do med schools consider withdraw = C-

McMath · 11-03-2009, 12:39 AM

American Medical Students Association at NYU | Pre-Med Preparation > Course Requirements

"Pass/Fail courses are also a no-go for pre-meds. If you withdraw from a class or take it Pass/Fail, a medical school will assign that grade the equivalent of a C- or lower."

I've never heard/found this statement anywhere else, so how true is it for med schools (other than NYU)? I will be getting B/B- in Bio this year but the problem is, it will bring down a couple other grades (Chem and calc) from A to A-/B+ because of the huge time commitment. I have 17 credits as of now, and will mostly likely get 3.5/3.6 by keeping bio, and 3.9/4.0 if I drop it. I'm on the borderline for many classes, but considering that biology takes up 3/4 of my total studying time (no joke), I know I can do well if I drop bio. What do you guys think? If I drop bio I will have to retake it this summer.

apumic · 11-03-2009, 03:09 AM

Generally a W<<B- but W>C-... Basically it looks like you couldn't handle the class for whatever reason. Retaking w/ an A will dispell any questions, although retaking and getting a B- or lower (or another W) the 2nd time around will probably hurt more than simply having taken a C+ or B- the first time around. The main advantage to a W is that it won't hurt your GPA.

Taking classes P/F is generally discouraged because P is basically a C (i.e., "pass") & Cs are a very bad thing for med school admissions. Ps are not factored into your GPA but the fact that you took a course P/F may indicate you did not believe you could do better than a C and an adcom has no way of knowing whether you got a "P" w/ a 69.9% (rounded to a P) or a 98.9%....

McMath · 11-03-2009, 03:36 AM

http://www.nyu.edu/cas/prehealth/gcwds.htm
heres another article I found. man NYU is scaring me

“Withdrawing from a required prehealth course or taking it Pass/Fail rarely solves a problem; it may delay the consequences of the problem, but it rarely solves it. Retaking a course "for a better grade" usually serves little purpose other than to lull you into a false sense of security.
Admissions committees will often treat a grade of W or P as a C-minus or lower. They will factor this into their evaluation, even if you repeat the course.
NYU has an excellent reputation with medical schools. If you have demonstrated your interest in the health professions by starting to take the required prehealth courses at NYU, why would you suddenly withdraw from one of your required courses and take it at a less-reputable school? The answer is obvious to you, to us, and most importantly, it is obvious to every member of every admissions committee across the country. “

McMath · 11-03-2009, 03:45 AM

Bio isn't a difficult subject to comprehend, the problem is the amount of reading and lab work that takes up so much time, esp as a freshman when everything is thrown at me, not to mention a flu week I had (not sure if H1N1, but had to stay inside anyway).
I think if I take it in the summer, I can devote whatever amount of time it needs, and hopefully summer classes wont have 250 students competing for the same grade.

So will med schools look past a couple Ws in my transcript or will they substitute the Ws with C-'s in their minds?

shades_children · 11-03-2009, 10:58 AM

If you ask me, it depends on what the Ws are in. If you have two Ws in, say, Intro to Biology I, a lot of red flags are going to go up. If you have two Ws in Wine Tasting 101 and The History of Fabric, I don't think anyone will care.

mmmcdowe · 11-03-2009, 06:04 PM

I have never heard that before, but just like a C-, one W won't kill your chances.

RiceBoy · 11-03-2009, 06:27 PM

I have a bunch of 1 credit seminars that are only P/F, this shouldn't be a problem right?

shades_children · 11-03-2009, 07:30 PM

No, I can't see why those would be a problem.

futuredoc2011 · 11-12-2009, 10:09 AM

Med school admissions committees will look at your number of W's and if there is a significant number of them that will send up red flags and you may, in extreme cases, be denied an interview or at the very least asked to explain them in your interview. My advice to you is to stick it out. Admissions committee members aren't robots, they're human. They understand that your freshman year may be a little overwhelming and will take that in to consideration. But thats not to say that you can make a B in all your classes and still get in. Thats not a likely scenario. Do your best to get an A in the rest of your classes but a B every now and then won't destroy your chances.

OoPurestOo · 11-14-2009, 03:59 AM

You can't be serious.... People usually take P/F for GE's... Having your transcript as: Organic Chemistry1: A, Structural Biochemistry: A, Physics2: A, and Economics4: P, won't make Medical Schools think "hmm, He must have not been very good at economics, I guess we should see that as a C then."

Give me a break...