Withdrew from graduate school w/ permanent incomplete

[banana_phone]

Hi everyone,

I've started worrying a great deal about how my past is going to affect my future as a prospective medical student. I graduated from the University of Oregon magna cum laude with a 3.93 GPA and a degree in Education. I started as Masters in Ed. program in Oregon following graduation, but after about a week of beginning the program, I realized I couldn't actually imagine myself being a teacher, at all. At the same time, my mom fell very ill with kidney disease and is now awaiting a transplant. Because I realized I could NOT be a teacher, and because of the timing of everything with my mother, I ended up withdrawing from the program and received two permanent "Incomplete" grades for the courses I started. These will NOT be changed to an F at any point in time, instead my transcript from the graduate school just has the two "I" grades, 0 credits earned, and my GPA as a big fat 0.00

I'm worried this might be a huge block for me getting into medical school, because I may look non-committed, and I'm concerned about AMCAS counting these grades as F's, even though my transcript says otherwise. I spent the time after withdrawing from the program working full time (non-medical field) and volunteering once a week at a local hospital. I truly love medicine and desperately want to be a doctor. Am I screwed?

My current AMCAS cGPA is 3.82 and my current AMCAS sGPA is 3.88. I'm doing a DIY post-bacc at the University of Minnesota, with a 4.0 GPA so far.

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[Goro]

Just ace the post-bac and you'll be fine. An Inc grade will not be factored into your GPA, I believe.

Hi everyone,

I've started worrying a great deal about how my past is going to affect my future as a prospective medical student. I graduated from the University of Oregon magna cum laude with a 3.93 GPA and a degree in Education. I started as Masters in Ed. program in Oregon following graduation, but after about a week of beginning the program, I realized I couldn't actually imagine myself being a teacher, at all. At the same time, my mom fell very ill with kidney disease and is now awaiting a transplant. Because I realized I could NOT be a teacher, and because of the timing of everything with my mother, I ended up withdrawing from the program and received two permanent "Incomplete" grades for the courses I started. These will NOT be changed to an F at any point in time, instead my transcript from the graduate school just has the two "I" grades, 0 credits earned, and my GPA as a big fat 0.00

I'm worried this might be a huge block for me getting into medical school, because I may look non-committed, and I'm concerned about AMCAS counting these grades as F's, even though my transcript says otherwise. I spent the time after withdrawing from the program working full time (non-medical field) and volunteering once a week at a local hospital. I truly love medicine and desperately want to be a doctor. Am I screwed?

My current AMCAS cGPA is 3.82 and my current AMCAS sGPA is 3.88. I'm doing a DIY post-bacc at the University of Minnesota, with a 4.0 GPA so far.

 

[AlbinoHawk DO]

I have classmates that dropped out of several different graduate programs. Honestly, I think it's a myth that they hold such things strongly against you. If you walk the premed walk, you've proven yourself.

 

[caffeinemia]

They may ask you why you dropped out - be sincere and explain that you understand that your family situation/health situation prevented you from completing the program.

My paranoia may be useful to consider here:

Please please please... don't mention that you changed your mind a week into Education school (like you implied above). It automatically makes some people think: well, is he/she going to change their mind about medical school at some point in the next 4 years? That's a trap you don't want to have to extricate yourself from. Just go with the family illness. If they ask why you didn't restart education later, you should go with the fact that your mother's illness inspired you to pursue medicine or something that makes the narrative sound plausible.

 

[banana_phone]

They may ask you why you dropped out - be sincere and explain that you understand that your family situation/health situation prevented you from completing the program.

My paranoia may be useful to consider here:

Please please please... don't mention that you changed your mind a week into Education school (like you implied above). It automatically makes some people think: well, is he/she going to change their mind about medical school at some point in the next 4 years? That's a trap you don't want to have to extricate yourself from. Just go with the family illness. If they ask why you didn't restart education later, you should go with the fact that your mother's illness inspired you to pursue medicine or something that makes the narrative sound plausible.

I definitely think it will be better to focus on the "how this experience made me switch to medicine" route, because it holds a lot of truth. I just don't want to look flaky, or non-committed. Hopefully I will be able to prove myself. Just hoping that my solid grades as a post-bacc/experiences since then prove that I am committed to medicine. I started taking pre-requisites for the actual med school prerequisites a term after dropping out of the M.Ed program (needed to take a math class and an intro chemistry course to take Physics and Gen Chem, respectively), and immediately started volunteering in a local emergency room. Fingers crossed..I think I can talk eloquently about the reasons for the switch, I just need the incompletes to not be a barrier towards me getting an interview.

 

[banana_phone]

Actually, on that note, is the reason for the switch something I should discuss directly in my PS? I was definitely going to discuss my mom's illness, as well as my father passing away at an early age. But I don't want my PS to seem like I'm making excuses, so to speak, for why I dropped out of the M.Ed program. Maybe this is better suited for a secondary essay?

 

[caffeinemia]

I don't think they necessarily will, if you have grades and scores. Additionally, amcas has a quick "explain your weird issues" section that will help.

 

[caffeinemia]

Actually, on that note, is the reason for the switch something I should discuss directly in my PS? I was definitely going to discuss my mom's illness, as well as my father passing away at an early age. But I don't want my PS to seem like I'm making excuses, so to speak, for why I dropped out of the M.Ed program. Maybe this is better suited for a secondary essay?

I actually help people with PS on a professional basis. It's my opinion that PS'es should highlight the positives or things that really impacted your decision-making. In this case, it's about how you present it. If you talk about illness in the family as a life changing experience, then by all means ... go for it. If you frame it in a way that superficially deals with dropping out, then I would say leave it for the "additional explanations" section.

 

[Lawgiver]

some people sue their schools to get an I!

 

[Doug Underhill]

Well, they're going to see the incompletes, so you'll have to answer these two questions:

1) Why did you drop out

2) How do we know you won't drop out of med school

 

[h2med]

I dropped out of law school to apply to medical school. Granted, I finished my first year, but everything I saw prior was that it looked like a death knell to leave a professional school. In the end it wasn't a big deal at all. I got plenty of interviews and none actually really grilled me on dropping out of law school. I was pre med before matriculating to law school so I spun it as going into health law and policy and missing the hands on/scientific approach of clinical medicine, but I'm sure you could craft as similar narrative with education etc. Like you, I took a year off to volunteer at a hospital and do some other things to beef up the application and I'll be going to a great school in the fall. I know the anxiety of leaving something behind like that to apply to med school; the stakes feel a lot higher, but it'll work out.
As a note on the PS, I found it to be a useful tool to highlight my interest in medicine and really used it to show a crystalized passion for medicine by experiencing things outside of it. Can't know what you enjoy until you experience something you don't!