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- Thread starter atSbarro
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Take advantage of your school's resources.
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You may have to contact a psychiatrist. If you're still experiencing depression after a month of treatment, then it may be treatment resistant.
It shouldn't affect your ability to serve as a physician if you can demonstrate that you can keep it under wraps. Sort of like how surgeons who experience seizures now and then can be successful practitioners as was discussed in a thread somewhere in sdn (I forgot where).
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As someone who received accommodations for ~7 years of undergrad and grad school, medical schools will NOT know that you utilized accommodations. Nobody will report it to them, because that is illegal.
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How would they know?
OP: This is about more than getting good grades. Do what you need to do to help yourself out. The school makes these resources available for a reason.
D
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handle your health first
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Is there a reason the above post is being spammed on every thread?
While I hope that the above quote is generally true, my opinion is that accommodations could lower a LoR author's opinion of the student's suitability.... It shouldn't be that way, but as long as letters go out sight unseen, who knows what inappropriate things some letters might be based on.
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I would be very careful that whatever these accommodations are, that the "why" is not apparent to anyone, and that you have a good non-answer if you are asked about them, which legal or not, someone being asked to act differently in deference to them will ask at some point.
I know people well who have used accommodations, and it can turn out OK, it can turn out very poorly. It depends on why and what.
Take care of your health. Scour my post history for tips on dealing with mental health (early in in my history) in medicine. Try "resident friend joked suicide" and the like.
Tread carefully my friend. I am sure you will be able to find a strategy that is safe. Also, you can take this year and take care of yourself and come up with a good cover story.
Mental health is NOT treated well in medicine.
Not that it should stop you, but for the sake of anyone's mental health I might say you should reconsider a different career.
That has everything to do with my opinion on the cruelty in the field, and no reflection on what I think of you.
I know people well who have used accommodations, and it can turn out OK, it can turn out very poorly. It depends on why and what.
Take care of your health. Scour my post history for tips on dealing with mental health (early in in my history) in medicine. Try "resident friend joked suicide" and the like.
Tread carefully my friend. I am sure you will be able to find a strategy that is safe. Also, you can take this year and take care of yourself and come up with a good cover story.
Mental health is NOT treated well in medicine.
Not that it should stop you, but for the sake of anyone's mental health I might say you should reconsider a different career.
That has everything to do with my opinion on the cruelty in the field, and no reflection on what I think of you.
I battled with depression too, not so much during college so I didn't use my schools disability services, but I think you should take advantage of the opportunity if you think it will help you. I know what it's like for people to question your ability to handle stress and a medical career, but my battle with depression made me a stronger person and more passionate especially when it comes to mental health treatment. So once again, use your disability services if you think it will help you. Your health is first, med school school should be second.
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To inject a dose of reality, in over 13 years of being on the Adcom, and interviewing some 500-1000 applicants, not once have I ever seen a LOR writer mention anything about accommodations. This includes > 200 Adcom meetings, where LORs do get discussed.
Don't even think, at this point, about a medical career until your depression is fully under control and your therapist gives you the green light for med school. It's a furnace and I've seen it break even healthy students. Our #1 cause of student loss, and academic issues is due to mental health issues.
Currently I'm a 4th undergraduate who will be taking a 5th year because of a leave of absence due to depression. To be clear, I am not going to ask if stating that I have depression will make it easier to get into medical school. I have a GPA of 3.71 and a science GPA of 3.68. However, depression has been affecting me for a long time, and my grades have been steadily dropping over time eventually leading to the leave of absence I mentioned previously.
Don't even think, at this point, about a medical career until your depression is fully under control and your therapist gives you the green light for med school. It's a furnace and I've seen it break even healthy students. Our #1 cause of student loss, and academic issues is due to mental health issues.
Currently I'm a 4th undergraduate who will be taking a 5th year because of a leave of absence due to depression. To be clear, I am not going to ask if stating that I have depression will make it easier to get into medical school. I have a GPA of 3.71 and a science GPA of 3.68. However, depression has been affecting me for a long time, and my grades have been steadily dropping over time eventually leading to the leave of absence I mentioned previously.
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I'm with you on this Goro.
The thing about LORs was the idea that a letter writer may subconsciously (or purposefully?) Let knowledge of your accommodations or mental health struggles affect the strength of the letter they write you.
The other way that adcoms can get wise to your health struggles is if there are ed gaps or bad grades. In my experience, those tend to be questioned on interviews or by LOR writers. Which is why I say tread carefully on how one answers those questions about health to LOR writers, teachers, and adcom.
At the med school and residency level, questions even about the health of my family members came up. In one case I was able to say there was another family member to take on the responsibility, in another, later, I said I would likely have to take FMLA leave to sort that out. Some questions that weren't legal I danced around but in any case you can tell just by the look on someone's face or what you see jotted down on their pad how they take your answers.
Anything less than perfect health, no gaps, or lack of liabilities like family / children can all put you at a disadvantage compared to another applicant.
No reason to lie, or give up, and you can still get into a med school or a residency, but it's a farce to act like there aren't plenty of places that put you at the bottom of the list or in the reject pile for anything I've mentioned.
The thing about LORs was the idea that a letter writer may subconsciously (or purposefully?) Let knowledge of your accommodations or mental health struggles affect the strength of the letter they write you.
The other way that adcoms can get wise to your health struggles is if there are ed gaps or bad grades. In my experience, those tend to be questioned on interviews or by LOR writers. Which is why I say tread carefully on how one answers those questions about health to LOR writers, teachers, and adcom.
At the med school and residency level, questions even about the health of my family members came up. In one case I was able to say there was another family member to take on the responsibility, in another, later, I said I would likely have to take FMLA leave to sort that out. Some questions that weren't legal I danced around but in any case you can tell just by the look on someone's face or what you see jotted down on their pad how they take your answers.
Anything less than perfect health, no gaps, or lack of liabilities like family / children can all put you at a disadvantage compared to another applicant.
No reason to lie, or give up, and you can still get into a med school or a residency, but it's a farce to act like there aren't plenty of places that put you at the bottom of the list or in the reject pile for anything I've mentioned.
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