Impact of withdrawing from retake

I’m taking physics 2 at a community college. It’s a retake (took it about 10 years ago an made a C). I will probably have to withdraw the class because of work and also this semester I was diagnosed with depression. (side note: if I had realized/accepted the depression sooner I wouldn’t have taken anything this semester). I’m also taking a medical spanish class that I will also drop if I drop physics.


So my question is how is a “W” on a transcript viewed if it’s for a retake? How should I address this on my future application? Should I just not worry about retaking physics 2 and focus on just taking some upper level sciences in future semesters? My sGPA is about 3.4.



Well I’m just a wannabe myself, not someone in the know . . . so take the comments for what they are worth.


At a recent seminar for premeds at the the local state university the chair of admissions listed his top ten things NOT to do before applying and he had W’s right up near the top. I think if you have W’s already you should avoid them. I think you are right to be concerned about taking a W on a retake. The concern that an adcom could obviously infer is that you did average before and then had to bail on a repeat because of poor academic ability.


I have a class I am attempting to repeat right now. . . my attitude is that it is a ‘must get an A’ class, otherwise what is the point of a repeat. Just the same, if I thought I was going to get lower than a B-, I would seriously consider taking a W, but I have aspirations for my local school which has a fairly high GPA average.


Another option you may want to look into . . . at my university, if you drop all your classes then every individual class gets pulled off the transcript, just shows a W for the entire semester. Last year I got caught a little flat footed with a divorce petition the week before midterms, bombed a couple and was looking at up to 4 B’s in one semester (at best, could have gotten a C or two). Rather than picking one or two classes, I just ate the W - Semester Withdrawal. On the other hand, I still carried 3 other classes online that same semester and felt I could explain the W without making a huge deal out of it.


Crepitus

Those were the kinds of things I was thinking about Crepitus. I have one other W on my transcript for a geometry class. I was a math major and have always hated geometry…lol. I’m willing to prove myself with additional science classes if needed. My premed advisor at university where I’ve taken some classes doesn’t think I need to retake anything. He wanted me to apply this year. But I only want to apply once so I’m taking my time.


I just emailed my physics professor about dropping the class.


If it I don’t know if concern for patient safety (ie. work) would be a valid reason for withdrawing from this physics class if it came up in adcoms. I’m a research nurse temporarily helping out at another site (by myself). So in the course of about 2 weeks I’ve trained on about 6 different protocols and have had to keep up with patient visits, medications, adverse effects, etc. My brain just can’t absorb any new information. I guess in med school people’s brains feel like they can’t absorb any new info and they keep pressing forward.