Please Help, Really Stressed Out, Advice?

[MC1910]

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Hi All,
I would most deeply appreciate your advice or input on my situation...

I'm currently majoring in a hard science and have an overall GPA of ~3.9.

This Fall was the beginning of my senior year, but due to a family/personal crisis I had to end up withdrawing from the semester entirely. I had to drop all 6 of my classes and they're all W's

I don't have any W's at all from my previous semesters, the majority of my grades are A's and A-'s. I still have about 20 credits left to graduate, and I want to make sure I finish off the rest of these credits with a 4.0.

My main concern is that I heard schools freak out if you have more than 2 W's on your transcript, and I have 6!!! I've tried to petition for removal of these W's and even did an appeal but it all fell through and I've let go of that idea. I am in a constant state of anxiety and feel like I don't even have a chance at applying to a top tier school (mainly thinking pharmacy school, also some thoughts of graduate school).

I know for a fact that it's not all grades, and schools want to see stuff like extracurricular, research, and high test scores (GRE, PCAT, etc.). I have decent extracurricular and also will have close to 3 years of research by the time I graduate. I am busting my *** over these entrance exams and will do my best to place top percentile.

I was told by many advisors (successful professors in the field) that it is easily explainable especially since it's all in one semester and it was ALL of my classes, but I can't help but feel like my application will just be thrown out after this blotch of W's comes up.

I just don't know how I can get around this and not seem like a loser for withdrawing from so many classes. I'm hoping they see that this is a complete outlier semester and throw it out, and that they can easily understand my in depth explanation on the application but ugh, help?

 

[PharmhopefulNC]

I think that most people will agree that you should just persevere, and plan on explaining away that semester with your personal statement and supplementals - they give you plenty of opportunity to redeem yourself during the application process. I think 6 W's all in one semester are a lot easier to explain than
6 W's scattered throughout several semesters. I think with your overall record, admissions committees will understand that you had an unusual circumstance. Stop stressing and concentrate on your final 20 credits!

 

[R2pharmD2]

Chill. It's not a big deal. Explain that you had a personal situation to deal with and you'll be fine.

 

[Digsbe]

I'm sure the adcoms would understand if you clearly explain why you had to drop your classes this semester. Who knows, maybe you could also include how this experience has impacted you and helped you grow (flipping it into a possible positive thing).

 

[NickW9682]

I mean its not like you got a nearly perfect GPA and just said F it your senior year. Life's not perfect and unfortunately s*** happens. Clearly your a good student and the admissions committee will obviously notice that something out of your norm happened. Hope everything is better though and I think you should be fine 🙂

 

[DelawareStudent]

Chill. It's not a big deal. Explain that you had a personal situation to deal with and you'll be fine.

Just echoing these sentiments. It sounds like your W's are fairly easy to explain, I wouldn't be concerned about it as long as you explain it.

 

[xtsukiyox]

Chill. It's not a big deal. Explain that you had a personal situation to deal with and you'll be fine.

What he said.

I believe what adcoms are concerned about is people who see they're not going to pass the first round of A&P / O Chem / whatever and withdraw rather than taking the low grade. What it amounts to is a student getting two attempts to make a good grade at a class, and they don't want to see a marked track record of this sort of behavior. Dropping one entire semester of classes is both completely understandable and easily explainable.

If it makes you feel better, I am almost certain I have more than 6 Ws scattered across several years and MWU didn't ask me a darn thing.

Congrats on the fantastic GPA! I hope everything is resolved & you'll be able to finish up undergrad in Spring (or Fall). A GPA like that is going to impress at any school you want to get into.

 

[varsityblue]

A short explanation in your additional information section will do nicely. Good luck! 🙂

 

[MC1910]

Hey everyone,

Thanks so much for the kind words,
I will definitely focus on my last leftover credits! 🙂