sub-par grades W, WN

[vegeta]

Hello. I am worried about my grades at the moment and wanted some insight. 

 

I have currently a overall GPA of 3.1 (45 total cred) but my biology major GPA is 2.6 (14 cred)

I have quite a number of classes to take, I plan to do well in all of them. 

 

---> I am worried about 4W's and 2 WN on my transcript, since PANCE application does not omit any grades at all. 

 

Reason why: I have been battling depression since I started college 3 years ago, if it was up to me I would take a year out of college and focus on volunteering and healthcare related work in order to give myself quality time to really recollect myself. 

I am living with my parents and have expressed that I wished to have treatment for depression, but sadly Asian parents are especially not understanding about mental health and completely disregarded my debilitating mental health. 

 

It is not good to have an interview and tell them I have depression. Therefore, my plans as of now: 

-move out, dorm, apply for student loans 

-get 2 part times, find a good psychiatrist

-take a semester off from school and focus on work, volunteering, and healing

 

Does this plan seem likely? in short, I really hope to God that I get better and have documented proof that I am healing. I hope to turn the W and WN's into better grades and prove that I am truly dedicated to being a PA. 

 

Replies are very much appreciated. Thank you :) 

[rev ronin]

Don't worry about those W's.  Getting your overall GPA high enough to gain admission into PA school will bury those W's in a sea of more recent A's.

 

Don't take any more classes until you've taken care of yourself first!  This is a good idea not only from a self-care standpoint, but also from a practical one: GPA averages, so you need to be getting 4.0's from here on out to bring your GPA up.

[Disciple3]

Definitely have to learn how to deal with your condition first, only then can you keep yourself motivated and stay the course on getting into school.  I wouldn't stress about the grades as of yet because you still have a ton of credits to take and the GPA will turn out ok if you do well in the remaining courses.  Overcoming adversity and sticking with things is a huge positive to adcoms IMO.  I definitely wouldn't give up hope, CASPA calculates my cGPA at 3.05 and I've received many interviews this cycle.  It can be done if you don't give up and work for it, same applies to everything in life.

[Kwame E]

Is there a way to calculate your CASPA gpa?

[PAGuy55]

WN? What is that? Don't stress the Ws. I wish I hadn't so much. As long as you can articulate your reasoning for why this occurred then I would just drop it. No pun intended. Now, WF will be bad because those get calculated as F's. These are the types of Ws which knock your GPA. Also, the pattern is important. A transcript filled with Ws and bad grades will obviously be worse than a transcript filled with As, some Bs and a few Ws. Did they all occur as the result of one incident during one or two semesters? Are they spread out? Life happens. I'm sure adcoms know this.  

 

I wouldn't stress about them. Just concentrate on your coursework and give it your all. Best of luck. Focus and continue on. 

[vegeta]

WN? What is that? Don't stress the Ws. I wish I hadn't so much. As long as you can articulate your reasoning for why this occurred then I would just drop it. No pun intended. Now, WF will be bad because those get calculated as F's. These are the types of Ws which knock your GPA. Also, the pattern is important. A transcript filled with Ws and bad grades will obviously be worse than a transcript filled with As, some Bs and a few Ws. Did they all occur as the result of one incident during one or two semesters? Are they spread out? Life happens. I'm sure adcoms know this.  

 

I wouldn't stress about them. Just concentrate on your coursework and give it your all. Best of luck. Focus and continue on. 

WN is withdrew, never attended. the WN is from a summer school class, life just b*tchslapped me in the face... sometimes I feel like I'm a headless chicken running around in circles.

And all my W's are spread out between 2 semesters: fall 2014- spring 2015 in one particular school. I just transferred to another CUNY for a fresh start and really hope that everything runs smoothly as possible. Even though my record as a transfer starts out clean, it stays on the CASPA records :(

 

These responses make me feel better, although I know a lot of hard work is needed to be successful in my pre-pa journey. Thanks for the responses guys!

[cinntsp]

You don't need permission from your parents to get help for depression. Go to a FP provider or even your student health clinic if you have one.

 

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

 

[newton9686]

Best of luck. We all have our struggles. Some of us aren't strong enough to admit publicly what they are. In addition to getting yourself mentality right, I'd focus on volunteering as well. Especially something where you can serve others. There's something about serving those in need that can really change someone's outlook. It absolutely changed me.

[vegeta]

I am actually planning on seeing a psychiatrist next week, a little nervous about it because I've been anticipating this for some time. The reason I had asked my parents first is because I am pretty poor :( I feel like I would need to see more than one and go through a certain amount of visits until I find the right one that would actually help me and be there for me.

 

And I did volunteer, helping people normally brings me happiness. But last year, I started thinking I had social anxiety. I forced myself to volunteer in the ER and with palliative patients. I got so anxious when I asked a patient how he is doing. and he wasn't meaning any harm, he asked me, "How are YOU doing? You look really scared/nervous." Oh man, I felt like I was so transparent and I just wasn't ready to volunteer. I've kept in touch with the volunteering services at my local hospital, hope to return soon.