Academic bankruptcy and medical school admissions

[OldPreMed82]

Hi all!

I recently turned 40 and have decided to pursue my dream of becoming a physician. I have a very long and complicated academic past because of my struggles with what at the time was undiagnosed mental health issues. I have all of that under control now and am ready to try to remedy my past poor performance.

I was recently granted a academic renewal from my alma mater. In other words, ALL of my previous course work from that school has been erased. Well, technically, the courses are still listed, but the credit hours, points, and grades have all been set to 0.00.

Does anyone know how medical school admission committees treat those with academic renewals? Are they looked at favorably if you're able to excel after starting over? The courses/grades that were zeroed out were around 15-20 years old.

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[Mr.Smile12]

I can't speak for every committee but if it is how your described, it would be similar to having just course credit without a grade for the GPA. we would focus anyway on courses you took most recently anyway (as you would want us to). And only those recent grades would be calculated for the application. That would be good for you and for our review.

So if you do well enough with your most recent coursework, I think it would definitely be a help.

 

[bomba]

I'm not sure what state you're in, but Texas public universities have a policy called Academic Fresh Start that allows Texas residents to remove courses taken 10 or more years prior from their transcript. The best part is that it can be used to apply to Texas state medical schools as well. Again, not sure if that is at all relevant to your circumstances, but it's an option.

Best of luck!

 

[deleted1079620]

At my school you could do this in order to qualify for financial aid, but all grades no matter how old were still counted for academic honors, gpa, & med school admissions, so I chose not to do it.