<p>I began my college career rather strong, with a 3.6 GPA and a 3.8 in my major. However, due to some rather tough personal circumstances (I was forced from my home, and had to cope with financial destitution and uncertainty for a few months), concomitant with the fact that I had undertaken too heavy a course load (22 credit hours/semester), made the latter half of my freshman year and the first semester of my sophomore year in college were less-than-wonderful. While I pulled mostly A’s and B’s, with two C-pluses along the way (in tough summer math/physics courses), I also withdrew from a lot of courses while undergoing the aforementioned set of personal difficulties–four courses to be exact. I received “WF’s” in linear algebra, calc-physics, calc-physics lab, and logic.</p>
<p>I retook all these courses (I am a math/philosophy major and linguistics/CS minor who wants to receive a PhD in logic in either a math, philosophy, or linguistics program), and I received A’s in all of them the second time around. I also pulled myself together, stayed an extra year, received above a 3.9 in that time, and graduated with a 3.7 (3.57 if you average the “WF’s” in as F’s).</p>
<p>Since I received A’s in all of my upper-level coursework and retook the courses from which I withdrew, getting all A’s for the next three years, will I be competitive for admission to institutions like Notre Dame, UIUC, CUNY grad center, Carnegie Mellon, Rutgers, UCLA, or Michigan (for example) for maths or philosophy?</p>
<p>If it helps, I come from a large state school, spent a summer at Harvard, did A LOT of undergraduate research, and have great recommendations.</p>
<p>In your particular case (I don’t always advise this), I think you should mention your difficulties in one sentence on your statements of purpose.</p>
<p>However, be careful to put a positive spin on your Ws. Something like “despite the fact that I withdrew from several courses in 200X in order to cope with difficult personal circumstances, I retook those courses over the next few years, and achieved excellent results. Indeed, my (work/research/laboratory experience) in course Y laid the foundation for my intended area of specialization blah blah.”</p>
<p>I also strongly advise you to share this experience with your recommenders, so that they may incorporate your ability to overcome difficulties into their letters.</p>
<p>If you are showing an upward trend with a serious curriculum, this should be fine. I also think that you should directly deal with this situation without belaboring the point. You may mention it in a “what I’ve learned” context for dealing with future problems if and when they arise.</p>
<p>I echo that you should be fine - I also had some difficulties one year and received some Ws and an F. It dragged an otherwise solid GPA down to a 3.4. I still got into a top PhD program (it was the only one I applied to) and all my master’s programs, because like you the rest of my package was solid.</p>
<p>To what degree might the extra year I took in completing my degree (as a transfer student)–which consisted almost entirely of graduate-level coursework in which I did very well–be a hindrance to my admissibility?</p>
<p>Due to the fact that it took me five years to complete my degree–though to be fair, I did not begin taking math courses, nor had I decided to pursue mathematics, until my second year.</p>