<p>Hello as some of you know from my post before I'm a non traditonal student who during his freshman year at a community college earned a well deserved F and a whopping 8 Ws. Partky due to lazyness, a new baby and a gambling problem. However now I'm in my third year at OSU with a 3.8gpa and a 3.6 science gpa (when I include that F from CC roughly 3.8 without that F.) I got a 33 on mcat and plan to apply to a ton of medical schools (hopefully I get in OSU or toledo). Anyway my question is. Do the Ws factor in on my gpa I know they don't look good and I'm prepared to explain them but I read a post on old premed that mentioned that factor in Ws as Fs which if so means I'm pretty much screwed. Although ill have a bachelors in biology and psychology with a minor in english suppose I could become a teacher lol. Anyway does anyone know for sure?</p>
<p>No, ‘W’ grades do not count in your GPA.</p>
<p>They will look bad but won’t affect your GPA.</p>
<p>Here is the official 2011-12 AMCAS grade conversion guide:</p>
<p><a href=“https://www.aamc.org/students/download/125250/data/2011conversionguide.pdf.pdf[/url]”>https://www.aamc.org/students/download/125250/data/2011conversionguide.pdf.pdf</a></p>
<p>It doesn’t say anything about Ws being counted as Fs. You do have to report that you’ve taken those classes and report the Ws. But as far I can see, Ws are “GPA neutral” --i.e. they don’t change your GPA.</p>
<p>The question that arises from this is: if you’ve later retake the same classes for which you have Ws, do you need to record the later class as a retake?</p>
<p>Another student asked me this…</p>
<p>If you drop a class because you’ve changed your major (and took the W), is that “explainable”? </p>
<p>Is illness ever a viable excuse? One student told me that he dropped a class because of Swine Flu outbreak last year (spring semester 2010) which he contracted. He had to miss too many classes and felt that he would be too far to catch up before the first test.</p>
<p>in my planned explanation I plan on making no excuses. Because in reality there are none and I found its best to embrace and accept my past failures because they got me where I am today. When asked by the adcom about my horrible Ws and F my freshmen year I will simply tell them. " That was a point in my life I regret the most, I wasn’t mature enough to handle college, I. Mainly used my school money to party, my first child was also born during that period causing me even more stress and forcing me to grow and take responsibilities I was not prepared for. Although that year of my life will forever haunt me I believe it was an excellent learning experience and one that has helped shaped me into excellent future doctor I will become." Something along those lines. I’m glad to hear it doesn’t factor in gpa… as that would disqualify me bassed on gpa guidelines lol,</p>
<p>As far as illness goes. That’s a fine excuse. I would say I felt that the efforts I could put into my class because of my sickness didn’t accurately portray my ability in the class so I withdrew to retake it when I could put my full potential into it</p>
<p>I feel like anytime you invoke a zoonotic you’re pretty safe.</p>