W on Transcript?

<p>Hi,
I'm currently a freshman at Duke University finishing up my second semester. I really like it here and have made some good friends. The classes are extremely tough and I didnt realize how hard I would have to work. Anyways, I did pretty well first semester even though it was hard to adjust;</p>

<p>Chemistry - B+
Economics - B
Latin 1 - B+
Required Seminar - B+
GPA - 3.225</p>

<p>I mean I could have done better, but I was happy I didnt get any C's. I came into Duke as a prospective bio major. This semester I took Biology 26 - which is a class about organismal diversity. After taking this class, I realize I didnt want to do this in college. I was learning about plants, fungi and protists. It was not interesting to me and the classes structure was horrible. The professor lectured so broadly and yet, the test questions were so specific. I didnt do too well on the first 2 midterms and there was no real way of me pulling out a C+/B-. I decided to withdraw b/c I was hating the class and it was taking valuable time away from my other classes. The course is not required for premed and it is not even that relevant to whats on the MCat. Also, I dont want to be a bio major anymore. So, I now have a W on my transcript. How bad is this with regards to medical school admissions? If I work hard and show steady improvement by pullingl my GPA up to 3.5/3.6+ and getting a good score on the MCAT, do i still have a shot at the top medical schools? I would appreciate any insight into this situation. Thanks</p>

<p>It’s not that bad. You can have a few W’s on your transcript. But I think you still have to take Bio for Pre-med.</p>

<p>26 is a notoriously awful class. Premed requirements can be filled with plenty of excellent classes, including 25, 108, 112 (genetics/cell biology?), and 151.</p>