3 Fails, want to get rid of them.

[Sesom]

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Hello,

Right now I have a 3.6 GPA from my community college. This does not include grades from my first semester (spring 2007) of college which was at a different community college. I had gotten 3 fails from my first semester. I had just simply stopped going to class about a month and a half into the semester. My father entered into the hospital for pneumonia which developed into ARDS. He was in the ICU from late February until early April when he died.

These fails will probably take my GPA down to a 3.2 or lower. Has anyone had any experience trying to get grades withdrawn due to family troubles?

 

[4X4MD]

Hello,

Right now I have a 3.6 GPA from my community college. This does not include grades from my first semester (spring 2007) of college which was at a different community college. I had gotten 3 fails from my first semester. I had just simply stopped going to class about a month and a half into the semester. My father entered into the hospital for pneumonia which developed into ARDS. He was in the ICU from late February until early April when he died.

These fails will probably take my GPA down to a 3.2 or lower. Has anyone had any experience trying to get grades withdrawn due to family troubles?

im sure its a very difficult process that has a time frame (which im sure you have already passed up if you are in a future semester)

id say retake the classes (if you already haven't) and show an extreme upward trend

 

[FlipDoc2Be]

Just don't submit those grades. Simple as that. Medical Schools have no way of knowing about those grades.

 

[billw]

Just don't submit those grades. Simple as that. Medical Schools have no way of knowing about those grades.

There are clearing houses that provide this info to colleges. Whether or not the college will always go to the effort to search this out is debatable, but the problem is that, if you do get caught, even down the road during medical school, you could be dismissed. Best to judge the risk accordingly.

 

[Sesom]

im sure its a very difficult process that has a time frame (which im sure you have already passed up if you are in a future semester)

id say retake the classes (if you already haven't) and show an extreme upward trend

Policy is 4 years for withdrawal. So I have another year. Pretty much just wondering if others have been in a similar situation as me and gotten their grades withdrawn.

 

[morning]

Just don't submit those grades. Simple as that. Medical Schools have no way of knowing about those grades.

This is truly terrible advice. Of course they do.


http://www.studentclearinghouse.org/

 

[FlipDoc2Be]

This is truly terrible advice. Of course they do.


http://www.studentclearinghouse.org/

First off, not all Medical Schools utilize the student clearing house. Also, OP it may be possible to that your CC is not included in that list of the student clearing house. You may want to look into that. This process is a game. You're going to have to take risks if need be. I have nothing else to say. Good luck.

 

[Catalystik]

Policy is 4 years for withdrawal. So I have another year. Pretty much just wondering if others have been in a similar situation as me and gotten their grades withdrawn.

If you have suitable documentation about your father's situation, you might try appealing for a retroactive withdrawal from the classes. Occasionally this is granted.

 

[ThaliaNox]

It is the simple fact that unless you can go back to your previous school and talk them into actually changing these grades to withdraws, you're stuck with them. The AMCAS system absolutely does not have a mechanism for not counting grades. I would beg your previous institution to retroactively change these Fs into Ws. I don't know how sucessful you will be because every school has different policies on this.

In addition, please do not leave these off your AMCAS, even if you do get them changed to Ws, and certainly have them on your AMCAS if they stay Fs. Eventually someone will find out, and it'd really suck to get kicked out of med school during 4th year with 200,000 dollars in debt under your belt. Is that a risk you really want to take?

 

[Sesom]

Well here is the latest, first let me break down the classes.

1 credit Library (some nonsense online class they make your take with English 1010
) 3 credits English 1010 and 3 credits psychology. So 7 in total. I actually only have 2 fails because that library one is a WF. I have a slight feeling that the teacher of that Library class gave me that WF because my father was the head librarian at the public library and recognized my name and situation at the time. I say this because my girlfriend in the class ceased sending in homework at the same time and received an F.

They sent me an email saying that I need to get signatures from my teachers that I had. Kind of sucks, I am absolutely positive they have no idea I was ever in there classes by now. But I am going to drive down to that school and try and get their signatures.

Thank you for your quick responses everyone.

 

[ThaliaNox]

When you visit the teachers, I would bring documentation of your father's illness with you, and take the time to explain why you didn't get this taken care of earlier. (Found out later that you wanted to go to medical school and that those Fs would come back to haunt you) Don't expect the teachers to just take your word for it. Perhaps also contact the librarian who gave you the withdraw to get their sanction on the process in writing. If the teachers know that someone else already gave you a W, they are more likely to follow suit.

 

[Sesom]

When you visit the teachers, I would bring documentation of your father's illness with you, and take the time to explain why you didn't get this taken care of earlier. (Found out later that you wanted to go to medical school and that those Fs would come back to haunt you) Don't expect the teachers to just take your word for it. Perhaps also contact the librarian who gave you the withdraw to get their sanction on the process in writing. If the teachers know that someone else already gave you a W, they are more likely to follow suit.

Good thinking, thank you. I will absolutely bring the medical records. I hope that it won't be difficult to get those.

Thank you

 

[apumic]

It is the simple fact that unless you can go back to your previous school and talk them into actually changing these grades to withdraws, you're stuck with them. The AMCAS system absolutely does not have a mechanism for not counting grades. I would beg your previous institution to retroactively change these Fs into Ws. I don't know how sucessful you will be because every school has different policies on this.

In addition, please do not leave these off your AMCAS, even if you do get them changed to Ws, and certainly have them on your AMCAS if they stay Fs. Eventually someone will find out, and it'd really suck to get kicked out of med school during 4th year with 200,000 dollars in debt under your belt. Is that a risk you really want to take?

It's actually worse than that. They can actually retroactively cancel your degree as well, so if something came up down the road that brought a question to your name (say, a lawsuit resulting in an investigation that somehow turned up your admission to an intent to commit fraud in this post), you could actually get your MD degree revoked after completing residency and actually being out working as a physician for a few years. Suddenly, your whole life could come crashing down b/c it was discovered you hadn't submitted all your grades as required. The chances of this happen obviously decrease with time (i.e., if they don't catch you by MS3, you're probably not going to get caught and by graduating, it's pretty unlikely; however you would have to live your entire life with the knowledge that if that got investigated for whatever reason, you could, at any time, receive a letter stating your MD had been revoked due to academic fraud. You would then lose your license, board certification, etc., and be reduced to nothing pretty quickly (at least nothing beyond your bio degree or whatever w/ no experience and a very unhelpful explanation for interviewers when they ask why you left medicine).... You also wouldn't likely be able to return to school as most schools expressly disallow the admission of people who have committed academic fraud of a level that got them expelled from another institution.

 

[Sesom]

It's actually worse than that. They can actually retroactively cancel your degree as well, so if something came up down the road that brought a question to your name (say, a lawsuit resulting in an investigation that somehow turned up your admission to an intent to commit fraud in this post), you could actually get your MD degree revoked after completing residency and actually being out working as a physician for a few years. Suddenly, your whole life could come crashing down b/c it was discovered you hadn't submitted all your grades as required. The chances of this happen obviously decrease with time (i.e., if they don't catch you by MS3, you're probably not going to get caught and by graduating, it's pretty unlikely; however you would have to live your entire life with the knowledge that if that got investigated for whatever reason, you could, at any time, receive a letter stating your MD had been revoked due to academic fraud. You would then lose your license, board certification, etc., and be reduced to nothing pretty quickly (at least nothing beyond your bio degree or whatever w/ no experience and a very unhelpful explanation for interviewers when they ask why you left medicine).... You also wouldn't likely be able to return to school as most schools expressly disallow the admission of people who have committed academic fraud of a level that got them expelled from another institution.

Yeah, I am not planning on taking the advice to not be forthcoming with my grades. I am going to the university of utah come fall and I want to send my transcripts from both colleges even though I know one of them will not benefit my GPA. So hopefully I will be able to get these changed, if not, then 🙁

 

[TheRach1025]

I recently completed retroactive withdrawal for four courses I took in Spring 2004 and received WU grades for (WU = unofficial withdrawal = F). I took a long shot and surprisingly it worked out.

Make sure to send a sincere e-mail to the professors before meeting with them to set up an appointment. I was lucky that 3 of them still worked at my old school and the 4th is teaching at the school I attend now. The well composed e-mail certainly got their sympathies even though I didn't have nearly as noble a reason for my poor performance.

The grade changes instantly changed my max cGPA from 3.1 to 3.3. This is still low but it gives me a shot with a great MCAT.

This experience has taught me that no matter how remote the possibility of success seems, you've got to at least try.

 

[eatsleeprepeat]

First off, not all Medical Schools utilize the student clearing house. Also, OP it may be possible to that your CC is not included in that list of the student clearing house. You may want to look into that. This process is a game. You're going to have to take risks if need be. I have nothing else to say. Good luck.

^ Wow this is terrible advice.

OP just finish your degree, retaking those courses if need be, and if you continue to pull decent/great grades those few F's will be offset quite easily once your accumulated GPA credits stack up. When it comes time to apply, simply include your explanation for the failed semester in your PS. Medical school are extremely understanding in instances such as yours, and you would not be doing yourself any favors by omitting this type of information, hoping it goes unnoticed. Hang in there! 🙂

 

[HopefulOncoDoc]

I think it really sucks how AMCAS requires coursework from high school that were taken at a post-secondary institution. I took courses at a community college that were equivalent to high school chemistry and algebra II. What if I omitted these grades and if I did get caught, what if I said that I didn't think they were to be included since I took them in high school and believed them to be regular high school coursework. Would that be a legitimate excuse? It just really sucks because my gpa would be shot down to a whopping 3.4 and I know its not completely horrible or anything but I just worked so hard in college that for my grade to be plummeted from a 3.6 to a 3.4. All because of two high school courses at a community college.

 

[taciturngirl]

Wow, guys. You'd be taking a serious risk by knowingly omitting any post-secondary grades from your AMCAS app. Is it worth it to know that you could potentially be dismissed from your med school at any point down the line if they find that you failed to provide that kind of information? The risk could be remote, but it still happens. To each his own, but I'd rather just work on getting the gpa up than have that hanging over my head.

 

[startswithb]

I think it really sucks how AMCAS requires coursework from high school that were taken at a post-secondary institution. I took courses at a community college that were equivalent to high school chemistry and algebra II. What if I omitted these grades and if I did get caught, what if I said that I didn't think they were to be included since I took them in high school and believed them to be regular high school coursework. Would that be a legitimate excuse? It just really sucks because my gpa would be shot down to a whopping 3.4 and I know its not completely horrible or anything but I just worked so hard in college that for my grade to be plummeted from a 3.6 to a 3.4. All because of two high school courses at a community college.

That would be a pretty lame excuse, seeing as right on your AMCAS it lists GPAs for HS, FR, SO, JR, SR, PB. This happens to a lot of people, including several people on this thread and me, gotta rise above it.

 

[Daedra22]

What is it with all these people who want to lie about their grades? I have a couple grades that I'm not proud of either, but compromising your integrity to cover them up... that's not what I would want in a doctor, and I'm sure that's not the kind of person that the schools want. Not only is it slimy and a poor reflection on your character, it is not worth the risk.

Retake the classes if they're too low, pull up your GPA, and rock the MCAT. Apply to as many schools as possible. You don't have to cheat to get an acceptance.

 

[utah3219]

.

 

[chman]

I think it really sucks how AMCAS requires coursework from high school that were taken at a post-secondary institution. I took courses at a community college that were equivalent to high school chemistry and algebra II. What if I omitted these grades and if I did get caught, what if I said that I didn't think they were to be included since I took them in high school and believed them to be regular high school coursework. Would that be a legitimate excuse? It just really sucks because my gpa would be shot down to a whopping 3.4 and I know its not completely horrible or anything but I just worked so hard in college that for my grade to be plummeted from a 3.6 to a 3.4. All because of two high school courses at a community college.

Well algebra II is below college level so it won't count. All you need to worry about is 100 level and above.

I do think that high schools should do a better job of explaining that classes taken at cc's will follow you as a student. At 16,17,18 years old a lot of people don't think that far ahead.

 

[Sesom]

UPDATE: I went down Monday, got all of my teachers to sign a petition for withdrawal, turned it into the coommittee with an explanation and medical records. They reviewed it on Wednesday, I called them on Thursday and they said that it was approved. So no more fails! Thank you everyone for your advice.