Withdrawals on Transcript Forum

[jacko]

Are they a big deal? I'm considering withdrawing from a class this quarter to maintain my stellar GPA. The problem is that I already have one on my transcript from freshman year. Would having two on my transcripts hurt my chances in applying ED to a T6 this fall?

[BenJ]

It depends (vastly). Does your school explicitly mention on its official transcripts (or a letter enclosed with them) that withdrawals are non-punitive? If so, then it doesn't matter. If not, LSAC will count all withdrawals as a 0.0 when calculating your GPA and completely screw you over.

It's almost certain that your undergrad intends for withdrawals to be non-punitive. However, people have been burned before by undergrad institutions not doing their work to make sure LSAC understands that.

[cx43]

From what I understand, W's are not an issue as long as you don't make them a habit, like one every other semester for example, so if you only have two with a significantly large gap in between them I would not worry about it. I wouldn't even mention it in your application through an addendum or anything else because it just draws unnecessary focus on them for Adcomms to read. Just keep doing what you are doing and don't even worry about them (I also have two on my transcript and this is what I tell myself).

Edit: The above response is strictly for non-punitive W's. Disregard what I said about W/F for LSDAS GPA, I just assumed that was the case because that is what my school counts as a punitive W.

[jrose]

i had a WF for a class, and it didn't change my LSDAS GPA at all

[jacko]

Yeah, the W's are non-punitive and like I already mentioned, I have as high of GPA as I'm going to get before next fall and really don't want to mess it up.

[4llin]

I had about 10 withdrawals on my transcript. I did an addendum explaining them.

I did not have numbers to apply to t-14, but I did have the numbers to apply to t-14 - t-30.

My results were exactly by the numbers (out when below medians, in when above), which indicates to me that the W's had absolutely no impact on my results.

Whether this holds true for t-6 is debatable, but I would say unlikely in my specific case (10+ W's). However, you only have 2 withdrawals, and you can certainly explain them through an addendum.

In short, I would strongly predict that there will be no impact whatsoever on your prospects, but be sure that your addendum has no apologizing / making excuses, just state what happened and why whatever happened makes you a better person / fit for their school.

Good luck.