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I recently transferred from a not-so-impressive state school to a non-Ivy, top 20, this last fall being my first semester there. Before transferring, I had almost 50 hours (including some community college course) that were all As with the exception of one B in an Economics course.

At my new university (as a Sophomore), I took a Chemistry course, an intro Statistics course, and two writing courses for my English major. I later realized that the Chemistry course I was taking was unnecessary as I had previously fulfilled the lab science requirement necessary to graduate, but by this time, I had already missed the drop deadline. After speaking to my counselor, who assured me that one dropped science elective wouldn't be a big deal, I decided to take the W.

Unfortunately, it turned out I had the hardest intro Stats professors at my university with test averages in the Cs. I was able to maintain a healthy B+ up until the final, which killed me and drug my grade down to a B-. So now my fall transcript looks as such: Chem: W, Intro Stats: B-, Writing Course #1: A, Writing Course #2: A. My semester GPA is a 3.567. While this isn't terrible, I'm afraid that the "W" in Chem coupled with a B- in an intro math course will turn adcoms off when I apply to law school. I know I might just be acting paranoid, but this has really been bothering me recently.

Has anyone had a similar experience? Would this be worthy of an addendum?

Thanks for any help.

Had the same thing happen to me. One brutal prof can ruin a whole year. I don't know the answer to your question, but I'm hoping someone else can help us both out.

ctxmike wrote:I recently transferred from a not-so-impressive state school to a non-Ivy, top 20, this last fall being my first semester there. Before transferring, I had almost 50 hours (including some community college course) that were all As with the exception of one B in an Economics course.
At my new university (as a Sophomore), I took a Chemistry course, an intro Statistics course, and two writing courses for my English major. I later realized that the Chemistry course I was taking was unnecessary as I had previously fulfilled the lab science requirement necessary to graduate, but by this time, I had already missed the drop deadline. After speaking to my counselor, who assured me that one dropped science elective wouldn't be a big deal, I decided to take the W.

Unfortunately, it turned out I had the hardest intro Stats professors at my university with test averages in the Cs. I was able to maintain a healthy B+ up until the final, which killed me and drug my grade down to a B-. So now my fall transcript looks as such: Chem: W, Intro Stats: B-, Writing Course #1: A, Writing Course #2: A. My semester GPA is a 3.567. While this isn't terrible, I'm afraid that the "W" in Chem coupled with a B- in an intro math course will turn adcoms off when I apply to law school. I know I might just be acting paranoid, but this has really been bothering me recently.

Has anyone had a similar experience? Would this be worthy of an addendum?

Thanks for any help.

The striken text is irrelevant. "Non Ivy top 20" is a meaningless distinction.

The consensus is that schools generally care about your GPA as a number. They dont really care about what classes you took.

Your grades arent terrible. Not at all terrible. Just work hard for the remainder of your years and do well on the LSAT. A "bad" semester doesnt always spell disaster.

Good luck!

I had a single W and it brought down my LSAC GPA .03 - ready yourself for a drop

2Serious4Numbers wrote:I had a single W and it brought down my LSAC GPA .03 - ready yourself for a drop

I thought Ws weren't factored in? Are you sure it wasn't a WF?

ctxmike wrote:

2Serious4Numbers wrote:I had a single W and it brought down my LSAC GPA .03 - ready yourself for a drop

I thought Ws weren't factored in? Are you sure it wasn't a WF?

it may have been, I never actually looked at the report because it was the only factor and such a negligible change

ctxmike wrote:

2Serious4Numbers wrote:I had a single W and it brought down my LSAC GPA .03 - ready yourself for a drop

I thought Ws weren't factored in? Are you sure it wasn't a WF?

TITCR. I have a W and it didn't affect my LSDAS GPA at all. It's only if your W is in fact, a WF (punitive) that it's factored in.