Withdrawing from Medical School - Any advice on what to do next?

[Aondrei]

Hello everyone,

I was just notified that my recommendation for dismissal due to unsatisfactory academic progress in my 1.5 years as a medical student has been upheld by the Dean. I have the opportunity to withdraw, rather than have a dismissal on my file.

I just wanted to know if anyone has experienced something similar or know someone who has gone through this, and what my options are from here on out. I was even wondering if it is at all possible to apply right now to schools all over again via AMCAS, but I am wondering is it too late, as well as how bad does a withdrawal from a medical school look on applications etc. and what are my chances of even getting in somewhere.

Some background information on myself and my situation: I Failed my first course at medical school but successfully remediated it over the summer during my first year. I then failed two courses my first semester as a second year medical student, and have been pleading and appealing the decision for my dismissal the past few months, however the Dean's decision is final and he decided to uphold my dismissal. I tried my best to plead my case, such as identifying what went wrong, what I would do to ensure I would not have such trouble in coursework again, explaining that mental health was an issue (severe depression for almost all of first year and the fall semester after) as well as letting the school know about my disability as I have ADHD and part of my plan to ensure success if allowed to repeat my second year was to acquire accommodations from the disability accommodations committee. I even explained how the second course I failed was by less than 1% (I missed the cut off my 0.9%) and how the death of my grandmother who was essentially a second mother to me played a part in my failure to achieve a passing score. Despite all this and more, I am sad to say that none of it made a difference and I am going to have to withdraw from school. My GPA as an undergrad was 3.98 and my MCAT was 510 and my AMCAS application was very well done IMO.

Thank you to anyone and everyone who can offer some advice or speak more about this situation, I am all ears.

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[Monkitty]

Absolutely withdraw vs being administratively dismissed. A dismissal will bar your from ever getting into med school again. Put some years and growth/reflection between you and the withdrawal and you may have a shot at acceptance again.

They are giving the option to gracefully exit and preserve your future prospects - take it.

 

[mrbreakfast]

Why would you want to reapply right now? You just failed out of medical school. Do you think right now is the best time for try #2?

Not trying to sound harsh, just realistic. Keep in mind your school rejected your appeal - at some programs, this may mean they don't have faith that you could successfully pass a second try at M2 year even with your proposed changes. Perhaps this calls for some introspection.

The good news is that withdrawing will look much better than dismissal. I recommend some soul-searching, and if you decide you want to still pursue medicine, reapply for admission in 2024 or 2025. Do something else - something productive, but something else - for the time off. You may come back to medicine a new person.

Best of luck.

 

[voxveritatisetlucis]

programming boot camp…I’ve heard of people getting jobs at big companies after doing these. Hiring is slow right now, but will probably pick back up again eventually.

Did the school ever provide accommodation?

 

[gyngyn]

I have the opportunity to withdraw, rather than have a dismissal on my file.

Withdraw! You are fortunate to have the opportunity.

 

[CyrilFiggis]

Everything aside, you failed 3 courses in 1.5 years. Get a job, take time to reset and give yourself time to honestly reflect on the last 1.5 years.

 

[operaman]

Definitely withdraw. No brainer there.

Either way, I think this is the end of the road for your medical career. Not only are you unlikely to get admitted to any other school in the future, but even if you did I think your odds of finishing are minuscule.

As challenging as preclinical classes are, they are arguably the easiest part of training. You would be high risk to fail your usmle step 1, countless shelf exams, step 2, etc. All of those are hard stops that you must pass and have limited time to do it. Marginally passing class exams suggests you would likely fail the harder ones - probably a big factor in the dean’s decision. Then there’s trying to match with all the red flags - unlikely. Then there’s your ITE exams in training, clinical evals and not getting canned for poor knowledge base, and ultimately passing yet another high stakes board exam to get certified in your field. Of all of this, preclinical class exams are by far the easiest you will ever take.

Best bet is finding another career you can tolerate that pays well.

For other students reading this- take this as a lesson to seek help proactively. The time for help is BEFORE you fail, not after. Schools routinely grants leaves of absence for major life events or medical issues. If things are bad, get help and hit the pause button. Don’t assume you can power through like you did in undergrad.

 

[Lawpy]

Definitely withdraw. No brainer there.

Either way, I think this is the end of the road for your medical career. Not only are you unlikely to get admitted to any other school in the future, but even if you did I think your odds of finishing are minuscule.

As challenging as preclinical classes are, they are arguably the easiest part of training. You would be high risk to fail your usmle step 1, countless shelf exams, step 2, etc. All of those are hard stops that you must pass and have limited time to do it. Marginally passing class exams suggests you would likely fail the harder ones - probably a big factor in the dean’s decision. Then there’s trying to match with all the red flags - unlikely. Then there’s your ITE exams in training, clinical evals and not getting canned for poor knowledge base, and ultimately passing yet another high stakes board exam to get certified in your field. Of all of this, preclinical class exams are by far the easiest you will ever take.

Best bet is finding another career you can tolerate that pays well.

For other students reading this- take this as a lesson to seek help proactively. The time for help is BEFORE you fail, not after. Schools routinely grants leaves of absence for major life events or medical issues. If things are bad, get help and hit the pause button. Don’t assume you can power through like you did in undergrad.

This is one of the most effective pieces of advice for any struggling students to follow, and I’m 100% going to quote this as a default response to the many of the failing/academic dismissal/withdrawal threads. It sucks and is a depressing situation to be in but this is why asking for help early is so crucial. There is nothing wrong in being proactive in seeking help.

 

[Tenk]

Withdraw but understand while your chances are not 0%, they are very close to 0% for ever becoming a doctor at this point. It is probably best to move on and seek another path than dwell on this one.

 

[Dral]

Definitely withdraw. No brainer there.

Either way, I think this is the end of the road for your medical career. Not only are you unlikely to get admitted to any other school in the future, but even if you did I think your odds of finishing are minuscule.

As challenging as preclinical classes are, they are arguably the easiest part of training. You would be high risk to fail your usmle step 1, countless shelf exams, step 2, etc. All of those are hard stops that you must pass and have limited time to do it. Marginally passing class exams suggests you would likely fail the harder ones - probably a big factor in the dean’s decision. Then there’s trying to match with all the red flags - unlikely. Then there’s your ITE exams in training, clinical evals and not getting canned for poor knowledge base, and ultimately passing yet another high stakes board exam to get certified in your field. Of all of this, preclinical class exams are by far the easiest you will ever take.

Best bet is finding another career you can tolerate that pays well.

For other students reading this- take this as a lesson to seek help proactively. The time for help is BEFORE you fail, not after. Schools routinely grants leaves of absence for major life events or medical issues. If things are bad, get help and hit the pause button. Don’t assume you can power through like you did in undergrad.

I agree with this. However, I will add a caveat. If someone truly is in the middle of relatively severe depression/mental health issues or has an undiagnosed condition such as relatively severe ADHD, it is possible to get those under control and turn them around. With that being said, if those are truly the reason for getting booted from or leaving medical school, I'm not sure how wise it would be for one to turn right around and get back at it. I believe for most people, getting back to academic rigors takes baby steps in their life. Getting a job and getting stable are both good ideas.

OP, if those issues are/were truly your problem and you do something else (recommended for now), you may after a few years decide you're ready to try again...or maybe you'll be perfectly happy with what you end up doing in your alternate career. Either way, and you may already know this, heed operaman's advise. The number of exams, time spent studying, and so forth is no joke. I took Step I in April but started studying for it via a study plan in January. I had a daily study plan to prepare for my board exam starting three months before the exam. These aren't just some exam that you start studying for a few days in advance like most of us do for preclinical course exams. They are MCAT-esque in the amount of work they take for a typical individual...except imagine for Board exams you are that much further along AND you have the added stress/responsibility of passing so your residency program doesn't start to be put under the scope.

 

[GoSpursGo]

I agree with this. However, I will add a caveat. If someone truly is in the middle of relatively severe depression/mental health issues or has an undiagnosed condition such as relatively severe ADHD, it is possible to get those under control and turn them around. With that being said, if those are truly the reason for getting booted from or leaving medical school, I'm not sure how wise it would be for one to turn right around and get back at it. I believe for most people, getting back to academic rigors takes baby steps in their life. Getting a job and getting stable are both good ideas.

OP, if those issues are/were truly your problem and you do something else (recommended for now), you may after a few years decide you're ready to try again...or maybe you'll be perfectly happy with what you end up doing in your alternate career. Either way, and you may already know this, heed operaman's advise. The number of exams, time spent studying, and so forth is no joke. I took Step I in April but started studying for it via a study plan in January. I had a daily study plan to prepare for my board exam starting three months before the exam. These aren't just some exam that you start studying for a few days in advance like most of us do for preclinical course exams. They are MCAT-esque in the amount of work they take for a typical individual...except imagine for Board exams you are that much further along AND you have the added stress/responsibility of passing so your residency program doesn't start to be put under the scope.

I agree with this. OP, something went wrong here. Rather than rushing to try again, you need to figure out and fix the underlying problem. You may have a chance to try again in the future, but if you don't change anything then you will wind up with the same result.

 

[Angus Avagadro]

OP, medicine, like football, is not for everyone. Lots of big, strong , fast athletes don't like it or aren't good enough to advance to elite colleges or the NFL. Your medical career is not entirely out of reach, but mostly. If correctable issues are found and treated appropriately, there is a possibility of returning in a few years. Medicine will always be there. Withdraw, as accepting dismissal will 100% prevent future med school admission, imo. Remember, our successes rise from our failures. I wish you all the best in your future endeavors.

 

[deleted1100659]

Im going to be harsh with you, not to be rude, but to be realistic. Three course failures is fairly significant. At a certain point you have to ask yourself is the passion there? I understand depression can be hard to manage in medical school, but in my field you look for patterns, rather than isolated events. Once is an isolated event, but three failures is a pattern. You need to be true to yourself and reassess your goals in life and ask yourself what you really want out of it. Im sorry youre going through this, truely does suck, but you also dont want to endlessly pursue something that may just not be right for you.

 

[snooper]

I agree that undiagnosed ADHD, which gets treated or accommodated, may turn this around. However, how did you get a GPA of 3.98? What was different in your undergrad studies? Course content? Test types? Level of difficulty? More interest in your classes?

 

[JStarMD]

Hello everyone,

I was just notified that my recommendation for dismissal due to unsatisfactory academic progress in my 1.5 years as a medical student has been upheld by the Dean. I have the opportunity to withdraw, rather than have a dismissal on my file.

I just wanted to know if anyone has experienced something similar or know someone who has gone through this, and what my options are from here on out. I was even wondering if it is at all possible to apply right now to schools all over again via AMCAS, but I am wondering is it too late, as well as how bad does a withdrawal from a medical school look on applications etc. and what are my chances of even getting in somewhere.

Some background information on myself and my situation: I Failed my first course at medical school but successfully remediated it over the summer during my first year. I then failed two courses my first semester as a second year medical student, and have been pleading and appealing the decision for my dismissal the past few months, however the Dean's decision is final and he decided to uphold my dismissal. I tried my best to plead my case, such as identifying what went wrong, what I would do to ensure I would not have such trouble in coursework again, explaining that mental health was an issue (severe depression for almost all of first year and the fall semester after) as well as letting the school know about my disability as I have ADHD and part of my plan to ensure success if allowed to repeat my second year was to acquire accommodations from the disability accommodations committee. I even explained how the second course I failed was by less than 1% (I missed the cut off my 0.9%) and how the death of my grandmother who was essentially a second mother to me played a part in my failure to achieve a passing score. Despite all this and more, I am sad to say that none of it made a difference and I am going to have to withdraw from school. My GPA as an undergrad was 3.98 and my MCAT was 510 and my AMCAS application was very well done IMO.

Thank you to anyone and everyone who can offer some advice or speak more about this situation, I am all ears.

Dick was a good friend and brilliant student going through HS and college along side him. He got better grades than me but after two tries never could get a med school acceptance. He decided to give it a few years break----and started at the bottom as a sales rep with a major "medical product" company. They loved him (like all of us that knew him) ; offered to pay for business school if he'd stay on--and did. I ran into him quite accidentally after thirty years as the retiring chairman of the company: "Boy, am I glad I never got into med school", he told me!

 

[Splenda88]

Give it at least 2 yrs and then apply to DO schools.