W's on transcript

[swisnieski]

Hey all--

So I'm applying for grad schools this semester (surprise!) and something leapt out at me that I had never considered before when I was looking at my transcripts just now -- I have seven course withdrawals, four of which came from my current school.

Now none of these are in particularly essential courses. The three from my old school were introductory astronomy (the professor was worthless), honors geology (it just bored me to tears), and statistics (which I subsequently took at my new school and passed). At my current school, three were for minors I dropped when I discovered a thoroughgoing hatred for the professors and/or subject matter (two in sociology, one in political science), and one was for my current minor (English), dropped in order to lighten up an otherwise unbearable courseload. I am applying for a doctoral program in psychology, have a 3.71 GPA (3.8 in my major, in which I haven't dropped a single course), solid GREs (1460), a research publication of my own and have worked three semesters as a research assistant, plus teaching experience on top of that, so I think I have a pretty solid application. But are these W's going to drag me down in the eyes of the admissions folk?

[socialcomm]

Perhaps something to address in your SOP? There's definitely a possibility it'll raise some questions.

[gradgirl9703]

I would address it in an addendum. Good luck!

[johntravis667]

I was also curious about this. I had to delay my graduation by a semester because my father became seriously ill with cancer and I had to withdraw from all but one of my classes (that teacher allowed me to continue my studies via email). I ended up with a few W's and No Credits. The following semester I took the final classes I needed and graduated with department honors. I have a 3.45 overall with a 3.85 Major GPA, and a 1310 on my GRE. I know my overall scores are decent to high but those W's at the end will look strange.

You recommend either adding something to my SOP or putting an addendum on the end of it? Like an extra page explaining the situation?

Thanks,

~john

[acup313]

Yeah I would just add something to the SOP. Nothing too detailed just a quick paragraph to explain why you had to withdraw. I am sure the schools will just want to know that you didn't withdraw because you were failing, but because you had a legitmate reason.

[Normal]

Found this old thread and was just wondering if there is a "magic number" of Ws at which point they would need to be addressed in the SoP. For example, I have 4...would this be considered average or is it still too high a number to ignore?

[Teelee]

Depends really, if your W is directly related to your major and you plan on doing MS or PhD, you may want to address it. If you have 4 W's from the same semester because you withdrew from school entirely, you probably want to explain that. If it's W's from freshman year, probably doesn't matter as much especially if your overall GPA is high. I have few W's from loooooong ago and never saw the need to address it, never addressed it for grad school nor fellowship applications because it happened so long ago.

[bgreenster]

Pseudo related:

I have one W (WP, because my school clarifies on the transcript if it is passing or failing) which I know isn't a huge deal. However, it was a withdrawal from a calculus course, which is actually necessary for my intended study (MPA/MPP) but wasn't for my undergrad studies. I withdrew because I came down with mono that semester and couldn't make it to my calc class since it was at 8AM (who does that to people anyway?!?)

I'm piggybacking off of this general question because I've been contemplating whether or not I should mention that I was sick with mono my 2nd year. My grades didn't suffer terribly, but they also weren't as good as they normally would have been, PLUS I dropped that math class. In general, do adcoms want to hear these kinds of explanations/excuses, and are Ws really that big of a deal?

[Teelee]

If you plan on weaving your story about overcoming physical illness and still succeeding in school into your SoP, I don't think it's necessary to address the W on calculus. If you actually retook the same class later got a good grade (A or B+) and took other math courses (advance statistics, calc 2 so on) and did well, I don't think it's necessary to address it.

When someone takes a W they decided for whatever reason to drop the class and in most cases they retake them and do well which becomes a non issue. Failing a course and retaking is a lot worse.

Especially if you only have ONE W,during your 2nd year (still considered your earlier years I think), I don't think there will be a problem.

[bgreenster]

If you plan on weaving your story about overcoming physical illness and still succeeding in school into your SoP, I don't think it's necessary to address the W on calculus. If you actually retook the same class later got a good grade (A or B+) and took other math courses (advance statistics, calc 2 so on) and did well, I don't think it's necessary to address it.

When someone takes a W they decided for whatever reason to drop the class and in most cases they retake them and do well which becomes a non issue. Failing a course and retaking is a lot worse.

Especially if you only have ONE W,during your 2nd year (still considered your earlier years I think), I don't think there will be a problem.

Well, I didn't plan on putting it in my SOP because to me, it sounds too gushy and not overly relevant. If I had to go through chemo or something, fair enough, but mono? Eh.

I actually didn't retake the class because I didn't need it. After that semester I decided I wasn't going to go into business and became an English major

[Teelee]

Yeah I know what you mean. I don't think it's necessary to address a single W especially if you are not going to grad school for that specific field. I think it's better to spend time talking about your strengths in SoP.