Withdrawals/Weird Transcript? Forum

[ignatiusr]

At first glance, my numbers are strong. However, I am concerned about the way my transcript will appear to reviewers who look at it thoroughly. I often took only 12 hours, taking 15 just a handful of semesters. Additionally, I have an enormous number of W's. Seven of these are easily explainable (my father was hospitalized over the course of two semesters, resulting in one reduction to half-time and one complete withdrawal from all semester classes). I am attaching an addendum to explain these withdrawals, and one of my professors will also mention it in his LOR. However, I believe I have five or six additional unexplained W's, each occurring in a different semester. I had a habit of dropping one course early in my semesters, not because it was too difficult, but because I simply didn't like the material/professor. I never thought about the way this would affect the appearance of my transcript. I know it's impossible to gauge exactly how much this will affect my admission chances at top schools, but I'd be interested to know what others think. Apart from these issues, my numbers are good enough to warrant applying to HYS, but I don't know how much the weird transcript will drag me down. I also don't know whether or not I should attempt to explain these additional W's in the addendum.

[ignatiusr]

I should also obviously clarify that these were all non-punitive withdrawals, although I guess my GPA makes that clear. Really stressed about this. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[094320]

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