What are my chances?

[Steadman7]

Starting to feel worried about my chances of getting into PA school. I was a double major during undergrad Chemistry and Biology. Cumulative gpa: 3.87 and Science gpa: 3.85. I have 6,000 patient care hours as an EMT and have 50 hours volunteering at a free health clinic. I have about 150 hours of local volunteering not healthcare related. Should have good letters of rec and have a day of planned PA shadowing. My biggest concern is that I will have a semesters worth of W’s. I was in a PharmD program and realized it wasn’t a good fit. I withdrew to save money and finish the prerequisites for PA school. I had all A’s in the previous two semesters of the PharmD. Will these W’s break my chances.

[whitecoatrosegold]

I'm no professional or ADCOM, but our stats are similar aside from my lower GPA. I withdrew from a formal post-bacc program for financial reasons last semester. I received my first interview invitation to my top choice program a few weeks ago. I was also terrified those 6 W's would kill my chances (since the transcript and CASPA doesn't specify WHY you withdrew, only that you did. Would ADCOM's look at is as I failed out of all these classes? Was asked by the program to leave?) For my own peace of mind, I included a sentence about this in my personal statement and went on to show how I had overcome the burden by taking additional courses at a more affordable community college. You overcame withdrawing as well and ultimately made a choice for yourself and your happiness, and continued to take prereqs which I would say shows your dedication to the profession.

I'd say I'm testament to the fact that not all ADCOMs will overlook you for those W's. And if they do and put you out of the running without asking you about them, would you want to go to that school? Or would you rather a program look at you as a whole and still want to meet you and at least hear your side of what the transcript says. I'd just say if you feel comfortable, you can include it in your personal statement or a supplemental question, but otherwise just be ready and confident to answer "why" in an interview. All the best to you, your stats look very strong to me and I would think you'd get interviews.