Should I mention dropped classes in my personal statement? M.S. in Biology.

[BattlePope]

Hey guys,

 

So during my undergraduate career I dropped 3 courses. Is this something I should mention in my personal statement? I was going to write this:

 

"My college career has not been trouble-free, though. In the autumn and winter quarters of my 2010-2011 year at the ______________, I withdrew from three of my courses. After some introspection, I refocused my efforts and with my newfound enthusiasm finished the remaining three quarters with an average GPA of 3.51 in all upper-division level courses within my major."

 

I wouldn't dwell on it too long and I try to spin it positively at the end. Do you guys think I should put it in? If so, where? I've heard some guides say to put it right at the end but it feels like an odd placement to me. If I do put it in I was planning on putting it immediately after the paragraph where I discuss my senior project (the only paragraph where I talk about my undergraduate career), which is right in the middle of my paper. Thoughts?

 

Finally, I was thinking about putting in the reason why I dropped my classes (loss of a close family member) but decided not to. Do you think I should?

 

Thank you!

[MadtownJacket]

Meh, I dropped two courses and failed one, yet I didn't mention it anywhere on my application.  If your personal statement has a low word limit, I would focus on the strong attributes of your application.  If you have plenty of room though, then I guess it can't hurt to include it.  I wouldn't mention loss of a close family member though, since that can make things somewhat awkward for whomever is reading the app.

[geographyrocks]

I guess that depends.  Did it significantly alter your GPA?  If not, no.  I also have a weird background, and I also felt the need to explain it thoroughly in my SOP.  Every proof reader of my SOP told me it was unnecessary.  I put one line in my SOP: "I am a non-traditional student who has faced a number of hardships along with the consequences of some of my own bad decisions."  I followed that with all of the great things I did during the rest of my school career. 

 

If you feel so inclined to mention it, I would encourage you to do something similar.  I would place it before you start talking about how awesome you are and definitely keep it at one line. 

[BattlePope]

It didn't really affect my grade. I dropped one of the courses before the drop deadline and the other two were hardship withdrawals (for personal problems). I ended up re-taking the courses and actually doing quite well in them. I thought that I should just mention it because if the admissions committee is looking at my transcript they're going to see symbols (W6 and HW) where my grades would normally be. I figured that might raise some questions so thought I should address it. If they don't look at my individual grades though, they'll never know (although I find this pretty unlikely).

Edited February 10, 2014 by BattlePope

[geographyrocks]

If you do mention it, be sure to keep it extremely brief.  If obsessively reading every article about graduate school has taught me one thing, it's that you should keep the negative in your SOP to a minimum.