Hi Everybody,
I am having to withdraw from a course this semester because I feel it would effect my GPA negatively. However, I am also concerned that having W’s on my transcript might look bad to medical schools. Can anyone comment on this.
I had two W’s on my transcript. Every admissions committee will look at them different, and it will raise a little red flag if it’s in a prereq. As long as everything else looks good, you should be fine - but they might ask you about it during an interview!
Wait a minute, I’m on the same boat here.
I have fours W’s, three of them because of the same work related reasons, and one for the same reason as the OP’s.
How’s that going to affect? Would the adcom try to at least understand why I had to take a hit of three withdrawns or are they just going to take a blanket view over my case and that’s it?
I understand that every adcom is different, however, I am trying to understand where the average opinion lies.
Thank you.
Withdrawing from courses, especially in premed classes, is viewed negatively by admission committees, who make the assumption that applicants withdrew because they were doing poorly–or that they couldn’t manage the course load. One or two withdrawals might be forgiven but a lot of them can have a negative effect on an application. Try to avoid withdrawals if at all possible. If there were extenuating circumstances that caused a withdrawal they should be shared with schools in their secondary application or in an additional communication with each school.
Liza
I have 11 W’s on my transcript but most are for military activations.
Hopefully, it’s not a problem or can be explained.
I don’t see why it should matter. In my opinion, getting a good grade later at the cost of a W now is better than an average grade and understanding of the material.