W's on transcript? Justified within reason?

[opal95]

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I was going through some personal issues my second semester of college and I took a personal leavc due to these issues. I'm returning back and would like to continue my premed track. I have a 3.53 GPA from my first semester but my second semester is four W's. Will this greatly deter me from being accepted to good medical schools?

 

[mimelim]

Nobody cares about a withdrawal here or there. When people have mass withdrawals, we notice. And yes, it does matter. There are 101 different reasons to withdraw from a class and the vast majority of them are things that nobody cares about. On the other hand, dropping out of all your classes means something happened. We want to know, "Is this going to happen again?" History tends to repeat itself. With the number of applicants out there and the fact that we can fill our classes double over with solid applicants, it is a risk to take on someone that has the risk of disappearing mid-training for any reason.

Is this catastrophic? No. Can you still get into medical school? Absolutely. But, it is going to raise eyebrows. When you couple that with a 'weaker' GPA, it makes people wonder if you are going to be able to survive the training. That is not the type of scrutiny you want for your application.

 

[mw18]

@mimelim gave you pretty much all of the information you need. You're early enough along that if you get your grades up in subsequent semesters, do well on your MCAT, have plenty of ECs (to show your passion, but also that you can handle a heavy course load and still contribute elsewhere), and address your mass withdrawal in your PS or on secondaries - you can be fine. The issue is that you have to show personal growth and stickwithitness since then. Let them know you won't be deterred or give up, so show that your "personal issues" were either a once in a lifetime thing by nature, or a once in a lifetime situation for you because you've gotten stronger and more determined. FWIW, I had more W's than a lot of SDNers would leave you to believe is acceptable and I did just fine. I had legitimate reasons for most of them, and was never asked about others.

 

[opal95]

@Mwoods18 I'm new here. Exactly how many W's do SDNers believe is acceptable?

 

[mw18]

.

 

[opal95]

Some people say 2, others 5. Now, keep in mind, these people know MUCH more about med school admissions than I do (some are adcoms), but on an individual basis I think you can slide by. If you explain.

Thank you and @mimelim for your help! 🙂

 

[mimelim]

@Mwoods18 I'm new here. Exactly how many W's do SDNers believe is acceptable?

Some people say 2, others 5. Now, keep in mind, these people know MUCH more about med school admissions than I do (some are adcoms), but on an individual basis I think you can slide by. If you explain.

There isn't a hard and fast number for being "acceptable", like with almost everything in admissions (and life), the real answer is, "It depends." It is a ****ty answer, but it happens to be the most true. I've seen someone with 8+ withdrawals get into a top 5 school and I've seen dozens of people get in with 3+. By the same token, I've seen people where several withdrawals didn't bode well with people on committee because there were other things in their application that made people question if this was someone who would be at high risk for failure.

I think that the best way for an applicant to think about this is this.

#1 You apply smart/broad.
#2 Assume adcoms on average are fair and understanding human beings.

If the reason for each withdrawal is something that a fair and understanding human being would understand and accept you negate the few that aren't fair and understanding by applying broadly. As with most things on a medical school application, a single number is not going to sink an application by itself. It depends on the context and what else is going on. The raw number is not really that important (unless we are talking <3.00 GPA, <25 MCAT, etc).

 

[leonardoson]

Does a W drop your GPA on the AMCAS app? I have two from when I was 18 but am not worried about it other than GPA drop.

 

[hwheeler757]

Nobody cares about a withdrawal here or there. When people have mass withdrawals, we notice. And yes, it does matter. There are 101 different reasons to withdraw from a class and the vast majority of them are things that nobody cares about. On the other hand, dropping out of all your classes means something happened. We want to know, "Is this going to happen again?" History tends to repeat itself. With the number of applicants out there and the fact that we can fill our classes double over with solid applicants, it is a risk to take on someone that has the risk of disappearing mid-training for any reason.

Is this catastrophic? No. Can you still get into medical school? Absolutely. But, it is going to raise eyebrows. When you couple that with a 'weaker' GPA, it makes people wonder if you are going to be able to survive the training. That is not the type of scrutiny you want for your application.

So one W won't destroy my app? Oh thank god.