Many many W's, bad news ? Forum

[Tiny123]

Our school's tuition is the same for every full time student, between 12-18 s.h, all same price.

So I developed a habit of registering for 18 s.h at beginning, and drops 6 credits along the way, usually depends on how i do on the first exam...

I didnt think is a big deal until I saw my complete transcript for the first time today.. For the past 3 and half years I dropped around 20 classes with W's..

Is that gonna be really bad for admission?

Thanks

[fredfred]

Our school's tuition is the same for every full time student, between 12-18 s.h, all same price.

So I developed a habit of registering for 18 s.h at beginning, and drops 6 credits along the way, usually depends on how i do on the first exam...

I didnt think is a big deal until I saw my complete transcript for the first time today.. For the past 3 and half years I dropped around 20 classes with W's..

Is that gonna be really bad for admission?

Thanks

yes

[Tiny123]

Our school's tuition is the same for every full time student, between 12-18 s.h, all same price.

So I developed a habit of registering for 18 s.h at beginning, and drops 6 credits along the way, usually depends on how i do on the first exam...

I didnt think is a big deal until I saw my complete transcript for the first time today.. For the past 3 and half years I dropped around 20 classes with W's..

Is that gonna be really bad for admission?

Thanks

yes

Anything I can do about it?

[oil]

Our school's tuition is the same for every full time student, between 12-18 s.h, all same price.

So I developed a habit of registering for 18 s.h at beginning, and drops 6 credits along the way, usually depends on how i do on the first exam...

I didnt think is a big deal until I saw my complete transcript for the first time today.. For the past 3 and half years I dropped around 20 classes with W's..

Is that gonna be really bad for admission?

Thanks

Can you write a check? If so there's a law school out there for you.
But yeah, top schools are gonna pass more frequently than they would've had you not withdrawn from 20 classes.

[PourMeTea]

I had 15+ withdrawals and had no issues. Just write an addendum.

[Tiny123]

Our school's tuition is the same for every full time student, between 12-18 s.h, all same price.

So I developed a habit of registering for 18 s.h at beginning, and drops 6 credits along the way, usually depends on how i do on the first exam...

I didnt think is a big deal until I saw my complete transcript for the first time today.. For the past 3 and half years I dropped around 20 classes with W's..

Is that gonna be really bad for admission?

Thanks

Can you write a check? If so there's a law school out there for you.
But yeah, top schools are gonna pass more frequently than they would've had you not withdrawn from 20 classes.

Since I withdraw my entire registration for one semester (6 classes) due to medical condition, should I write an addendum for it?

[Tiny123]

I had 15+ withdrawals and had no issues. Just write an addendum.

Do I just tell them mostly because I want to see how the classes goes before I decide which ones I drop? (That just sound really bad)

[PourMeTea]

I had 15+ withdrawals and had no issues. Just write an addendum.

Do I just tell them mostly because I want to see how the classes goes before I decide which ones I drop? (That just sound really bad)

Yeah, just be honest and say you didn't realize it would show up, or something. I can't think of a way to not make yourself look dumb for this, but all they really want is an explanation and at least you're showing self-awareness and hopefully maturity if you eventually stopped taking the Ws. If you're an otherwise good candidate it shouldn't really hurt, but it will hurt ten times more if you offer no explanation at all.

[MistakenGenius]

Our school's tuition is the same for every full time student, between 12-18 s.h, all same price.

So I developed a habit of registering for 18 s.h at beginning, and drops 6 credits along the way, usually depends on how i do on the first exam...

I didnt think is a big deal until I saw my complete transcript for the first time today.. For the past 3 and half years I dropped around 20 classes with W's..

Is that gonna be really bad for admission?

Thanks

yes

Fred, this is just plain wrong.

Tiny, I had a similar numbers of W's on my transcript. I have a friend who had a similar number of W's as me. Both of us had good cycles (look at my profile if you don't know me already). It didn't affect either of us. It could potentially be harmful for YLS, but short of that, I really don't think it matters at all, and probably would not write an addendum. If you had a better excuse, then maybe an addendum wouldn't hurt, but right now, all I see is it making you look bad when only one school MIGHT care in the first place.

[SPerez]

Well, it sure ain't "good". But no, it probably won't make a HUGE difference by itself, but it will depend on the rest of your file. At your safeties it probably won't matter, but other places where you're more borderline it's not impossible that it could contribute to your overall file not making the cut.

You should definitely explain the medical withdrawal semester.

As an adcom, I would see all those W's (honestly, I bet a bunch won't even notice) and wonder WTH is going on. One of my personal pet peeves is applicants who don't explain obvious glaring weirdness in their file. PMT is right that there really isn't a way to explain this that doesn't make you sound bad. I wouldn't start any sentence with "I didn't realize...". When I read stuff like that I just think how could you not? I think how you described it in the OP is about as good as you can do, i.e. We had flat-rate tuition, I registered for the max to see what classes I would like best, and ended up dropping the others, I swear I'm not a flake or a weirdo.

Dean Perez
Texas Tech Law