Addressing Shortcomings

[Wakejefe]

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Greetings from an applicant.

Do you think it is wise to address any "academic indiscretions"(read: occasional subpar grade) in my personal statement or should I stay on an enitrely positive track?

Hooah,

The Jefe

"Real heroes wear uniforms."

 

[Dutchboy]

Greetings from an applicant.

Do you think it is wise to address any "academic indiscretions"(read: occasional subpar grade) in my personal statement or should I stay on an enitrely positive track?

Hooah,

The Jefe

"Real heroes wear uniforms."

If it's just an occasional subpar grade I would just stay positive. If it is a little more than that and might look suspicious it would probably be a good idea to take a paragraph and explain yourself.

 

[Lidopaine82]

i don't think its really bad to talk about a mistake as long as you discuss what you've learned from it. but a bad grade may not be that big of a deal, unless its in a pre-req

 

[DDS:)]

I think it is good idea to mention the poor performance due to immaturity at the begining of the college years, and then show how u overcome those difficulties.

 

[tinman831]

Why draw unnecessary attention to a blemish on your record? Your personal statement should focus on your desire to pursue dentistry, not list excuses for your poor performance. Admissions committees would probably overlook your random poor scores but if you mention it in your statement, they will bring it up during the interview. Talk about it only if they ask about it. Let your personal statement highlight the positive points in your life. 🙂

 

[armorshell]

I think it is good idea to mention the poor performance due to immaturity at the begining of the college years, and then show how u overcome those difficulties.

I know a guy who was on the admissions commitee for a few years at UW, he was telling me they got about 200-300 of those letters a year 😉

 

[DDS:)]

but they are accepting people from those letter, yeah?

 

[armorshell]

but they are accepting people from those letter, yeah?

You'd have to imagine they would just by probability 😉

 

[DDS:)]

Why draw unnecessary attention to a blemish on your record? Your personal statement should focus on your desire to pursue dentistry, not list excuses for your poor performance. Admissions committees would probably overlook your random poor scores but if you mention it in your statement, they will bring it up during the interview. Talk about it only if they ask about it. Let your personal statement highlight the positive points in your life. 🙂

For people are having avg. GPA due to first year's poor perfomance, you want to draw their attention to ur transcript, to show how much you have improve in the later years, and how hard you worked in the 2,3,4th years to get an avg. GPA at this point. I think lot of schools do care about the increasing trend that reflected on ur transcript.

 

[beannaithe]

Um no. Unless like other people have said you did poorly hte first year and made up for it later on. Or you had one bad semester where something that could explain it happened. Like a family member, or yourself got sick or whatnot.

Aside from that, I wouldn't mention it...it just doesn't seem like a good idea to bring up a blemish on your record if it's really okay.