There are 4 Ws in my transcript right now (this is my first year in college).
I have one in each semester since the beginning of this school year (15-16).
Summer, Fall, Winter and Spring(this spring).
Will the 4 Ws mean I can’t get accepted to UCLA or Cal at all? Seems like I don’t have a good reason for having those 4 Ws. Except, perhaps that I didn’t like the two subjects (econ and sociology). Or the other two classes because I was sure I wasn’t going to get an A.
My current GPA is 4.0
And I want to do BA in Anthropology (3.5- average admitted GPA at UCLA) .
Major GPA is 4.0 (one A) and I have two more classes to go to meet the major requirements.
The UC’s don’t care about the W’s. As far as graduate school, you’re going to want to keep your W’s at 4. They are likely to not pay much heed to them when they see all your W’s were in your first year. 4 is probably the max you could “get away” with before they start asking questions (for grad school).
Getting a B here or there isn’t going to kill you. Just work hard and make it less likely of a possibility! I know that in my case, my two B’s were a result of not studying/doing homework. If I can get a 3.9 with little effort, then surely you can get a 4.0 with the same or a bit more effort!
I would, however, utilize W’s for anything that’s a C or below, even if it does cause you to exceed 4 W’s. But I’m confident you won’t need to do that. Another handy trick is trying to gauge a feel for the class during the first two weeks. You can drop a class before the refund/no W deadline and then it won’t show up on your transcript (I did this for a physical geography course where the professor told us on the first meeting that the students would be creating the tests. Left an hour early and dropped immediately!).
So in summary, just eliminate the likelihood of B’s and try to get a feel for a class before the no W deadline. Good luck!
Thank you very much for your replies. Yes, I will work hard from now on. I felt awful before reading your comments. I am confident now and I will try not to drop any more classes in the future. I hope 4 Ws is as far as I will go.
While I have never dropped a class, I wouldn’t hesitate to exercise that option if I felt a particular professor or particular class were capable of lowering my GPA.
I don’t think there’s any shame in doing it at all; in fact, I think knowing when to drop and knowing when not to is a sign of a strong student.
Having said that, dropping class anytime you feel that you won’t get an A is not a wise move. While it won’t matter for UC undergraduate admission (they ignore them), a “B” looks tremendously better to graduate schools than a W.
While a W is not a letter grade, it still is something that you should be prepared to provide an explanation for to graduate schools. Since you haven’t dropped a class within your major I don’t think you’ll have to do that, but certainly don’t make a habit of it or you will really screw your chances.
Think about the difference in these two situations: Person A has a 3.92 upon college graduation, has received a few B’s, mostly A’s, and one W. In this situation it is evident that the student probably had good reason to drop that class (poor professor, unexpected life obligation, et cetera) and therefore it is more or less ignored since they are otherwise a good student.
Person B has a 4.0 but 10+ W’s. Well it’s pretty freakin’ obvious what’s going on there. The person may have a 4.0 on paper but anyone who sees their transcript knows the game they’re playing. So they don’t really have a 4.0 because their GPA is inflated. That looks terrible to graduate schools, especially if many of the classes are in their major.
If you were a graduate school admissions person, which one would you pick?
I’d say you’re fine as long as you don’t drop any more classes. If it comes down to a C or a W though, I would take the W in a heartbeat.
I look at it like this, a W is better than a C grade but worse than a B. So if you think you can get a B you should go for it unless you think you most likely going to get a C (or worse)!
Having said that, I look at your 4W’s like 4B- 's
W’s dont mean that much for UCs and grad school if you show that they were just a thing in the past. Dont get anymore W’s and try to get straight A’s. you gotta remember that not everyone is born perfect. Some people need to struggle before they can reach their full potential. Just do your best from now on. You can even have 7-8 Ws and still get in. Its about the over all package. What do you bring to the UC’s?