<p>I discovered today, upon receiving a copy of my official college transcript, that official withdrawals indeed appear on it. I have 2 Ws (atrocious teachers) among 22 completed credits. I am now quite concerned as I had previously thought my 4.0 would increase consideration for my admission -- now I'm worried Ws would diminish my achievement. How much would these withdrawals affect my otherwise strong body of work (essay, LORs, extracurriculars)?</p>
<p>As a side point, what practical purpose do their notation serve besides drawing attention to a completely valid, acceptable method of removal from an undesirable course? It seems to be punishment and irritatingly un-necessary.</p>
<p>I would certainly explain the W’s somewhere in your applcation.</p>
<p>I had 1 W and 1 P and didn’t explain them. I turned out ok. It’s all about selling yourself. If you think that explaining your W’s would bolster your application, do it. Whatever your stats and story, it’s all about convincing the person reading it that you’re somebody that they definitely want attending.</p>
<p>Coma, how many credits were you transferring with among your 1 W & P</p>
<p>You need to take responsibility for the Ws. After all, if you say it was the fault of the instructor, the admissions officers will likely ask:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Did this student make reasonably attempts to work with what he/she was presented - including the instructor presenting the material? On a related note, does this student think that he/she is supposed to really enjoy working with every professor or does he/she think it is the responsibility of the professor to make it clear and fun for you (because this is absolutely NOT the case at Columbia)?</p></li>
<li><p>What will this student do when he/she is faced with other so-called “atrocious professors” at Columbia?</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Well in all fairness, one of the professors was an intolerable pre-calculus instructor. She did not take any questions during class (one uninterrupted lecture), and her idea of office hours were, “go to math lab;” she had none. By the time I withdrew, more than half the class had done the same. I am really expected to go on at length about this? It seems a bit juvenile. Since that point I have used ‘rate my professor’ as a selective tool to avoid any further encounters with tenured, uncompromising teachers.</p>
<p>I transferred 40 credits. I made excuses for neither my W nor my P, but if I had chosen to, there was no way I was going to blame the professor. My advice is to NEVER blame the professor. You’ll make yourself look bad if you try to push the blame onto somebody else. Explain in cold and calculating terms that you had done a cost-benefit analysis of your incoming workload at that point in the semester, and decided that you needed to drop some dead weight in order to optimize your output for your OTHER classes.</p>
<p>I repeat, DO NOT BLAME THE PROFESSOR. Ever. It will say a lot more about you than it says about your professor.</p>
<p>If you don’t take responsibility for it, I can almost guarantee a rejection.</p>
<p>I have 3 Ws among 78 credits. I know, it is a little much, but I had to do it. I explained why I did it on my optional essay. I’ve been working full time during my studies, and because of schedule conflicts I had to choose between a W (or 3) and being able to keep my only job and source of income. Also, the first time was during a 6-week express summer term (I was taking a total of three classes). The second and third times were during regular semesters, and I was taking five and four classes respectively. I would never blame a professor. Hello, Coma, and Tsar are right, you do need to explain it and be responsible. You will find many professors that you will not like, but you MUST learn to deal with it. </p>
<p>Note: I was accepted into GS.</p>
<p>I think you absolutely need to explain any discrepancies in your transcript. With only 22 credits, I think they will stand out and the committee will want to know what happened. I withdrew an entire semester and failed a class the following semester. However, I didn’t dwell on the specific problems I had that semester or in the class I failed, and focused on the changes I made since that year in my life. I drafted several versions of my admissions essay, and my boyfriend kept handing them back to me. Again and again, he told my essay was too negative. It’s hard to take what was a completely ****ty experience that you need to address, and spin it into something that reflects positively on you. The GS committee (I’m sure) comes across transcripts like this constantly however. You can’t simply pretend the W’s aren’t there, but it wouldn’t be helpful to go on at length about them. I would address them in a positive way- it shows you are very serious about your education and you were having problems with your institution, which is why you would like to transfer to Columbia.</p>
<p>Thank you all for addressing my question. For obvious reasons, I in no way intend to place blame anywhere but squarely on my shoulders. I was just curious as to whether this would be a weighing factor in the committee’s consideration of my application, and as it has been pointed out as such by several students, I will be sure to include a letter explaining my particular circumstances.</p>
<p>Would anyone be so kind as to review my explanatory note?</p>
<p>You are welcome 
And I could revise the note if you want me to. I’ll message you my email.</p>