPA, ~3.6 prerequisite GPA with one course left, but 4 F's and 7 W's on my transcript....... is there any chance a committee could overlook my W's and focus on my GPA/GRE/Personal statement and have a chance to still get an interview?

I want to thank anybody in advance for reading this. Cheers and happy hollidays to all!

Hey! Thank you so much for sharing your story! I think that even with the W’s, D’s and F’s most schools will overlook that. Most schools will overlook the beginning of your school career because they know that a lot of people have a rocket start (such as myself) and end up figuring it out! Your pre-req gpa is pretty good for a lot of schools and your cumulative is not bad as well! As for the GRE, try to get 300+ cumulative score with at least a 4.0 for the writing, it will help out a lot! Have faith, have hope, and everything will work out! I also have 2 D’s on my transcript and was recently accepted into two schools because I retook those classes and got an A so don’t worry everything will work out!! Happy holidays and if you have any questions feel free to reach out to me!!

 

[NervousbutExcited]

Hey! Thank you so much for sharing your story! I think that even with the W’s, D’s and F’s most schools will overlook that. Most schools will overlook the beginning of your school career because they know that a lot of people have a rocket start (such as myself) and end up figuring it out! Your pre-req gpa is pretty good for a lot of schools and your cumulative is not bad as well! As for the GRE, try to get 300+ cumulative score with at least a 4.0 for the writing, it will help out a lot! Have faith, have hope, and everything will work out! I also have 2 D’s on my transcript and was recently accepted into two schools because I retook those classes and got an A so don’t worry everything will work out!! Happy holidays and if you have any questions feel free to reach out to me!!

It was mainly the W's in my senior year as a result of overloading myself with 4 science courses (instead of just spreading them out a bit more) that has me nervous the most, but you have definitely made me feel way better! Thank you so much for the quick response and god bless!

 

[deleted621075]

I think your story is interesting and you may find similar to others when you apply. Have you had the opportunity to talk to the programs you are interested in? They could give you ideas of how each process goes depending on the school and could possibly tell you about your chances and how they may look at the W’s.

What area of the country are you looking at for school? Are you willing to look all over? Your GPA’s are there for many schools but yes, each school will look at the W’s in their own way and as you know it’s tough when applying because there are many applicants but with the right research and looking at schools you can hopefully find those that best suit you and your story.

 

[TM05]

Hi, so I appreciate you typing out your entire story. It shows you really care. There are a lot of aspects of the application that a school looks at as I'm sure you know. Sure, you had a below average start to your college career. That's okay. For me, it took me figuring out that I wanted to be a PT to fix my GPA as well. I also had a few F's, W's, and a D. However, I retook every one of those courses and received an A. Retaking courses will really help your application as the school sees that you really care and arent going to settle. Regardless, try to polish EVERY other aspect. For me, I had a 3.44 cumulative GPA. But I had close to 500 hours of just unpaid shadowing in multiple settings. My GRE score was a 299, but a 5 on the writing portion. I feel I had really strong reference letters and I feel as though my personal essay was strong too. You can see my specific stats in a post of mine. Anyway, I applied to: Creighton, Wichita St, Duke, Emory, KU, University of St. Mary, Missouri State, and OU. I have been accepted to Missouri State, Wichita State, and have interviews to Creighton, USM, and Emory so far.

I was where you are at. I hope I don't come across as cocky for listing all of my opportunities, but I just really want to be proof to you that you can do it if you really want to. You are going to have to work hard though! Good luck, I know everything will work out for you 🙂

 

[DPTHopeful37]

Hi!, I figured id share my experience with a similar situation to yours, I did awful in my first 3 semesters of undergrad. I was coming off an ACL surgery and was on scholarship to play a Varsity sport at my college. Long story short i spent an overwhelming amount of my time and effort on rehabbing and getting back to my sport, which left me with a lack luster 3 semester cGPA of ~2.7 with an F or 2 and a couple W. I refocused going forward and was able to raise my gpa up to about a 3.3 which isn't the most competitive but was the best i could do. After graduating I took two years to work (as a PT Aide) , volunteer in a rehab facility and take GRE courses. I looked into any possible way to bolster the other parts of my application which I could control. I accumulated ~3500 hours of patient care and scored a 320 4.5 on my GRE and was subsequently accepted during my second cycle of applications.
The jist of what i'm getting at is your grades are just one part of your application, there are multiple other aspects to which you can show the school why you belong there. And as far as the personal statement i tried to stay away from listing why i didn't do well in my first few semesters at the risk of sounding like i was listing excuses but instead I focused on what i learned from that time of my studies and how it made me a stronger student going forward!

TL;DR - Take a deep breath and work to make every facet of your application stand out in one way or another!!

Hope this is helpful! Best Of Luck!!