What do they do with the "W"s?

[bloomich]

Wow, am I glad this question was asked!   When I was a high school senior, I dual-enrolled at the local community college to take calculus classes that my high school didn't offer.  I took Calc II my first semester, and signed up for Calc III the second.  But being in 2nd semester senior year and realizing that I never would use higher level calculus in my future, I decided to drop the class.  Unfortunately, the community college gives you only 6 business days to drop before you get a 'W'.  Of course, as a high school senior, I was completely oblivious to this and dropped the class. 

So... fast forwad some years later... reading that I would have to submit ALL transcripts from EVERY school I attended prior to graduation, I looked up my unofficial transcript from the community college online to see a big fat 'W' listed (this is when I looked up the "6-day policy").

To put this in perspective, I have never gotten an 'A-' or below since freshman year of high school, I graduated with a 4.37 from high school.  And I currently am maintaining a 4.09 (in LSDAC terms) at the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor) Honors College.  I work VERY hard to maintain my perfect average.  So as one could imagine, I was about to collapse when I read on LSDAC's website that they may count such grades as F's and compute them as 0.00!!!  PHEW!!!  THANK YOU SO MUCH MURPHEY'S LAW FOR POSTING THIS QUESTION

[sparkle]

I had 2 W's (not WF's) and they were totally ignored.

[Sister Funkhaus]

Thank God!! I also racked up quite a few in the early 90's, but had NONE in my last three years of study, which was in the late 90's (I was a long term student.) 

[michaelduke]

As long as the school(s) that issued the 'w" grades do not count them in their GPAs, LSAC will ignore it.  In LSAC lingo, if the grades are nonpunitive you are fine. 

This is a little embarrasing, but the only reason I'm asking is because I've heard conflicting answers from various sources.  I've checked previous LSD posts, and I didn't see addressing my issue...so here goes.  I started "working" on my undergraduate degree (oh my gosh) almost nine years ago.  I was the typical eighteen year old who didn't take life seriously and didn't think there were consequences for any of my actions, so I enrolled in school because it was the thing to do but dropped because I hated it.  I continued this stupid cycle for about two years.  I racked up a lofty amount of withdrawels. yay.

Anyway, my question is what LSDAS does with the "w"s.  My degree GPA is 3.93, and UGPA is 3.72, however a reliable source put the fear of god in me when she told me that LSDAS counts every single "w" as a big FAT "F."  Wholy sh*t.  After I heard this, I spoke with a couple of people from admissions committees (I think BYU, Northwestern, and Duke) who had conflicting answers.  I then called LSDAS and asked them.  I don't trust the answer.  They guy said they don't count "w"s. 

Could someone please tell me what your experience was, not what you "think" but what is actually on your LSDAS report.

You could really put my mind at ease or just freak me out some more.  I'm crossing my fingers.

Thanks in advance.