Active Duty Navy looking for advice

[bjkennedy]

I’d like to tell my story today and get some advice. So I graduated high school in 2012 and attended a 4 year university as a pre-med majoring in Biology(surprise surprise) Towards the end of my first semester I got in a pretty bad snowboarding accident that resulted in tearing my ACL and MCL. This caused me not to be able to finish that semester and resulted in some pretty subpar grades. Then in the spring semester I thought that I would be able to do well despite the injury. Right before the spring semester started I had knee surgery to repair the damage. Well this semester did not go as I thought it would. The chronic pain and physical therapy 3 times a week definitely took a toll on my grades. I was also having to work my way through school and could not work due to my injury. This resulted in not having enough money to continue school and having a large amount of medical debt.

After I was completely healed I decided to join the Navy. I tested high on the ASVAB and became a Nuclear electrician serving on submarines. Instead of getting a signing bonus I decided to have all of my medical debt paid off to have a clean slate. Now fast forward to 2020. I am getting out of the Navy this year and starting back to school in the fall, again as a premed majoring in Biology (surprise surprise). I am very worried that my past academic history will affect my GPA so much, that I will be overlooked even with an upward trend. For me, being a physician is my life calling and even though my path hasn’t been normal, I have to do this. I am wondering if anyone else had a similar situation and still had success with their application cycle?

Thanks for reading my story.

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[KnightDoc]

I’d like to tell my story today and get some advice. So I graduated high school in 2012 and attended a 4 year university as a pre-med majoring in Biology(surprise surprise) Towards the end of my first semester I got in a pretty bad snowboarding accident that resulted in tearing my ACL and MCL. This caused me not to be able to finish that semester and resulted in some pretty subpar grades. Then in the spring semester I thought that I would be able to do well despite the injury. Right before the spring semester started I had knee surgery to repair the damage. Well this semester did not go as I thought it would. The chronic pain and physical therapy 3 times a week definitely took a toll on my grades. I was also having to work my way through school and could not work due to my injury. This resulted in not having enough money to continue school and having a large amount of medical debt.

After I was completely healed I decided to join the Navy. I tested high on the ASVAB and became a Nuclear electrician serving on submarines. Instead of getting a signing bonus I decided to have all of my medical debt paid off to have a clean slate. Now fast forward to 2020. I am getting out of the Navy this year and starting back to school in the fall, again as a premed majoring in Biology (surprise surprise). I am very worried that my past academic history will affect my GPA so much, that I will be overlooked even with an upward trend. For me, being a physician is my life calling and even though my path hasn’t been normal, I have to do this. I am wondering if anyone else had a similar situation and still had success with their application cycle?

Thanks for reading my story.

I'm not in a similar situation, but find your story very compelling and would like to thank you for your service by trying to put your mind at ease. Your prior coursework is so old that most schools would not accept whatever prereqs might be in there even if the grades were decent. Assuming you only have one year of bad grades, over 10 years ago (by the time you would be applying), nobody is going to care, assuming your grades are decent from here on out.

Think about it like this, it's only one bad year (out of three or more you will be showing them when you apply) and it was a long time ago. You will presumably be able to show great improvement between then and now, you will have a tremendous story of perseverance and overcoming adversity, plus, med schools LOVE ex-military (real world experience, public service, teamwork, leadership, etc.). If you do well in school and on the MCAT, you will be golden, and will actually have a much stronger application than many traditional students who had a decent first year.

 

[bjkennedy]

I'm not in a similar situation, but find your story very compelling and would like to thank you for your service by trying to put your mind at ease. Your prior coursework is so old that most schools would not accept whatever prereqs might be in there even if the grades were decent. Assuming you only have one year of bad grades, over 10 years ago (by the time you would be applying), nobody is going to care, assuming your grades are decent from here on out.

Think about it like this, it's only one bad year (out of three or more you will be showing them when you apply) and it was a long time ago. You will presumably be able to show great improvement between then and now, you will have a tremendous story of perseverance and overcoming adversity, plus, med schools LOVE ex-military (real world experience, public service, teamwork, leadership, etc.). If you do well in school and on the MCAT, you will be golden, and will actually have a much stronger application than many traditional students who had a decent first year.

Thanks for those kind words. I definitely have a long road ahead of me but I'm just exited to be back on the road to becoming a physician. I just hope that the effect that one year has on my overall GPA isn't going to make or break me in the process. I guess stressing about it is pointless and it's about getting as close to a 4.0 as possible and crushing the MCAT. I wish you well on your journey to med school and beyond.

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

I’d like to tell my story today and get some advice. So I graduated high school in 2012 and attended a 4 year university as a pre-med majoring in Biology(surprise surprise) Towards the end of my first semester I got in a pretty bad snowboarding accident that resulted in tearing my ACL and MCL. This caused me not to be able to finish that semester and resulted in some pretty subpar grades. Then in the spring semester I thought that I would be able to do well despite the injury. Right before the spring semester started I had knee surgery to repair the damage. Well this semester did not go as I thought it would. The chronic pain and physical therapy 3 times a week definitely took a toll on my grades. I was also having to work my way through school and could not work due to my injury. This resulted in not having enough money to continue school and having a large amount of medical debt.

After I was completely healed I decided to join the Navy. I tested high on the ASVAB and became a Nuclear electrician serving on submarines. Instead of getting a signing bonus I decided to have all of my medical debt paid off to have a clean slate. Now fast forward to 2020. I am getting out of the Navy this year and starting back to school in the fall, again as a premed majoring in Biology (surprise surprise). I am very worried that my past academic history will affect my GPA so much, that I will be overlooked even with an upward trend. For me, being a physician is my life calling and even though my path hasn’t been normal, I have to do this. I am wondering if anyone else had a similar situation and still had success with their application cycle?

Thanks for reading my story.

You’ll be fine. I had 26 Ws and 3 Fs on my transcript but a huge upward trend, a great MCAT, and 7 years in the Navy and got interviews at almost every school I applied to and got multiple acceptances. Trust me, you’ll be solid as long as you do well from now on.

 

[rdyotz]

As everyone has said, do great and you can be ok. The grades will still be part of your GPA, but can be overcome. Some schools allow you to petition to have entire semesters withdrawn due to medical issues, even after final grades are posted. However, it may have been too long for them to consider it now, but it does not hurt to ask, every school is different.

 

[Princeton Medical Student]

This should not affect you in any way. Your grades for the next 4 years will have a much greater impact, and while this will be part of your GPA, it really shouldn't matter that much given that you will have a huge upward trend, not to mention an explanation, and a long timeframe away from that year. Either way, good luck with college. Premed should much easier than nuke school anyway!

 

[bjkennedy]

This should not affect you in any way. Your grades for the next 4 years will have a much greater impact, and while this will be part of your GPA, it really shouldn't matter that much given that you will have a huge upward trend, not to mention an explanation, and a long timeframe away from that year. Either way, good luck with college. Premed should much easier than nuke school anyway!

I hope that premed is easier than nuke school! I definitely think that it has prepared me for the rigor of being a premed but only time will tell. Good luck to you in all you do.