Effect of Medical Withdrawal/4 W's on a Transcript on Grad School Applications?

[mrs12]

Hi guys, 

I'm trying to determine whether or not it makes sense to take a medical withdrawal this semester at school. I'm having an issue with my medicine that I would need to go home to deal with, for a few months at least, and it's becoming difficult to stay in school without addressing it. 

The issue is, if I take a medical withdrawal, my transcript will show four w's for the courses I'm enrolled in right now. I have one more year of college, and presuming I get better quickly and return for a great Fall/Spring, which is expected, what is the effect of having this sort of thing on my transcript? When applying to grad school is there even space to explain something like this? Do you have to go out of your way to do so? Do schools not care and just think you flunked out for a semester? Will this horribly scar my future chances? 

I am intent on being a competitive candidate and applying to top schools. This issue shouldn't have lingering effects if I fix my medicine now, and it won't stop me from doing amazing when I come back next year. 

But I don't want to take the chance if it means no top grad schools will want to consider me. 

Does anyone have experience with this? Have any of you gotten into a school despite a medical withdrawal or something similar? 

[TakeruK]

Withdrawals/Ws are not failing grades. No reasonable committee will consider this semester as a semester in which you "flunked out". I am assuming that when you return, you will take these courses again and pass them? 

I don't think this will be an issue at all to graduate schools. People will need to take a leave from their studies sometimes and it's more common than you might think. There is definitely space to explain something like this in your application---most of them have an open-ended answer box at the end to explain anything you wish and some people might choose to address this very briefly in their SOP or their CV.

I think the biggest impact it could have on your graduate school plans is delaying your graduation. In my field, upper level undergrad courses are often only offered once per term, so if a student takes a leave in the Spring semester of their 3rd year, it means they can't retake those courses until Spring semester of 4th year, which means the courses one normally takes in Spring semester of 4th year will have to be pushed to a 5th year. So, for students in my field, the biggest impact of taking a semester off is that you usually delay graduation by a year. But I think if you need to take a leave for your own health, then it's definitely worth it. But taking 5 years will not affect your graduate school applications either.

 

[rising_star]

What will happen with your grades if you don't take a medical withdrawal this semester? What will happen with your help if you stay in school this semester? If I were you, I would worry less about what grad schools will think and more about what will happen with your health and your grades this semester if you do not take a medical withdrawal.

[mrs12]

I probably could have worded the question better, but I was kind of stressed when I wrote it. I WILL take a medical leave if I need to, what I'm curious about is what sort of repercussions it will have if I do end up taking one. 

I know when I need to take time for myself, and that overall it will make things better in the long run, I'm just worried that it'd be a huge red flag for grad school and none of the schools let alone the competitive ones would want to consider my application. 

[gmc5029]

I had a medical withdrawal for one semester and was still accepted into a Masters program and now PhD programs. I was very up front about having the withdrawal and why I took it in my SOP. Because it was earlier in my program, my transcript showed 3 semesters of solid grades before I applied, so I would imagine that helped my case that it was an isolated thing that was in the past and is now handled.  

[SAH]

Is it possible for you to get incompletes this semester?  I have a friend who needed to leave in the middle of a quarter for health reasons and ze were able to finish the work and have the incompletes changes to a letter grade the next quarter.  

[sjoh197]

There is(most likely, unless you go to a very tiny school) an advising office at your university that can walk you through a plan of action in the event of a forced temporary resignation due to "acceptable" issues... such as health, death in the family, etc. 

They will most likely be under some branch called "academic advising" or something similar... not to be confused with student health "advisors or counselors". They would be the most capable of telling you what kind of repercussions you would face. Many universities have policies for things like this that can help you. You should talk with them in person to figure out what you can do. 

I had to talk with this office after I didn't return for an entire month of classes after my daughter suddenly passed away. They were helpful and helped me sort out my options to some extent. 

[Queen of Kale]

I took a medical withdrawal in my undergrad (early on) and it was not an issue when I applied to grad schools. I didn't bring it up and neither did my PIs. It seemed like a complete non-issue.