5 Withdraws on transcript--can I say goodbye to grad school prospects?

madhats42
Sun, 29 May 2016 01:48:25 +0000

Hello! I’m a Religious Studies major/Philosophy minor hoping to apply to Harvard Divinity School and several other grad schools when the time comes.

The second half of my freshman year was difficult in terms of mental health and due to severe depression, I ended up in the emergency room and had a hard time recovering afterwards. During Winter term, when the depression began, I withdrew from three classes. During Spring term (shortened classes), I withdrew from two more for a total of five. Summer term, I took some time off to rethink things and I came back Fall term ready to face things and turn it around. None of these were classes having to do with my major, but still: five withdraws is five withdraws, and that can’t be good.

My GPA is 3.72 with a 4.0 for my major classes and I have some experience as a TA/RA that I’m hoping will allow for good letters of recommendation to make up for it. I have also never failed a class and the lowest grade I ever got was a C+ in Psychology the semester I had the breakdown. Do the five withdraws pretty much sink my ship as far as grad school is concerned, though? Should I explain what happened, or would it be worse if they knew I was hospitalized for depression? Any of you guys have similar situations?