Does anyone know how much a single W (Withdrawal) on my transcript will hurt my transfer chances?
To provide some context: I was a walk-on varsity athlete fall semester freshman year (I’m a sophomore now) and spent 25-30 hours a week practicing and competing in my sport. When other extracurriculars were added on top of this, my extracurricular time-commitment approached 40 hours a week. Furthermore, I was overloaded on credits. Combined with adjusting to college I simply got overwhelmed and completely bombed my midterm in one class (It was really, really bad. So my advisor urged me to withdraw so as to not mess up my GPA). Also, because it’s a state university, the drop/withdrawal deadlines are much less lenient that at some private schools.
Anyway, my question is, will colleges be understanding of this slip-up when it’s put into context? My extracurriculars will of course be listed for the appropriate semester and so will the time I devoted to each and will they understand that this was a first-semester adjustment problem rather than an academic issue?
I should add that my transcript since then does not contain any Ws, Fs etc.
If it’s helpful, I’ll add that I have a 3.7 GPA from a top five public university (Berkeley, UCLA, UVA, Michigan, UNC Chapel Hill). I think it’s fair to describe my curriculum as rigorous, I’ve fulfilled the Gen Eds, other than that I’ve mainly taken classes in International Relations, History (US and World) and Economics. I know a lot of other stuff comes into play, but I’ll keep this question confined to my transcript.
I’m looking to transfer mainly to selective, smaller schools (for the personal attention) which is why I’m concerned about this W.