withdrawlas and personal statement

[WhoaTasneem]

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1. How do schools treat withdraws on your record? My second quarter in college, I changed majors form liberal studies to biotechnology. I withdrew form liberal studies class and a non-science majors bio class so that I may have room to enroll in two math classes required for the biotech major. How and where in my application do I address this? I don’t want to waste space in my personal statement. aslo, how much will that hurt my chances of getting in - the two W's in one quarter, my freashman year? honeslty, i was 18 and stupid!! Only if I knew

2. Speaking of the personal statement, I have been working on it for two months now and I have NO IDEA what to include. Should I talk about my why I would make a good pharmacist, the skills I have gained over the past year?? Or should it be more personal?
what should I talk about.......

a.I was a liberal studies major with the intention of becoming a teacher. I originally wanted to be a pharm, but my traditional family was against it. they wanted me to do something with less education so I decided to be a teacher. In these classes I realized how much more I wanted to be a pahrm so I changed majors. I could talk about overcoming that challenge and how I devolped over the years

b.Should I address the C’s in general chem. in my sophomore year. Two of my aunts cancers progressed to stage 3 an 4 of their cancer and I was spending most of my time with them driving 90 miles to see them. And how I have devolved since then.

 

[njac]

I didn't touch my withdrawals or poor grades in my personal statement. you need to sell yourself there, you can use the interview to defend yourself

 

[WhoaTasneem]

I didn't touch my withdrawals or poor grades in my personal statement. you need to sell yourself there, you can use the interview to defend yourself

Would it be wise to use that space to set up teh events in my life (chaging majors/ family situation) so that they have an idea beofre the intreview. or shoulI write on something toatally different in the personal statement.


Im so confused as to what they want. The question is why pharamacy and how the pharm D. realates to you long term/ short term goals . But most people incude personal storeis and stuff. one guy wrote about how he came form asia on a boat or something.....

when you say sell your self, do you mean write about why your a good candiatie, your thought processes behind being pharm etc?


will they ask me about the C's withdrawls in the interview? overall I have a 3.5 gpa....and math.sci of 3.68 and a pretty full resumen when it comes to humatirian related extracricualrs and 1 year pharm clerk experince.

 

[DownonthePharm]

Do not address your acedemic shortcomings in your personal statement. The tone of the personal statement should be positive, its basically you writing an ad for yourself. You dont want to waste valuble space on your faults. If they care about them they will ask, leaving you ample time to explain yourself then.

 

[njac]

please, whatever you send in, use the spell checker.

I didn't touch any of my bad grades in mine, and they didn't ask me in the interview. but I was ready to explain them if they had.

 

[KKLPharmD]

I second njac and DownonthePharm. Don't hand them a reason not to interview you. Give them all the reasons they should interview you! Then, when you get your interview plan a response in case they ask you about it. But keep your response concise, and don't give details unless they ask. Always steer the interview back to what makes you a good candidate. I had grade issues that I had addressed in my first PS draft, but I took that stuff out of my final draft and didn't even get asked about it during my interview.

 

[ajmataz]

a.I was a liberal studies major with the intention of becoming a teacher. I originally wanted to be a pharm, but my traditional family was against it. they wanted me to do something with less education so I decided to be a teacher. In these classes I realized how much more I wanted to be a pahrm so I changed majors. I could talk about overcoming that challenge and how I devolped over the years.

I think you should talk about the above in your PS. Imagine if you were part of the admissions committee and had to read a few hundred or even a thousand personal statements. The last thing you would want to read about are grades, scores, withdrawals/etc. You only have so little space to talk about yourself. I think what you mentioned above would make a good statement.

Your grades look good, definitely better than mine were. You grades speak for themselves and you have to trust that the admissions committee will see the reasons for your withdrawals (to pursue another major). Honestly, with how solid your grades are, I don't think they're going to even blink an eye at the withdrawals, let alone want to read about it in your personal statement.

If asked in the interview about them, your explaination seems legit to me.

 

[All4MyDaughter]

Do not address your acedemic shortcomings in your personal statement. The tone of the personal statement should be positive, its basically you writing an ad for yourself. You dont want to waste valuble space on your faults. If they care about them they will ask, leaving you ample time to explain yourself then.

Well stated!