<p>Would 14 withdrawals on transcript have an impact on employment opportunities?</p>
<p>Should I address them in the cover letter/statement of interest or wait for employer to ask about them? This is for jobs that require transcript.</p>
<p>When I started college, I didn’t think anything was inherently wrong in withdrawing from classes. No one in my family ever went to college and I didn’t know about places like this forum. I was coerced into studying something I didn’t want to and when I decided that a class wasn’t for me, I would simply withdraw out of it. I had to go through this for two years otherwise I would have been homeless with no food or connections. The semester before I was finally free to study what I wanted, the entire semester was lined up with W’s.
I am completing my 4th year and I will have 118 credit hours despite the W’s. </p>
<p>I think its dumb that someone will look at a few withdrawals and immediately discard my application just because of that. </p>
<p>My reasons for withdrawing so much were not due to failure, but rather to pursue my passion. I didn’t think it would be perceived so negatively. How was I supposed to know? </p>
<p>Classes are not exactly like employment. I paid to be there. These W’s mostly occurred during the first 2 years of college when I was coerced into studying a field I didn’t want.</p>
<p>14 is quite a bit. I think you should preempt that question, because it’s possible they may just move past your application instead of inquiring about them.</p>
<p>I would not think that it has much impact; your GPA is what matters. By the time most companies get to the point of asking you for your transcript, they are just trying to verify that the GPA you declared is the GPA you earned. Even if a company requires a transcript upon application, I wouldn’t really worry about it. Perhaps a little note in a cover letter about how much you have learned about life since you started university study?</p>
<p>Anyone who cares enough to ask for a transcript when you submit an application cares about what’s on that transcript. It’s silly because we all know that the best student isn’t always the best person for the job and the best person for the job isn’t always the best student. If I were you I’d preempt the question if they’re reviewing that kind of thing before they’ve had a chance to meet you. If they ask for a transcript later, leave the note off your application and explain it later.</p>
<p>“I was coerced into studying something I didn’t want to and when I decided that a class wasn’t for me, I would simply withdraw out of it. I had to go through this for two years otherwise I would have been homeless with no food or connections. The semester before I was finally free to study what I wanted, the entire semester was lined up with W’s.”</p>
<p>Sounds like a bunch of excuses to me. I definitely wouldn’t hire you! For one, your boss will not always give you the “freedom” to work on the projects that you want to. </p>
<p>“Classes are not exactly like employment. I paid to be there. These W’s mostly occurred during the first 2 years of college when I was coerced into studying a field I didn’t want.”</p>
<p>But why would you pay to take classes just to withdraw? Waste of money and lack of focus. With the amount of money at stake, you should treat it like a job. So you got “coerced” into studying something, wasted your, or someone else’s, money on it, and then gave up when you “decided” the class wasn’t for you? </p>
<p>With that said, I defintely would not include in on my resume or CL. I would hide that information and hope to god that I’d get an offer before they look at my transcripts. They are MUCH more likely to not give you an offer because of your 14W’s than rescind an offer they have already given. I’d imagine it would raise eyebrows at any company IF they actually go through the hassel of looking at your transcripts.</p>
<p>^Okay, so I can’t change the past. Thank you for affirming the perspective I have to combat. What can I do now? </p>
<p>For the sake of this discussion, suppose I am considering taking one or two more years of undergrad without withdrawing from any classes. I would have 200 credits or more and a double or triple major. </p>
<p>Is there something less extreme I could do that would lighten or eliminate the stigma of those W’s?</p>
<p>So now you want to get 200 undergrad credits? If I was interviewing you, that would stick out like a sore thumb too. Just keeping on taking classes reeks of “professional student” to interviewers. and as a guy who has been on the hiring side of the desk, professional students scare us to death because they bring a lot of maturity and work ethic issues into the office. I would say that you should just work on getting a job now; once you get your first job (and do well at it, and stick around for a couple years), no one cares about your grades or transcript.</p>
<p>I received multiple job offers and I have somewhere around 11 W’s on my transcripts. Like you, they were all in my first two years at school. Every job I applied for asked for my transcripts. I would absolutely not call attention to anything negative about your application purposely. If they ask about it, just be prepared to provide a good answer. None of the companies even brought it up for me. Good luck.</p>