Two Withdrawals, same course

[ecc311]

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Hey everyone,

Looking for some honest perspective here because I’m getting pretty anxious about this situation.

I already have one W in biochem from a school that was online. I withdrew because I got off a waitlist to take it in person and got an A.

Now I have a weird second situation with UCSD Extension. I enrolled in a biochem course there but dropped before actually taking the class (class hadn’t even started and before add/drop deadline). The transcript is completely blank — no credits attempted, no grades, nothing except my name and institution info. AMCAS lets you select “no courses” for that school, which I did, but I’m terrified they’re somehow going to make me list it as another withdrawal. AMCAS says not to list dropped courses but also says you have to list every course if you withdraw from a university before completing courses for the term. AMCAS has said I need to list the schools under institutions attended as I was enrolled but fear they may make me take a W as well and add the course.

Has anyone here ever enrolled in literally one course at a school, dropped it before it started / before any credits were attempted, and then had to list it as a W on AMCAS?

For context, the rest of my app is strong:
- 3.94 cGPA / 3.91 sGPA
- 516 MCAT
- ~9k clinical hours as a paramedic
- Research, leadership, teaching, etc.

I know nobody’s application is perfect, but I’m worried that two biochem withdrawals is going to look catastrophic even though I now have an A in the course.

Be honest — is this actually a major red flag or am I spiraling over something relatively minor?

 

[Mr.Smile12]

AMCAS lets you select “no courses” for that school, which I did, but I’m terrified they’re somehow going to make me list it as another withdrawal. AMCAS says not to list dropped courses but also says you have to list every course if you withdraw from a university before completing courses for the term. AMCAS has said I need to list the schools under institutions attended as I was enrolled but fear they may make me take a W as well and add the course.

Yes, you are overthinking. Follow the instructions.

 

[TX-Med-Student]

I am genuinely curious - How does someone clock 9000 clinical hours? At 40 hours a week, you will need to work 4.5 years non stop to attain those hours. How are folks doing this along with school, studying and other drama they have in their lives?

 

[anon2]

Be honest — is this actually a major red flag or am I spiraling over something relatively minor?

To quote a well-known person on here, this is a nothingburger.

I am genuinely curious - How does someone clock 9000 clinical hours? At 40 hours a week, you will need to work 4.5 years non stop to attain those hours. How are folks doing this along with school, studying and other drama they have in their lives?

This isn't hard at all. 4.5 FTE years means exactly that: 4.5 years of employment equivalent.

I applied as a PhD+10 after retiring from my first career, and naturally had 20k+ hours of paid employment, including half in senior roles as expected.

There's an entire subforum for nontrads, which no longer means "I took 2 gap years" today. I'm nowhere near oldest in my class (in absolute years).