Do W's look bad on transcripts? And which school looks better for a Math PhD?

Graduate School
1

<p>I a math major and intend to go to grad school to get a PhD and continue to do research in either pure math or some sort of geometry.</p>

<p>I graduated from High School Spring 2007. I started at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in Fall 2007 and dropped out Fall 2008 the following year, due to losing my AFROTC scholarship due to a medical condition I was diagnosed with. I just read on another thread here that W’s look bad on transcripts - I have 6 so far, 5 from the quarter I dropped out of and one from a computer science course I dropped and retook the next quarter and got an A. So my first question is, did I just screw myself over?</p>

<p>I have two choices - go back to Rose-Hulman after spending a year at the University of Florida (Tier 4 school I think), getting all my humanities and non-math courses done at UNF (no math courses) or go to Vanderbilt this fall (what I’m leaning towards). Vanderbilt has a PhD math program (whereas Rose doesn’t even have a Master’s) and I got done with the first 2 years of math curriculum at Rose, so I’ll have enough time to take a year of graduate Topology, a year of Graduate real analysis and maybe even Complex or Functional Analysis (not sure if I want to minor in Philosophy, or not - that would probably take that third year-long graduate sequence away). So my second question is what would look better to grad schools - Rose or Vanderbilt? Rose is #1 ranked for engineering, but only against schools without PhD’s… Oh and if I went back to Rose I’d probably double-major in Computer Science because Rose doesn’t have enough of the math courses I’d like to take (they have a lot of probability, applied and discrete courses), however again, I’m thinking I’d like pure math since I loved Linear Algebra and disliked Discrete math and Statistics/Probability… I have yet to take Abstract Algebra, Real Analysis, Complex Analysis and Undergrad Topology, though so I’m not 100% sure about the field I want.</p>

<p>I guess I also have to specify what grad schools I’m looking for - I don’t really care about the name of the grad school I go to - I just want a school that’s strong in whatever sub-topic of math I end up liking since my goal is to continue doing research in Academia.</p>

2

<p>In general 1 or 2 W’s will not hurt you too much - every now and then you step into a class that just doesn’t work for you. If it is out of your field, they usually will not care at all.</p>

<p>In your case, you have two issues - the semester withdrawn for financial and health reasons, which you should address both in your SOP and in at least one LOR if possible, and then the single W which you later retook. The first is very straightforward and should not give you a problem. In these circumstances I would not address the second unless you can make it a strength - “I understand my limitations - when my research started to impact my classes I realized I needed to reduce my courseload…”</p>

<p>Rose-Hulman is very good, and as long as the professors there are (1) PhD’s and (2) doing research I would not see any problem with staying there. Vanderbilt is also very good, possibly a bit better - I am not sure for math. As long as you address those two questions about Rose-Hulman, I would go with your preference.</p>