Accepted to MD school but diagnosed with rare medical condition

[driverenza]

Hey everyone. I was recently accepted to a few MD schools. However, I am dealing with an extremely difficult situation and I am looking for advice on deferring my acceptance.

Last February while studying for the MCAT, I was diagnosed with a rare medical condition. Despite a significant amount of stress from this and uncertainty about my future, I stuck it through and scored well on the MCAT. I then applied and was accepted.

I decided to go seek a very expensive alternative treatment to avoid surgery, which unfortunately made my condition worse. I am now scheduled to have surgery in June. It has an ~80% success rate. Recovery period is 1-3 months.

This was my first time dealing with a life changing medical problem. It has caused me to become really sad and has made me worried about my future.

I haven't disclosed this in my application or brought it up in my interviews.

My questions are, am I allowed to defer my acceptance? Should I defer my acceptance? I want to keep this private and I don't want to disclose my medical condition to the school I will be attending. I am concerned about going this year due to medical complications that could arise after surgery.

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[Tenk]

Defer.

 

[LizzyM]

Write to the schools. State that you are scheduled for major surgery on [date in June] and while the recovery period is anticipated to be 3 months or less, you have grave concerns about your ability to launch into your M1 year in top form while still in the post-operative recovery period. Therefore, you are requesting deferral of your admission to the class starting in 2020. While you are deeply disappointed not to be in a situation where you can begin this long awaited start of medical school, you recognize that it is better to begin when you are fully healed and able to give your all to the endeavor.

Note that there is nothing that says what the surgery is for or that you tried other therapies before deciding on surgery. That is no one's business but is between you and the doctors providing you with clinical care. The medical school administrators may be doctors but they are not providing your clinical care.