At this point...

[Compass]

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OK, I got wrecked this last year. I got an F in an Honors thesis course, 2 Cs, 3 Bs, 3 As, and a bunch of Ps in research and some other classes. One of the Cs was in a class that was frankly beyond my comprehension, and the other was Biochemistry.

My GPA as it currently stands is 3.55, but my past two semesters are pretty rocky. I'm currently working on getting that F resolved with a letter to my committee if I can obtain it. Other than that, I am preparing for a final shot MCAT. I have scored 30P on a previous MCAT, and am hoping on improving for this one.

ECs good, service to the community good, shadowing good, research good other than that Honors thesis, have a clinical research job during summer and fall at state medical school, and am a reapplicant.

I have my AMCAS ready to submit today 😱 and I'll have all my other requisite forms as necessary. However, before I do submit it, I was wondering what type, if any, response I should put for that one naggy F. I don't know if I can properly explain it away without explanation from my professor, and I don't want to delay my AMCAS to the point that I'll be waiting ages for my submission to go through either.

Advice would be appreciated.

I'm not asking for chances, as I already have one of those open... , just for what I should do about that F.

 

[tiedyeddog]

I'm not asking for chances, as I already have one of those open... , just for what I should do about that F.

Have your LOR writers address it, if you can.

 

[Compass]

What about the PS? I know that what I'm going to talk about in the PS will be game-on in any interviews I do get, which is what concerns me, but I should be able to defend it in that event...

 

[Stratego]

I would not mention it in the PS. You don't want to bring negative information into the essay that is selling the reason you want to go into medicine. Many secondary applications have an essay prompt where covering this information would be more appropriate, like: Discuss any difficulties you had in your academic journey, or Discuss a stress and how you handled it, or Tell about a challenge you overcame.

 

[Mattabet]

I would not mention it in the PS. You don't want to bring negative information into the essay that is selling the reason you want to go into medicine. Many secondary applications have an essay prompt where covering this information would be more appropriate, like: Discuss any difficulties you had in your academic journey, or Discuss a stress and how you handled it, or Tell about a challenge you overcame.

👍 Agree. Especially because this just happened, I'm not sure you want to bend your PS around it. You probably had a motivation for medicine before this past semester, and despite it. 'Discuss a challenge' (or some variant thereof) is probably #1 on the list of popular secondary questions, so if you come up with some compelling justifications, you can use them there.

And the F is fair game in an interview whether you put it in the PS or not, so either way you're gonna need to be ready to talk about it.

 

[Compass]

I discussed challenges of becoming a leader in my PS. No mention of that anywhere. Thanks for the tips.