How do medical schools treat Ws on your transcript?

Pre-Med & Medical School Pre-Med Topics
1

<p>Is it calculated as 0.0 on your GPA? How much does it hurt to have Ws on your transcript?</p>

2

<p>Withdrawals has no effect on your GPA. They aren’t factored in at all.</p>

<p>In terms of med admissions, they can be seen as a negative, particularly if there is more than 1 on your record.</p>

3

<p>I have a semester of straight Ws due to medical withdrawl. Will those still be counted as a negative? I</p>

4

<p>It’s not a positive. You’ll need to discuss that grading period on your app and be prepared to discuss it in interviews but… that is not like dropping OChem twice. It is explainable.</p>

5

<p>^Would it likely be a negative? Or neutral?</p>

6

<p>Depends on the why.</p>

7

<p>Will one W be of concern to the med schools? Son is involved in many EC’s right now & isn’t sure he pull a good grade from one class. Would it be better to suck it up & do what ever he can to keep the grade as high as possible or take a W on his records? The class is an upper level science but not a requirement.</p>

8

<p>If ECs are taking time away from coursework to the point that they are hurting grades it is time to cut back on ECs and finish strong in that science class. It is said that you have to have ECs to get admitted (I did not have a single one and was still accepted at a US medical school) to get into medical school but I think your academic record carries more weight and along with a good MCAT score should be the highest priority.</p>

9

<p>Good point! His understanding is that the EC’s are important but without the grades & MCAT to get into med school, EC’s won’t help. Part of his thinking is that he has to go an extra year anyhow. He took on-line courses during HS so had the equivelent of a year before starting college. He could graduate after 3 years except that a couple of his required classes are scheduled at the same time forcing him to go a fourth year on account of one spring class. Since he has to go an extra year, he got involved in EC’s and thought he should back off a little this year and spread out the class until next year.<br>
After our discussion today, however, it sounds like he’s going to suck it up & do the best he can in the class this year.</p>