How do schools regard course withdrawals?

[Guest PerfectMoment]

Will I be hurting my chances if the med schools see a Voluntary Withdrawal on my transcript? I have a Calc II course that I want to drop so badly. Obviously, the schools that require a full 5.0 throughout the year are going to disregard my year completely, but what about the schools that don't require a full course load? Will Calgary, Queens, whatever look at my differently because of my withdrawal? Thanks

[Guest codloghorn]

Queens: 3 years of study (fifteen full credits) in any university program.

 

hence, they require 5 full courses

 

i don't know about calgary

 

and you usually have to explain why you dropped the course.

[Guest Shahenshah]

as far as I know, ottawa considers 4.0/5.0 as a full year..so you should be safe with ottawa.

[Guest Kirsteen]

Hi there,

 

I'm pretty sure (from past experience anyway) that Queen's only requires 4.0 or 4.5 courses for a year to be considered full-time. I asked them this a couple of years ago when I was applying with a couple of 4.5-credit years.

 

You might wish to give them a wee shout if it's a major concern.

 

Cheers,

Kirsteen

[Guest PerfectMoment]

I was actually more worried whether or not I'd have to explain why I withdrew from a course. Will they just disregard that withdrawal and carry on with my GPA calculations (at least the schools that don't require 5.0 courses)?

[Guest marbledust]

Calgary requires 2 seperate years of at least 4 courses a semester.

[Guest klukyboy]

I would assume that if you still meet their requirements for a full year they would simply calculate your GPA without it. I have a couple withdrawls and my GPA conversions came out higher than I expected at some schools. The only time you would ever have to defend it is in an interview, and even then, only if it's open file (which none of my interviews are).