Taking W's in a semester but still good grades?

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sdominator21

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Does having Ws in your Junior year kill your chances even if the rest of the transcript is good?

I might end up with two this semester because of an emergency, but my overall GPAs are still good. Can Ws be explained if a school asks about them?
 
If you never mention the Ws and wait for the school to ask, it may hurt you. If you come forth and put somewhere on your application or correspondence the reasons for the Ws, then it should not be a problem if the rest of your grades and trends are good. I have had a W and later a hardship W and I still got into medical school.
 
I'm just afraid of how they will look in general since it is Junior year. Won't it look weird to have two W's in the Fall semester and then a really good 2nd semester after that?

Or can I use that to show that I picked myself back up?
 
Just tell them your situation. If your grade trend is constantly improving, then you will be fine.
 
Contrary to SDN belief, W's don't really matter. I had one sophomore year and senior year and I'm doing just fine. Granted with the W I had all A's besides the W and withdrew because of lack of interest and time. If you have a W with a bunch of B's and C's it may be different.
 
Yeah. I'm starting to feel that the only time when W's become bad is if you get 3+ or have a habit of taking them.

Isn't the overall GPA looked at first before the details? I'm not sure if they go through every transcript with a fine-toothed comb...

What do you guys think?
 
Two withdrawn semesters, upward trending GPA, 6 II. For what that's worth.
 
I had 4 Withdrawals on my AMCAS last year - 2 in one semester and 1 each in other semesters - and it didn't even come up. I got into a "top 10" school despite those Ws and GPA/MCAT both being below the 10th percentile. If those Ws were going to push someone over the academic edge, it was probably me. Didn't happen. Obviously, it's important to have an explanation, but based on n=1, I wouldn't be as worried about it as SDN would have you think.
 
Yeah, one of my withdrawals is in a non-science and the other one is a phys class. I dropped because I took on too many commitments this semester.
I'm not sure if it should be explained on AMCAS or if I would only talk about it if it comes up in an interview
 
I had 3 Ws over my career and in all my interviews I was never asked about them. Only Albert Einstein asked about it, but that was on their secondary.
 
So it is more important to protect the numbers first before anything else?
 
I had 3 Ws over my career and in all my interviews I was never asked about them. Only Albert Einstein asked about it, but that was on their secondary.
Definitely don't volunteer to discuss them, whoever mentioned that is nuts... when you interview for anything you just put your best foot forward and if they ask about any weaknesses you have a good answer ready. Interviewing 101.
 
I don't think a few W's will make a difference.

IMHO I think grades are too over emphasized. Don't get me wrong...obviously they are important and GPA is a determining factor on which schools a person is competitive for. But W's or even poor grades aren't a deathblow. I have several W's on my transcript, including an EMT course in sophomore year (to my regret, I never completed the EMT course). In my senior year I received a C in o-chem II, a C- in microbiology, a C in neuroscience, a B- in Biochem, and did P/F in immunology. In other words, all the classes you don't want to do poorly in!!!

I did do an informal post-bacc at a different (albeit much lower ranked) school after graduation, which entailed re-taking o-chem II and 3 upper division bio classes. My first time around at school I was a dumb$*%. I did a lot better in my post-bacc. At the end of it all, my science GPA was a 3.60. Point is, I just got back from interviewing at Pitt, and have already been accepted at University of California, Davis.
 
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Yeah, I think I'll just move on and kick @$$ next semester with upper levels sciences and my other ECs & all.

I'll only mention the 2 W's before that if they specifically ask me about it.
 
Certainly. Just make sure going forward that you don't over-extend yourself and end up with multiple additional semesters with Ws.
Yeah agree, as long as it isn't a pattern the numbers will be much more important. Good call.
 
Hmm..the people on SDN make it sound like W's will kill your chances
I've still got that upward trend GPA though, so I can probably still make it look like withdrawals were just a blip on the radar
 
Hmm..the people on SDN make it sound like W's will kill your chances
I've still got that upward trend GPA though, so I can probably still make it look like withdrawals were just a blip on the radar
People on SDN also make it sound like if you have anything less than a 3.75 gpa, 36 MCAT, and at least two first-author publications, you will be forced to choose between going DO and going Caribbean. Take what you read here with a grain of salt. It takes a little work to sort through the neuroticism to find all of the valuable information available on here.
 
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