Explaining semester off and a WD

[blehperson]

I know this is similar to another thread, but I thought my situation was different enough to warrant another post. In the fall of my sophomore year I suffered a bad concussion during a sports game, and was out of school for a few weeks. In order to have time to recover, I withdrew from my course on Russian literature but stayed in my Electricity and Magnetism, Probability, and Abstract Algebra courses. I hadn't fully recovered, but I took my final exams as scheduled for these classes and did well, so my transcript says: A, A, A, WD,  for this semester. However, due to chronic headaches as a result of the injury I took the following semester off in order to focus on recovery. The injury never really impacted my academic performance besides having to withdraw from the literature course (the following year I received an academic award for ranking in the top 10% of my class) and the headaches are gone now. Should I mention this in my application? If so, where should I include it (SOP, personal statement, or in an uploaded document)? Will the semester off and the WD negatively impact my application? Thanks in advance for your help. 

[Stat Assistant Professor]

I'm not sure it is worth drawing attention to the WD or the semester off. One or two WDs is no big deal, especially if they are not in math, statistics, or other quantitative classes. 

[blehperson]

Thanks. My concern is that reviewers might wonder whether it was due to academic dishonesty or something like this.

[Stat Assistant Professor]

It's not academic dishonesty. If the department asks you about the withdrawal or the fact that your transcript goes from "Fall [year]" to "Fall [next year]" with a missing spring semester (though I seriously doubt that they will ask), you can explain the situation to them. They might have concerns if there were multiple WD's on your transcript and especially if they were in math/statistics courses, but if it's a one-time thing and it had no effect on your overall GPA, it should not be an issue.

Edited November 30, 2018 by Stat PhD Now Postdoc