Bringing up depression in my ERAS residency application

[wrkndply]

I suffered from depression and anxiety during medical school. It has now been addressed and managed with medication.
I want to be honest if asked about my course failure during medical school and say it was due to the untreated depression.

any reason i should not be so transparent? Will the depression be held against me during interviews or if i write about it in my eras residency application?

thanks for any input.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[WheezyBaby]

If it's a single course failure I would lean away from disclosing

 

[Laradd]

Yeah, totally agree. Just move on because might be a disadvantage to some.

Chin up, be positive!

 

[Oso]

I would only mention something major like failing step 1 or a clerkship in the PS. I wouldn’t mention failing a single preclinical course.

On the other hand if you failed a lot of smaller things that will be visible on the MSPE then I think it could be possible to disclose as long as you can spin it in a positive way, ie how you’ve grown because of your experiences. But I would need more info before actually recommending that to you

 

[gutonc]

If it's a didactic course failure, and you subsequently passed it, nobody will care. Forget it.

If it's a clerkship failure unrelated to your specialty of choice, nobody will care. Forget it.

If it's the clerkship you're applying to (or close to it), you should probably explain it.

 

[GoSpursGo]

I want to be honest if asked about my course failure during medical school and say it was due to the untreated depression.

I think the key part here is "if asked." By all means be honest if it comes up in an interview, but IMO there's no particular reason to go out of your way to include anything negative in your personal statement or elsewhere in your application, unless the failure is related to your specialty of choice.

 

[dienekes88]

I suffered from depression and anxiety during medical school. It has now been addressed and managed with medication.
I want to be honest if asked about my course failure during medical school and say it was due to the untreated depression.

any reason i should not be so transparent? Will the depression be held against me during interviews or if i write about it in my eras residency application?

thanks for any input.

There are two things here:
Being transparent
Volunteering information

You should never lie, but you should never give someone a reason to put your file aside and pick up the next one.

 

[calvinhobbes]

Don’t mention it. Don’t give a program a reason to hesitate in giving you an interview, or even ranking you! Of course, if your school states it in your MSPE (does your school know? Did you tell them? Did you have to take a medical leave?) then you may or may not mention it in your PS, but be aware you may be asked. I agree with the posters above, it’s nobody’s business and if your school doesn’t know, and it’s a single class failure, no one will care. Although stigma towards mental health is decreasing, you never know who may be “concerned” about interviewing you or ranking you to match. So don’t mention it, unless the school writes about it and submits it to eras.