Applying to Grad School with an Incomplete from College Class... 5 Years Ago?

Parents Forum
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DD is 25 and debating on applying to grad school either this upcoming cycle or next year. She attended 3 different colleges.

At the second college she attended, she enrolled for 1 semester before taking a leave of absence and then ultimately leaving the school altogether, transferring to her third (and final) college. She graduated last year and is thinking about applying to grad school sometime within the few years.

She met up with her undergrad advisor (from her third and final college) last week, and he mentioned that the fact that she went to three different colleges and had an erratic (but mostly good) transcript will be held against her. DD mentioned that at the second college she attended, she took a physics class (which is unrelated to her major or what she wants to attend grad school in). She said that she never submitted the final project for the class, which was 50% of her final grade. She took an incomplete for the class.

Technically, the school’s policy is that after 1 year, an incomplete in a class automatically defaults to an F. There does seem to be some wiggle room in this policy for medical leaves of absences, which is what DD took before leaving the school entirely. I don’t know how she got away with retaining an incomplete in the class, but on her transcript, it still says “Incomplete.”

I wonder if she can get a retroactive medical withdrawal for the semester to wipe out that pesky Incomplete entirely. But that means that she’d have to give up all of her credits for that semester – she took three other classes and received As, and she used those 3 classes to transfer over to the third college and graduate with a diploma.

I don’t know if the school would let her take a retroactive medical withdrawal for just one class. It seems like after some googling, the answer would be… Probably not.

Because she transferred to another school, her student ID number/student email account/student data has been erased entirely from the second college; I wonder if it’s even possible to assign her a letter grade for the class at this point.

Ugh. I’m so frustrated. This was the Fall 2021 semester, so 5 years ago at this point. How badly will it be held against her in grad school admissions if she fails this class? Should she contact the Registrar from her second college? What would you recommend that she do in this situation? Should she just apply to grad schools with an Incomplete on her transcript? She was accepted as a transfer student to her third college with the Incomplete on her transcript from her second college, FWIW. And that was over a year after she had left the school…

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So she didn’t actually withdraw from the class? There is a certain date one needs to take the W. If she completed other classes that semester, she didn’t medically withdraw. She needs to contact the second university.

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That’s what I told her to do as well. But she doesn’t want to because she thinks they’ll turn her incomplete into an F, which would look worse for her (or so she thinks).

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Look,I know this depends on what program you’re applying to, your statement of purpose etc, and this probably doesn’t apply if you are looking at say a t10 law school, but to give you some hope: my D19 had a decent freshman year but then a very messy transcript in what was effectively 1.5 sophomore years, followed by a leave of absence. Not one, not two, but 3 incompletes that became Fs, a couple of Ws and a D (or possibly 2). After her semester leave, she made deans list in both her remaining years. She applied to a number of schools and only one - Columbia - rejected her. She got into some “target” schools but also NYU, CMU, UChicago and Northwestern.

I would not sacrifice those to As to prevent the I->F even if it’s possible, which it doesn’t sound like. She can’t fix the past - just get her to focus on what comes next.

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She probably got away with it since she transferred out & then ultimately graduated from a different college. In most educational institutions, Incomplete & Withdrawal grades must be resolved prior to graduation. She’s never going to graduate from College #2, so it likely doesn’t matter.

No, she withdrew from the school & graduated from elsewhere, College #3.

No.

Did the Incomplete grade also transfer to College #3 - is it visible on the transcript? Also, some colleges will include the name of the previous institution(s) where the student was previously enrolled, took the coursework, & earned credit, with dates, on the transcript, while others do not.

I would ask each graduate school your daughter ends up applying to whether she really needs to submit all transcripts, unofficial or official, or just the degree-bearing transcript (the College #3) transcript for admission purposes. She might be able to get away with it, depending on the graduate school. (NOTE: very unlikely for professional schools including law & medical). If the graduate school requires ALL official transcripts to be submitted, usually after gaining admission, then she’ll need to submit all three of them.

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No, it’s not visible on the transcript. I think for most of the grad schools she’s looking at, she’ll need to submit all 3 official transcripts. Does that change whether or not she should contact the Registrar?

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I would submit all three transcripts, whether unofficial or official, AS IS, if the graduate school requires them. Your daughter will need to verify if the Incomplete from College #2 is still an Incomplete. She could be in for a surprise! What if the “I” grade was replaced with an “F” years later due to some grade policy change for inactive non-graduates? Graduate schools will usually require the official transcripts after you opted to enroll & paid a deposit.

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Colleges typically don’t bring over grades from other schools on to the transcript.

If in the budget, she might consider working with a private college counselor who specializes in grad school admissions. She should share what programs and colleges she wants to apply to and go from there.

I would lean towards contacting the school with the incomplete because ultimately if she does enroll in a grad school, she will have to contact them and send an official transcript. I don’t know if at that point they could change the I to an F, but she probably doesn’t want that to happen.

A counselor well versed in grad school apps will know what to do, I would defer to their recommendation.

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Thank you, do you have any suggestions?

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That college may have ended student email access and the like, but the student ID number is likely still there to be used as an index for her academic records there, and for reactivation if she ever enrolls at the college again.

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I don’t, but you can look at various association websites…NACAC, IECA, HECA. Your D might also ask around for referrals.

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I would be inclined to just not worry about it.

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I think that’s where I’m at too, but my daughter is worried that having an Incomplete on her transcript would look suspicious to grad schools. So she’s on the fence about contacting her second college.

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It’s one grade over four years.

If she meets the GPA and credits requirement and given she has graduated, she should have, it’s unlikely to be the reason why she isn’t admitted.

She’s got - over time - four years worth of classes so why would one focus on one?

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I still have an incomplete on my undergraduate record from the early 1970’s. This did not seem to have any impact on my applications to grad schools a few years later (late 1970’s). It was, like your daughter’s incomplete, in a field that was not even vaguely related to my major.

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Could I PM you? I understand that the early 70s were a different time but I’m curious.

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I think that you need to have been on this site for a while and to have made some number of posts in order to pm someone. However, you can respond to a pm as soon as you join.

As such, I just pm’d you so that you can respond. I think that a mark will show up, probably in the upper right somewhere on your screen, to read and respond to my rather short pm to you.

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OP: Your daughter’s instinct to leave everything as is seems wise. Don’t make a mountain of a mole hill. It’s nothing unless & until a grad school requests further information. If this happens, do not lie (medical withdrawal).

If applying for non-funded graduate programs, there is a high likelihood that the admitting school does not want to disturb the situation as most master’s degree programs are revenue generators for the schools.

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That’s the problem – she only wants funded programs.

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A few of the ones that my D19 mentioned above got into were funded.

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