Withdraws on my transcript, do I still have a chance?

[DPTdream22]

Hi everyone,

I want to go to school for PT, but I am worried about the many W's I have on my transcript. I have 13 withdraws on my transcript, many of which were from the beginning of my college career when I was younger, hadn't chosen a major yet, and I was dealing with a lot of family and health issues. The last few were recent ones, but other than the W's, my transcript looks very good. None of the W's were in PT prerequisites. Rather, many were for classes I found I didn't need and I never signed up for them again. The rest of my transcript looks good with almost all straight A's. And all A's in my DPT prerequisites. I keep hearing different things about the significance of withdraws on a transcript. Some say that admissions don't really care about them and understand they are a part of a college journey, while others say they are just as bad as F's. So what is the verdict?

Did any of you have several withdraws on your transcript and still got accepted to PT school? And did you explain them in your personal statement?

Thanks!

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[scrawnyguy]

Hi everyone,

I want to go to school for PT, but I am worried about the many W's I have on my transcript. I have 13 withdraws on my transcript, many of which were from the beginning of my college career when I was younger, hadn't chosen a major yet, and I was dealing with a lot of family and health issues. The last few were recent ones, but other than the W's, my transcript looks very good. None of the W's were in PT prerequisites. Rather, many were for classes I found I didn't need and I never signed up for them again. The rest of my transcript looks good with almost all straight A's. And all A's in my DPT prerequisites. I keep hearing different things about the significance of withdraws on a transcript. Some say that admissions don't really care about them and understand they are a part of a college journey, while others say they are just as bad as F's. So what is the verdict?

Did any of you have several withdraws on your transcript and still got accepted to PT school? And did you explain them in your personal statement?

Thanks!

I had several W's on my transcript and I didn't have any issues at all. Of course most of mine were due to military training, deployments, etc., which many schools are pretty sympathetic about.

 

[DPTdream22]

@scrawnyguy do you think it is a good idea to explain in a personal statement why a large chunk of them were because of familial and health issues or do you think that comes off as excuses or a pity party?

 

[twotired]

If your GPA is fine I wouldn't worry too much. However 13 withdrawals is kind of a lot and I'd be curious to know why. That's more than two semesters worth of classes. If you're questioned or given the opportunity to explain I'd be honest.

Graduate programs want their students to succeed (i.e. graduate) and -this is just my view- accepting someone who is prone to dropping classes might be seen as a risky admit. If you can convince admissions that you wont randomly drop your DPT courses once they let you in you'll have overcome this hurdle on your app.

 

[DPTdream22]

If your GPA is fine I wouldn't worry too much. However 13 withdrawals is kind of a lot and I'd be curious to know why. That's more than two semesters worth of classes. If you're questioned or given the opportunity to explain I'd be honest.

Graduate programs want their students to succeed (i.e. graduate) and -this is just my view- accepting someone who is prone to dropping classes might be seen as a risky admit. If you can convince admissions that you wont randomly drop your DPT courses once they let you in you'll have overcome this hurdle on your app.

I was much younger for a lot of the W's on my transcript. It was before I had chosen a major and it was during a very difficult time in my life. I was trying to take on the load of full time school, but with everything going on and my health being affected, I would end up withdrawing to give myself the chance to do well in the other classes. Once I found my major I didn't withdraw from a single class, and I made all A's. Then I have a handful of withdraws from classes I signed up for but no longer needed for my goals. Not a single withdraw was because I was failing. It was all from life situations interfering with my school or no longer needing the course. Do you think admissions will be accepting of this explanation? Those withdraws (with the exception of the withdraws from no longer needing the courses) were from so long ago.

How should I explain it to admissions? I don't want to sound like "oh, pity me!" but it is the genuine reason why. I wasn't just some student who didn't care about school.

 

[twotired]

I was much younger for a lot of the W's on my transcript. It was before I had chosen a major and it was during a very difficult time in my life. I was trying to take on the load of full time school, but with everything going on and my health being affected, I would end up withdrawing to give myself the chance to do well in the other classes. Once I found my major I didn't withdraw from a single class, and I made all A's. Then I have a handful of withdraws from classes I signed up for but no longer needed for my goals. Not a single withdraw was because I was failing. It was all from life situations interfering with my school or no longer needing the course. Do you think admissions will be accepting of this explanation? Those withdraws (with the exception of the withdraws from no longer needing the courses) were from so long ago.

How should I explain it to admissions? I don't want to sound like "oh, pity me!" but it is the genuine reason why. I wasn't just some student who didn't care about school.

Yeah I would say that is understandable. If you've moved past that period of your life and proven you are capable of doing well in your classes I'm sure an admissions person can see that. The PTCAS has a section that asks if you think your grades or whatever reflect your performance, and also school-specific pages have sections asking if you have any other info to disclose. You could just write a quick statement that addresses:

- you are aware that you have multiple W's
- the reason you took those W's
- you have worked to complete courses and have achieved X GPA

or something towards general direction. I wouldn't mention it in your personal statements. Meaning don't write an essay about your W's. Save your personal statements for putting your BEST foot forward. Your history of W's shouldn't be hidden or downplayed, for sure. But don't draw unnecessary attention to it.

 

[jadedphysiotherapist]

@scrawnyguy do you think it is a good idea to explain in a personal statement why a large chunk of them were because of familial and health issues or do you think that comes off as excuses or a pity party?

Order of ranking is generally in this way:
Science prerec gpa
Cumulative gpa
GRE scores (indicative of testing under stress)
Hours in multiple settings
Personal statement
Rec letter checkmarks
ECs, jobs, or showing leadership and being social

If the gpa is competitive, then the school can still use that as marketing to stay competitive with rankings. It also demonstrates success.

You need to address the Ws in such a way that you can convince a school that you have grown to take care of whatever it was that hindered you before and that it won't happen in the program. If accepted, then you are an investment with the faculty for the field and a bit more superficially, their longterm pass rates and graduation rates which attract students to allow competition on tuition charge rates.