- Joined
- Jun 10, 2015
- Messages
- 7
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Background:
I attend an ivy league school (non HYP), where I'm majoring in biophysics. I took an intense schedule (both in # of courses and difficulty - almost exclusively upper division/graduate level) right from the beginning. I became very ill (viral infection -> activation of autoimmune condition). I didn't do as well as I hoped but in hindsight I did decent all things considered. I didn't have a medical diagnosis due to the nature of my particular condition (it is VERY difficult to diagnose and often takes 5+ years to get a solid diagnosis barring hospital / life threatening complications). I ended up doing a bit better my sophomore year when I started to catch on that I might have to take it a bit easy for health reasons - BUT I still didn't do as well as I would've liked due to brain fog / memory problems. I ended up in the hospital with severe complications from my condition (right after the semester finished). It was then that I got my diagnosis. I decided to take some time off for school (2 years). This semester I came back and did amazing (straight As in a VERY strong course load) as a result of my health issues being well managed. The problem is that my gpa is resting at a 3.4 because of the grades from before.
1. I certainly hope to have an upward trend but it is a bit muddled: I did better my fall semester than spring semester sophomore year for instance. BUT I feel that I'll be able to maintain good grades now (3.8+) till I graduate. Since I took 2 medical leave years, will this be enough to kinda throw them off from looking too closely at my freshman and sophomore grades critically?
2. I got a C in Orgo 1 from before I took my medical leave years. Does me getting an A in orgo 2 this last semester make up for this? Should I take additional orgo classes? I have a lot of high level physics classes that I've gotten As in - will this help to assure them that the orgo 1 grade was an anomaly?
3. I took a P/F creative writing course this last semester. I have to take another english/writing course to get my 2 requirements out of the way. Is it going to look bad if I take another creative writing course instead of a literature analysis course (the lit analysis course is offered with the option to take it for a grade)? I'm not particularly good at literature analysis (haven't done it in a long while for one), but I worry that taking 2 mandatory P/F courses in creative writing for my english requirements is going to look bad? Any thoughts?
4. This might sound strange but in terms of getting experience shadowing doctors - do I get to count or list all the time I spent as a patient with doctors? (I'm probably sitting at ~500+ hours easy with nearly every clinical specialty)
5. Is there anything I should be doing extra to try and assure admission committees that I'm well enough to attend grad school?
I attend an ivy league school (non HYP), where I'm majoring in biophysics. I took an intense schedule (both in # of courses and difficulty - almost exclusively upper division/graduate level) right from the beginning. I became very ill (viral infection -> activation of autoimmune condition). I didn't do as well as I hoped but in hindsight I did decent all things considered. I didn't have a medical diagnosis due to the nature of my particular condition (it is VERY difficult to diagnose and often takes 5+ years to get a solid diagnosis barring hospital / life threatening complications). I ended up doing a bit better my sophomore year when I started to catch on that I might have to take it a bit easy for health reasons - BUT I still didn't do as well as I would've liked due to brain fog / memory problems. I ended up in the hospital with severe complications from my condition (right after the semester finished). It was then that I got my diagnosis. I decided to take some time off for school (2 years). This semester I came back and did amazing (straight As in a VERY strong course load) as a result of my health issues being well managed. The problem is that my gpa is resting at a 3.4 because of the grades from before.
1. I certainly hope to have an upward trend but it is a bit muddled: I did better my fall semester than spring semester sophomore year for instance. BUT I feel that I'll be able to maintain good grades now (3.8+) till I graduate. Since I took 2 medical leave years, will this be enough to kinda throw them off from looking too closely at my freshman and sophomore grades critically?
2. I got a C in Orgo 1 from before I took my medical leave years. Does me getting an A in orgo 2 this last semester make up for this? Should I take additional orgo classes? I have a lot of high level physics classes that I've gotten As in - will this help to assure them that the orgo 1 grade was an anomaly?
3. I took a P/F creative writing course this last semester. I have to take another english/writing course to get my 2 requirements out of the way. Is it going to look bad if I take another creative writing course instead of a literature analysis course (the lit analysis course is offered with the option to take it for a grade)? I'm not particularly good at literature analysis (haven't done it in a long while for one), but I worry that taking 2 mandatory P/F courses in creative writing for my english requirements is going to look bad? Any thoughts?
4. This might sound strange but in terms of getting experience shadowing doctors - do I get to count or list all the time I spent as a patient with doctors? (I'm probably sitting at ~500+ hours easy with nearly every clinical specialty)
5. Is there anything I should be doing extra to try and assure admission committees that I'm well enough to attend grad school?
