Addressing low GPA in secondaries

[peter99]

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I'm in the process of prewriting my secondaries and I'm thinking about the "explain any poor grades" question. When I was a senior in undergrad, I split my time between school and home caring for my grandfather with dementia. This caused my GPA that year to tank (like 2.8 for that year). Would mentioning this sound like an excuse? Would it raise red flags to adcoms about how I could handle disruptions to my life during med school?

 

[GoSpursGo]

Do you have any more recent coursework to show that you've recovered from this?

Regardless, I think you more or less need to answer with this explanation. It may lead them to question how you would handle disruptions, but the alternative is that they wonder what the heck happened in your senior year with no explanation

 

[Goro]

Do you have any more recent coursework to show that you've recovered from this?

Regardless, I think you more or less need to answer with this explanation. It may lead them to question how you would handle disruptions, but the alternative is that they wonder what the heck happened in your senior year with no explanation

Concur with wise Spurs

 

[peter99]

Do you have any more recent coursework to show that you've recovered from this?

Regardless, I think you more or less need to answer with this explanation. It may lead them to question how you would handle disruptions, but the alternative is that they wonder what the heck happened in your senior year with no explanation

Yes, I got a 3.84 in my SMP so that will be a good sign. Thanks!

 

[GoSpursGo]

Yes, I got a 3.84 in my SMP so that will be a good sign. Thanks!

Great. You need to answer this question in the secondaries that ask, but as long as you say you learned how to better handle disruptions outside of school then you have shown that you've got what it takes to succeed academically.