A question about medical withdrawals and transferring...

Transfer Students
1

<p>So I'm entering my second year of college next semester at SUNY Potsdam. However, last semester I only completed 1 class worth 4 credits (pre-calculus) due to a medical crisis I had in the beginning of the semester that required me to spend some time in the hospital.</p>

<p>I was able to get medical withdrawals from all my other classes that i couldn't keep up with, which show up on my transcript as a "W*" instead of a "W". A counselor at the school told me these wouldn't affect me at all. </p>

<p>However, I want to transfer to University at Buffalo for the Fall semester of 2014; what should be my junior year, but I'm scared they won't know what the "W*" means as opposed to a normal withdrawal and that they will think I'm lazy. </p>

<p>I couldn't find anything on their website or any other schools websites about a similar special scenario withdrawal policy, and they state on their website that earning under 24 credits per year isn't considered good academic progress.</p>

<p>I've already applied to UB once before based solely on my high school stats and got denied, but by the time I apply for Fall 2014 I will have earned over 24 credits, and on their website it says that they will only look at college transcripts and not SAT scores or high school grades.</p>

<p>However, this brings up another concern because I got an 82 overall average in high school and even though it says they only look at college transcripts, they still require you to prove you graduated high school by sending your high school transcript in, unless there is another acceptable way to prove it that I don't know about. I'm just scared that they'll look at my high school grades anyway.</p>

<p>I got a 4.0 in precalculus, and a cumulative GPA of 3.87 with 16 credits at the community college I attended for my first semester. I'm just really worried mainly that the medical withdrawals will prevent me from getting accepted, and that they'll look at my high school grades regardless of their stated policies on their website.</p>

2

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<p>If SUNY indicates on the transcript that a W* is a withdrawal for medical reasons and you have documentation to back it up, then no school is going to think your’re lazy. On the contrary, a regular W often brings up the question that a student pulled out late in the semester because they were getting a low grade.</p>

<p>Colleges need to see that you graduated from HS, I don’t see any reason to doubt them.</p>

3

<p>Furthermore, just about every college application offers applicants an opportunity to explain circumstances that might not otherwise be apparent to the admissions committee.</p>

<p>I recommend that you obtain a copy of your transcript from Potsdam and see for yourself whether it makes the circumstances of your withdrawal from those other classes clear. If it doesn’t, explain the reason in that space, and offer to provide the admission committee documentation if they wish.</p>