Guest Cloudancing Posted December 26, 2003 Report Share Posted December 26, 2003 Is it better to try and drop a course after the drop date via the faculty with a medical or other reason OR just fail the course and try again next year? Will it mark my transcript? Do the med schools care about failures? Would that be a reason not to take me? It wouldn't even matter since I am not taking the right amount of courses:\ . I need 5 or 4 but I will only have 3 unless I sign up for a bunch of summer courses. But then the problem gets worse because if I don't get the course dropped I will have the year counted since I took 4 courses in total. Help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Ibraheem Posted December 26, 2003 Report Share Posted December 26, 2003 i am aware that you need a full course load, meaning 5 courses... 8o Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest UWOMED2005 Posted December 26, 2003 Report Share Posted December 26, 2003 Hmm, depends on the school you're looking to apply to. For UWO, if you're dropping or failing courses it's highly unlikely you'll get the 3.6X/3.7X GPA and/or have 5 full courses to make that a year that will meet the cutoffs, in either scenario. Better just to relax and start over next year, hoping you will do better then. Only your two best years need be over the cutoffs, which is nice when life gets in the way of one of your university years. . . as it sometimes does. :\ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest thatuvicguy Posted December 27, 2003 Report Share Posted December 27, 2003 When I was in 1st/2nd year, little did I know that courses dropped after the 100% tuition refund date were marked on your transcript as a W (for "withdrawal"). This still seems a little wacky to me. I now have several of these W's marring my transcript including an entire semester when for various reasons I purged all my classes and took off to Thailand. Yep, 5 lovely W's all in a row... It wasn't until sometime in 3rd year when I happened to take a peek at my unofficial transcript online that I discovered this practice. Even then I wasn't overly concerned as it was only recently (1.5 years ago) that I committed to my med school aspirations. The bummer of course is that W's may cause an AdComm to wonder "Is this guy/girl a quitter? Can they handle the pressure?" yadda, yadda. I wouldn't think this a concern if you've only got 1 or 2 on your entire transcript and *personally* I would take a W over a D or F (not withstanding your full-courseload concerns). Even a number of W's could in theory be explained away - I have great travel tales from Thailand - but only if you get the chance...if you get my drift. So, be forewarned: withdrawals past 100% tuition refund date, but before failing date DO get marked on your transcript, at least at UVic. If you don't have any on your transcript yet, and you've got 2 years left to fulfill full-courseloads then I would drop it and help your overall GPA (for schools where it matters such as UBC and McMaster, even though 1 grade may not do too much damage). If you're already into your last 2 years then I would say don't risk your eligibility for a large number (perhaps even the majority) of schools where 2 years of full-courseload is mandatory. In the latter case I would swallow the @#%$ mark. And that's all I have to say about that. All the best, thatuvicguy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Cloudancing Posted December 27, 2003 Report Share Posted December 27, 2003 Yeah, I know I need five...8o lol I just don't want them to be able to even consider it. That would be the reason to drop another and make it say 3.5 courses so that it won't even be considered. I think I will relax right now definately. Yikes! I guess W can be a hinderance too. I can handle pressure but why should I stay when I KNOW that I have very little chance to pass. I'm going to have to ignore my other classes to pass this one. You know when you are just that sure you will fail? It's that feeling. Overall I think it would help my gpa and cgpa to get rid of it. I don't feel concerned about one W. I will just be sure not to do it repeatedly. I really should have just dropped the course when the doubts started. BUT having said that. I think a W is better than a D or F. I've already put in the complaint to the faculty with documentation and all so now I just have to wait. Thank you all for your thoughts. I hear most people have one horrible year to look back on and laugh at in future years. This one will be mine...:rollin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest UWOMED2005 Posted December 27, 2003 Report Share Posted December 27, 2003 Yeah, I remember in Undergrad hearing that Ws were a terrible thing. Having gone through the UWO admissions process, I'm not sure where they'd be a real problem. If you didn't have 5 full courses in a year (I had a W or 2) then that year would be assessed. And the people at your interview don't see your transcript at all, so it wouldn't come up there unless you were that kid who walked into the interview and said "I know I have a W from my History of the Americas course in 2nd year but please please please I beg don't dismiss me because I have a really good excuse. My canary died and, and". . . yeah, you probably shouldn't do that. Really, the role of the W is somewhat of a mystery of me even after applying. I'm sure it's not a good thing ( not oh wow, this candidate has a 'W' - they must be 'Wonderful'!) but I'm not sure it is a great penalty when applying. Of couse a lot of that depends on the school you are talking about. Good Luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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