? 4 previous applicants/current med students

[MDplease123]

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Hi previous applicants/current med students,
Any advice on how to approach the "fluctuations/difficulties encountered/ in academic record" question? How did you decide what was considered a significant fluctuation? I have one C on my transcript and im not sure whether this is something that I need to explain (if this is enough to deter ADCOMs from giving me an interview) or whether my explanation may be seen as me making an excuse. I also have a semester where I did not take a full load of classes...there are reasons for this which I would be happy to address in an interview...Im just not sure if I need to bring this up on a secondary. Anyone have a simliar experience or advice on how to approach these questions? Thank you very much for your input!

 

[TRN1983]

I doubt those will even come into question at all. If they do, give an honest answer.

 

[MDSchoolSequela]

Hi previous applicants/current med students,
Any advice on how to approach the "fluctuations/difficulties encountered/ in academic record" question? How did you decide what was considered a significant fluctuation? I have one C on my transcript and im not sure whether this is something that I need to explain (if this is enough to deter ADCOMs from giving me an interview) or whether my explanation may be seen as me making an excuse. I also have a semester where I did not take a full load of classes...there are reasons for this which I would be happy to address in an interview...Im just not sure if I need to bring this up on a secondary. Anyone have a simliar experience or advice on how to approach these questions? Thank you very much for your input!

Some schools will specify if they want explanation for grades lower than Bs, in which case, please explain your C and try to not put blame on anyone or anything else.
As for your light load semester, did this cause any delay in your graduation or were you able to make up the credits with an extra summer semester or heavily loaded semester?
If there was a delay in graduation, you might want to explain because this would likely be noticed by application reviewers.
If there was no delay you could leave it out and just be prepared to answer the question in the unlikely event that it comes up during your interview.