W's

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Turkishking

Turkishking

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Hello All,

I am currently in my second year of UG with a 3.928 GPA. I have a lot of problems at home, and with my mental state this semester. As a result, I may accumulate 4W's. How do these 4W's impact my chances? I will take two of the courses I withdrew from over summer. With most of my free time, I am doing a plethora of EC's.
 
Keeping Ws to a minimum is always best. Withdrawing from an entire semesters worth of classes will raise some questions that you'll likely have to explain. Get things sorted out in your personal life before taking on more classes. As long as you can explain what went wrong and show that it won't happen again by excelling from here on out you'll be fine.

I got accepted with 3-4 Ws, but mine were spread out over 4 years. I was only asked about them in one interview.
 
flip_08 said:
Keeping Ws to a minimum is always best. Withdrawing from an entire semesters worth of classes will raise some questions that you'll likely have to explain. Get things sorted out in your personal life before taking on more classes. As long as you can explain what went wrong and show that it won't happen again by excelling from here on out you'll be fine.

I got accepted with 3-4 Ws, but mine were spread out over 4 years. I was only asked about them in one interview.
Click to expand...
That's why I'm retaking the courses over summer to prove myself to ADCOMS.
 
If there's a good reason you'll simply have to explain that one semester and that's about it.

It honestly shows maturity to withdraw if you have other priorities that need to be taken care of. What looks much worse is having a semester of terrible grades and blaming it on external corcumstances after-the-fact.

This is just my opinion so I'd wait for adcom responses
 
kb1900 said:
If there's a good reason you'll simply have to explain that one semester and that's about it.

It honestly shows maturity to withdraw if you have other priorities that need to be taken care of. What looks much worse is having a semester of terrible grades and blaming it on external corcumstances after-the-fact.

This is just my opinion so I'd wait for adcom responses
Click to expand...

Already talked with a few, and they said what you said. But I just wanted to see what others had to say.
 
Turkishking said:
Hello All,

I am currently in my second year of UG with a 3.928 GPA. I have a lot of problems at home, and with my mental state this semester. As a result, I may accumulate 4W's. How do these 4W's impact my chances? I will take two of the courses I withdrew from over summer. With most of my free time, I am doing a plethora of EC's.
Click to expand...

Do you have documentation of the issues affecting your grades? I ask because most schools have a policy in place for a hardship withdrawal. So that "W's" don't show on your transcripts. It may be worth looking into.


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile
 
I'd say that withdrawing from an entire semester to address family problems looks better than 1 or two W's spread out every couple of semesters. One alludes to an uncontrollable personal event; the other an uncontrolled personal issue (class scheduling, time management, etc). So no, as long as you have a reason, you're fine.
 
habitualgreatness said:
Do you have documentation of the issues affecting your grades? I ask because most schools have a policy in place for a hardship withdrawal. So that "W's" don't show on your transcripts. It may be worth looking into.


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile
Click to expand...
Hardship withdrawals must be reported on AMCAS.
Also, withdrawing when you have to shows maturity, not taking a W and making C's will make ADCOMS question your judgement.
I think @Goro can back me up here.
 
Turkishking said:
That's why I'm retaking the courses over summer to prove myself to ADCOMS.
Click to expand...
Taking 4 courses over a short summer term after spending a difficult semester away from school strikes me as biting off more than is chewable. Don't sink yourself trying to be a hero!
 
mwsapphire said:
Hardship withdrawals must be reported on AMCAS.
Also, withdrawing when you have to shows maturity, not taking a W and making C's will make ADCOMS question your judgement.
I think @Goro can back me up here.
Click to expand...
But would a C be better if you have 4w's?
Is a W always better than a C? 🙂
 
^I'd take the C if you already have 4.
 
longhaul3 said:
Taking 4 courses over a short summer term after spending a difficult semester away from school strikes me as biting off more than is chewable. Don't sink yourself trying to be a hero!
Click to expand...
I'm just taking 2 during different sessions.
 
Turkishking said:
Hello All,

I am currently in my second year of UG with a 3.928 GPA. I have a lot of problems at home, and with my mental state this semester. As a result, I may accumulate 4W's. How do these 4W's impact my chances? I will take two of the courses I withdrew from over summer. With most of my free time, I am doing a plethora of EC's.
Click to expand...
A semester of Ws along with an otherwise fine application shows that something in your life happened and you needed a break. At its worst this will require you to show that whatever happened is in the past and won't disturb you in medical school.
 
Pagan FutureDoc said:
A semester of Ws along with an otherwise fine application shows that something in your life happened and you needed a break. At its worst this will require you to show that whatever happened is in the past and won't disturb you in medical school.
Click to expand...
Did you have any W's?
 
Turkishking said:
Hello All,

I am currently in my second year of UG with a 3.928 GPA. I have a lot of problems at home, and with my mental state this semester. As a result, I may accumulate 4W's. How do these 4W's impact my chances? I will take two of the courses I withdrew from over summer. With most of my free time, I am doing a plethora of EC's.
Click to expand...

YMMV, but I applied with 4 W's, including multiple in one semester which dropped me down to part time, and I had 9 IIs. It literally was never brought up. In fact, I was asked 3 times why I described my undergrad experience as rough in a secondary essay. They had no idea what I meant...they thought I was humblebragging or something. I expected my W's to hurt me but they seem to have literally not mattered at all. I hope this cheers you up!

Also your GPA was much higher than mine lol 😉
 
Skenti said:
YMMV, but I applied with 4 W's, including multiple in one semester which dropped me down to part time, and I had 9 IIs. It literally was never brought up. In fact, I was asked 3 times why I described my undergrad experience as rough in a secondary essay. They had no idea what I meant...they thought I was humblebragging or something. I expected my W's to hurt me but they seem to have literally not mattered at all. I hope this cheers you up!

Also your GPA was much higher than mine lol 😉
Click to expand...
If you don't mind me asking, what was your GPA?
 
OP, you're doing great. Don't worry about the W's. In an interview, you might be asked about them, but that will probably be because they want to gauge your reaction and rattle you a bit. You're good!

Get that last W after you get your acceptance!

Ba-dum-tsh. (Am I funny yet?)
 
Turkishking said:
That's why I'm retaking the courses over summer to prove myself to ADCOMS.
Click to expand...
DO NOT take any pre req courses over the summer, these courses are looked down upon because they are considered to be "easier" during the summer which may not even be the case.
 
NameGoesHere said:
DO NOT take any pre req courses over the summer, these courses are looked down upon because they are considered to be "easier" during the summer which may not even be the case.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure the "DO NOT" warning is super warranted here? I was forced to take physics over the summer due to my course schedule, major, minors, honors requirements, etc. and the only advice I received was to avoid community college classes. As long as the coursework is on the same caliber as your undergrad institution, you should be fine, at least I was (n=1 I know)


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile
 
Nobody will care about the Ws unless you have Ws in consecutive semesters, which may raise questions.
 
habitualgreatness said:
Do you have documentation of the issues affecting your grades? I ask because most schools have a policy in place for a hardship withdrawal. So that "W's" don't show on your transcripts. It may be worth looking into.


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile
Click to expand...

I second this. I had to withdrawal a couple years ago due to an unexpected surgery, so my school took all WDs off of my transcript and gave me a full refund for the semester. I just had to write a small essay to the board. It's called a retroactive withdrawal. I would look into it if I were you. And it DOES need to be reported on AMCAS just in case. You don't want your app verification to get delayed because of something dumb like that.
 
I'd like to add that W>C and W>>>>>D and W>>>>>>>>>>>>F
But B>W
 
mwsapphire said:
I'd like to add that W>C and W>>>>>D and W>>>>>>>>>>>>F
But B>W
Click to expand...

W's don't get calculated in your GPA correct? I only have 2 and that was because of a registration error. Hoping it doesn't cause me any problems for my GPA
 
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