pinkkkkkkk Posted March 5, 2017 Report Share Posted March 5, 2017 Hi, I'm a first year and I want to withdraw my entire winter sem. I was wondering if this would have any negative impact on my GPA or my hinder my chances of getting into a med school. Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OwnerOfTheTARDIS Posted March 5, 2017 Report Share Posted March 5, 2017 The rules are different for each med school, but in general I think that withdrawing from an entire semester would severely hinder your chances at gaining admission to med school (especially because I think all the courses might all go on your transcript as failed courses since it is so late in the semester), unless you are withdrawing with medical leave. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rmorelan Posted March 5, 2017 Report Share Posted March 5, 2017 The rules are different for each med school, but in general I think that withdrawing from an entire semester would severely hinder your chances at gaining admission to med school (especially because I think all the courses might all go on your transcript as failed courses since it is so late in the semester), unless you are withdrawing with medical leave. yeah it is complex the first question is whether they are simply dropped/withdrawn vs listed as the equivalent of failing. If don't you are in much, much better shape. So you have to do what you can to get that to happen - having a bunch of failures is not going to help The fall courses for many schools will simply not count for anything - cannot use the year for TO, Western, Ottawa as examples. There is the somewhat hard to define impact on subjective evaluation of your transcript for those few schools that actually look at that. You can push back on that if you have a good reason to actually be dropping the year. TO in particular makes a big point about that. Other than that you have to pick yourself up next year and move forward. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pinkkkkkkk Posted March 5, 2017 Author Report Share Posted March 5, 2017 Thanks for the replies! In the University of Alberta if you withdraw (the deadline is April 5, semester ends April 12) you get a W on your transcript and they say that it doesn't get taken into account when they are calculating your overall GPA but it still shows as a W on your transcript so that worries me a bit. If I retake the courses and get good grades will it still negatively affect my chances? And if I do retake them next semester, does the W still remain on the transcript with the new grade? Also a fail goes on the transcript as a F or something I think -Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rmorelan Posted March 5, 2017 Report Share Posted March 5, 2017 Thanks for the replies! In the University of Alberta if you withdraw (the deadline is April 5, semester ends April 12) you get a W on your transcript and they say that it doesn't get taken into account when they are calculating your overall GPA but it still shows as a W on your transcript so that worries me a bit. If I retake the courses and get good grades will it still negatively affect my chances? And if I do retake them next semester, does the W still remain on the transcript with the new grade? Also a fail goes on the transcript as a F or something I think -Thanks! most schools if you withdraw that late will give you a withdraw grade that is like a failure but it is quite possible Alberta is different - again the key is to verify, verify, verify usually the also stay on the transcript - afterall if they don't count then there is no real reason to remove them. A ton of people have a W or so on their transcript - doesn't affect their GPA so doesn't really impact their chances from that point of view. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trimethoprim Posted March 5, 2017 Report Share Posted March 5, 2017 W's don't really matter. They affect you less than a B- would. Talk with an academic adviser, you have a bit of time before the add/drop deadline. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pinkkkkkkk Posted March 5, 2017 Author Report Share Posted March 5, 2017 Thanks you! Yes I have booked an appointment with an advisor this week to ask about this, I really hope it doesn't affect me at all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
InstantRamen Posted March 5, 2017 Report Share Posted March 5, 2017 Withdrawing is better than having an unsalvageable GPA. The schools I applied to didn't care if I withdrew from classes or not. GPA is a strict calculation. I think that it would be easier to explain a withdrawal than explaining an entire year of awful grades. Please note, this may affect how your GPA is calculated at schools like U of T, Ottawa and etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Olle Posted March 6, 2017 Report Share Posted March 6, 2017 So I'm assuming you're withdrawing from those courses because you are doing poorly. But if you will end up retaking all those courses, how are you going to explain the withdrawal? I think it would look suspicious, and if that is the case, I don't know if it will work to your advantage... If you don't have a good excuse for this, I think you should just try your best and retake them later on. If you show that your grades continuously improved after first year, I don't think it would be much of a problem.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rmorelan Posted March 6, 2017 Report Share Posted March 6, 2017 So I'm assuming you're withdrawing from those courses because you are doing poorly. But if you will end up retaking all those courses, how are you going to explain the withdrawal? I think it would look suspicious, and if that is the case, I don't know if it will work to your advantage... If you don't have a good excuse for this, I think you should just try your best and retake them later on. If you show that your grades continuously improved after first year, I don't think it would be much of a problem.. the trouble is it is easier to explain why you had to withdraw than to have 5 low courses on your transcript - that is just so destructive for many schools. You cannot even repeat them as many schools won't count them and in fact subtract them from the effective number of courses you took that year (and if you drop below 5.0 credits as a result for that year then you have another problem as well). You are right it can look odd - but many schools simply compute the GPA and that is that (there is simply a computer program that does this in the background). They won't even be looking directly at the transcript like that. While the importance of the other parts of the application process have gotten more important over time, GPA is still the major barrier. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Olle Posted March 6, 2017 Report Share Posted March 6, 2017 the trouble is it is easier to explain why you had to withdraw than to have 5 low courses on your transcript - that is just so destructive for many schools. You cannot even repeat them as many schools won't count them and in fact subtract them from the effective number of courses you took that year (and if you drop below 5.0 credits as a result for that year then you have another problem as well). You are right it can look odd - but many schools simply compute the GPA and that is that (there is simply a computer program that does this in the background). They won't even be looking directly at the transcript like that. While the importance of the other parts of the application process have gotten more important over time, GPA is still the major barrier. Well, I guess I should have dropped my Calculus! (C+) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
InstantRamen Posted March 6, 2017 Report Share Posted March 6, 2017 Well, I guess I should have dropped my Calculus! (C+) I know I did ! (Failed my a microbiology midterm!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pinkkkkkkk Posted March 7, 2017 Author Report Share Posted March 7, 2017 Thanks for the replies! Also, how many withdrawals does the average med student have? like for any of you med students, how many withdrawals have you guys had? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
InstantRamen Posted March 15, 2017 Report Share Posted March 15, 2017 I have 5 withdrawals. I know people who have withdrew a full year. Again, make sure the policies of the school you're applying to doesn't penalize you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rmorelan Posted March 15, 2017 Report Share Posted March 15, 2017 I have 5 withdrawals. I know people who have withdrew a full year. Again, make sure the policies of the school you're applying to doesn't penalize you. yeah I probably had something similar - sometimes I just signed up for too many courses to just check them out etc before pairing things down. to reinforce - if the UG school doesn't count them then you are fine from that point of view. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ellorie Posted March 15, 2017 Report Share Posted March 15, 2017 I had like 5 Ws and Ks (deferred exams/papers) I think, but it was for medical reasons. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GH0ST Posted March 15, 2017 Report Share Posted March 15, 2017 Hi there, Please see below... - G Thanks for the replies! In the University of Alberta if you withdraw (the deadline is April 5, semester ends April 12) you get a W on your transcript and they say that it doesn't get taken into account when they are calculating your overall GPA but it still shows as a W on your transcript so that worries me a bit. - Yes "W" will show up, so if you took say 10 courses in this academic year your GPA weighting will only count as 5 courses (assuming you will use the grades for admission). If you've consistently done 10 courses per academic year, then this year's grade will weigh significantly less. If I retake the courses and get good grades will it still negatively affect my chances? And if I do retake them next semester, does the W still remain on the transcript with the new grade? Also a fail goes on the transcript as a F or something I think If you get better grades then of course objectively that will be better, but that's assuming you will... The "W" will always remain on your transcripts. A fail goes on as "F." A reminder than one random "W" means a lot less than a semester of "Ws." -Thanks! Best wishes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 15, 2017 Report Share Posted March 15, 2017 I had a bunch of withdrawals because I would sign up for 7 courses each semester and then drop the ones I felt I wouldn't do well in. So I had at least 4 per year. Why did you do that? That doesn't make sense to me. You can always drop a course before the deadline... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rmorelan Posted March 16, 2017 Report Share Posted March 16, 2017 Why did you do that? That doesn't make sense to me. You can always drop a course before the deadline... dropping a course and a withdraw effectively have exactly the same impact (ie no impact all). I did the same thing occasionally just not so systematically. For one thing at my school doing so had no associated cost as all courses beyond 5 were free. So I could sign up for a course - gain access to lecture materials, tests, assignments etc all which if necessary I could use in the future. I could use those materials in between semesters etc to prepare in advance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 16, 2017 Report Share Posted March 16, 2017 dropping a course and a withdraw effectively have exactly the same impact (ie no impact all). I did the same thing occasionally just not so systematically. For one thing at my school doing so had no associated cost as all courses beyond 5 were free. So I could sign up for a course - gain access to lecture materials, tests, assignments etc all which if necessary I could use in the future. I could use those materials in between semesters etc to prepare in advance. Yeah, that's smart.. The only thing is, dropping a course will leave no trace on your transcript... Withdrawing will leave a "W". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rmorelan Posted March 16, 2017 Report Share Posted March 16, 2017 Yeah, that's smart.. The only thing is, dropping a course will leave no trace on your transcript... Withdrawing will leave a "W". who cares? The W means nothing. It doesn't affect my GPA, doesn't affect my graduate applications, doesn't affect anything with OMSAS and if anyone was looking at my transcript they would see I took in my case well above 5.0 credits to completion each year which evidence of a lot of bird courses to prop things up. Didn't stop me from getting into medical school or getting the full NSERC grant for the masters. I honestly couldn't see any particular down side. That being said if I knew I wasn't going to complete a course for sure I didn't just hang on it longer than needed. That served no point and would block another student from taken the course potentially if there was an enrollment limit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.