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I'm in my fifth and final year of undergrad and currently have a 3.64 GPA, but with two W grades and a WF grade.

My school gives Ws when a student withdraws from a class at a late date, but doesn't penalize the student's GPA in those situations. No grade is assigned in those cases where you get a W, but the transcripts do show that you withdrew by giving you a W. I have two of these (one in freshmen year Calculus I and another later in Organic Chemistry).

My WF grade, on the other hand, counts as both a withdrawal and a failing grade. Again from freshman year, I took General Chemistry I and was doing so bad with keeping up that I tried to withdraw after the withdrawal deadline (I was very ignorant of university policies that first semester). I was getting a C-/D in the class at the time and would have had to exert enormous energy and time to have just passed and felt it would have been better to focus my efforts on my other classes. I stopped attending and doing the work and received a WF grade. I know this likely looks quite bad - it's embarasing for me as well. That's why I'm asking about it.

The positive is that I have a strong GPA going into my senior year and that I also retook Calculus I (W) and General Chemistry I (WF) earning an A in both courses as well as A's and A-'s in their follow-up classes. However, there is still the unpleasant stain of that WF grade. I came from a small town private, religious high school (where we had no A.P. classes and my graduating class size was 22 students) to a top rated university and didn't realize my educational deficit until that first year of college. I had been pre-med at the time and it wasn't until taking a full load of science courses my first year that I realized how much material we did not cover in my high school courses that my peers had already been familiar with (either from their A.P. class experience or just high school coursework). So I found myself bent out of shape having to catch up in these areas on my own, while also learning new material.

I ended up taking remedial classes like Pre-Calculus and "Foundations of ________" science classes my second semester to get myself up to speed (did summer school as well) and came back my second year stronger and successful. I still ended up switching out of pre-med (I doubt I'll apply to medical school, as science overall isn't my strongest suit) and going into psychology (major) and economics (minor), where I've gotten straight A's. Depending on my senior year grades, I could potentially finish with a 3.7GPA.

My only concern is that if I were to apply to law school, how would my W and WF grades affect my application review? And would it be necessary to give some kind of an explanation for my first year blunders in college? Thanks very much for any help you all could give.

Edit: I did not retake Organic Chemistry (W), because after talking with my advisor that year, I realized that I likely wouldn't apply to medical school and had switched to psychology and econ. by then. So it is still technically a W for me.

Post removed.

The F will not affect you beyond the hit you've already taken to your GPA. I think people are generally too inclined to write addenda, but I can say after doing work as an admissions consultant (and learning from actual former adcomms) that your addendum, while not in any way a game-changer, would be positively received. That's probably not the advice you will get here on average, because I think the average TLS poster ends up taking their healthy addendum skepticism a bit too far. The transition from a very low-resource high school to a top university is obviously a big one, and that kind of context would be helpful.

Assuming you've completed 90 graded credits/hours, your GPA in all other courses is >3.75, so you've clearly successfully erased the deficiencies with which you entered college. With that background info, adcomms looking deeper than just the 3.64 they will have to report to USNWR (which few, if any, will do) would actually be inclined to look more favorably at your 3.64 than they would in the absence of the F because of how well you've done since that first semester/year. The F is clearly anomalous, and your >3.75 in your other coursework is obviously a better indication of the student you are now; a 3.64 simply achieved with more Bs than you have now would just make you look like a standard 3.64 student.

That said, do keep in mind that the addendum will likely have little, if any, practical effect, since your 3.64 is what gets used for rankings purposes. The point is simply that any potential variance in results with your background explained in an addendum would be to the upside.

Ti Malice wrote:The F will not affect you beyond the hit you've already taken to your GPA. I think people are generally too inclined to write addenda, but I can say after doing work as an admissions consultant (and learning from actual former adcomms) that your addendum, while not in any way a game-changer, would be positively received. That's probably not the advice you will get here on average, because I think the average TLS poster ends up taking their healthy addendum skepticism a bit too far. The transition from a very low-resource high school to a top university is obviously a big one, and that kind of context would be helpful.

Assuming you've completed 90 graded credits/hours, your GPA in all other courses is >3.75, so you've clearly successfully erased the deficiencies with which you entered college. With that background info, adcomms looking deeper than just the 3.64 they will have to report to USNWR (which few, if any, will do) would actually be inclined to look more favorably at your 3.64 than they would in the absence of the F because of how well you've done since that first semester/year. The F is clearly anomalous, and your >3.75 in your other coursework is obviously a better indication of the student you are now; a 3.64 simply achieved with more Bs than you have now would just make you look like a standard 3.64 student.

That said, do keep in mind that the addendum will likely have little, if any, practical effect, since your 3.64 is what gets used for rankings purposes. The point is simply that any potential variance in results with your background explained in an addendum would be to the upside.

All true.