Hello, I’m a Community College student majoring in ECS (Engineering & Computer Science) and possibly minoring in Economics, I’m hoping to maintain a 3.9 - 4.0 GPA by the time I apply to all the UCs (UCLA would be the dream, but as long as I have above a 3.3 I can at least go to UC Davis under a Transfer Admission Guarantee). But recently I had contracted a very rare and dangerous autoimmune disease (it’s been a very harrowing and life exchanging experience) that had me hospitalized several weeks. Because of this I had to withdraw from one of my courses (I got automatic zeroes on all missed assessments and homework despite it being a medical emergency and due to policy no exceptions could be made). When I end up applying to the UCs, is there a way of sending over my Stanford hospital records or something as proof so they don’t think I’m just lying and I only dropped the course simply to avoid a bad grade because it was “too tough for me” or something? Or will I just have to hope they believe me when I mention it in my application (I’m going to end up mentioning the whole experience regardless in my application because it was very life changing and not only makes me more enthusiastic than ever about my major but has made me want to pursue medical school as well to try to make more of a direct difference in people’s lives).
If you mention this in your PS, I don’t think that they will really need further proof. As with all hardships, it would be an enormous burden on any of the UCs to attain proof that they actually occurred. If your story lines up with your transcript and you can really connect it to a prompt, then you should be set! I’m really sorry that you had to go through that ordeal, by the way. I’m glad you came out of it stronger!
If you write about it in your personal statements, they’ll know. If you write about it elsewhere (like the numerous “additional comment” opportunities), they’ll know.
If they have questions or need documentation, they’ll ask.
One W isn’t a big deal at all. You can, and should, mention it, though. The additional comments section (both on the personal statement and the coursework page) is great for things like this.