Bringing up extenuating circumstances in application

[ruecglias]

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I went through a bout of depression in undergrad that lasted about 2 years before I realized I needed help, and during that time my grades really suffered. I came out with around a 3.2 (BA English with all the pre-reqs). When I finally started treatment and started working toward medical school, it was around the middle of my junior year. There is a strong upward trend until graduation. I did then a MS in Biomedical Sciences and under treatment came out with a 3.72.

Is this a something I should bring up in my primary application personal statement or somewhere else in the application? I feel this is an important part of my story. I am afraid that some of my reach schools won't even look at my application in light of my GPA. What do you guys think?

 

[drducky.]

It would sound like youre making excuses imo. Let your upward trend speak for itself.

 

[ruecglias]

It would sound like youre making excuses imo. Let your upward trend speak for itself.

Well, I'd like to explain so that they don't think I just wasn't trying for 2.5 years.

 

[drducky.]

Well, I'd like to explain so that they don't think I just wasn't trying for 2.5 years.

Thats usually how it is though, not saying thats you, but i’d bet adcoms see a lot of premeds that goof around for a few years, then make up excuses like their grandma died to “explain” their grades. Best bet imo is to just own up to it.

 

[djsbaseball2014]

I brought context to my poor grades early on in my academic career. Only one person brought it up and asked me what I did to start such a steep upward trend but I say find a way to mention your depression/context around it without directly saying this is what caused my poor grades. I say just mention the rough time frame you dealt with it and they should be able to put 2 and 2 together

 

[ruecglias]

I brought context to my poor grades early on in my academic career. Only one person brought it up and asked me what I did to start such a steep upward trend but I say find a way to mention your depression/context around it without directly saying this is what caused my poor grades. I say just mention the rough time frame you dealt with it and they should be able to put 2 and 2 together

Is this something you put in the personal statement or elsewhere?

 

[deleted480308]

I went through a bout of depression in undergrad that lasted about 2 years before I realized I needed help, and during that time my grades really suffered. I came out with around a 3.2 (BA English with all the pre-reqs). When I finally started treatment and started working toward medical school, it was around the middle of my junior year. There is a strong upward trend until graduation. I did then a MS in Biomedical Sciences and under treatment came out with a 3.72.

Is this a something I should bring up in my primary application personal statement or somewhere else in the application? I feel this is an important part of my story. I am afraid that some of my reach schools won't even look at my application in light of my GPA. What do you guys think?

I would not bring up mental health problems in my app. Your mileage may vary

 

[ruecglias]

I would not bring up mental health problems in my app. Your mileage may vary

May I ask why not? (I've worked in the mental health field so our views on mental health may be very different--I'm very open about it)

 

[djsbaseball2014]

Is this something you put in the personal statement or elsewhere?

I put it in the secondary under the area that asked if you have overcome some hardship. Mine was about my parents divorce in college

 

[ciestar]

I would not bring up mental health problems in my app. Your mileage may vary

Agreed.
I have bipolar II and i completely get it, but, i also nearly failed several classes when things got out of control emotionally for me. That is why you shouldn’t mention it. Med school is a high stress environment and breaks healthy people. They’re weary you’ll relapse and need an LOA, or worse, drop or fail out.

 

[deleted480308]

May I ask why not? (I've worked in the mental health field so our views on mental health may be very different--I'm very open about it)

because of this

Agreed.
I have bipolar II and i completely get it, but, i also nearly failed several classes when things got out of control emotionally for me. That is why you shouldn’t mention it. Med school is a high stress environment and breaks healthy people. They’re weary you’ll relapse and need an LOA, or worse, drop or fail out.

Op, to me it’s all about presenting myself as the safest candidate possible

 

[ruecglias]

because of this

Op, to me it’s all about presenting myself as the safest candidate possible

I thought the whole point was the make yourself stand out, not blend in? I mean I'm not trying to be difficult or anything, part of my background is working in psychiatry and mental health advocacy so I feel like I'd be going against my own work to hide something like this. You kinda understand what I'm saying?

 

[ciestar]

I thought the whole point was the make yourself stand out, not blend in? I mean I'm not trying to be difficult or anything, part of my background is working in psychiatry and mental health advocacy so I feel like I'd be going against my own work to hide something like this. You kinda understand what I'm saying?

This is not how you want to stand out. It’s risky.

 

[drducky.]

I thought the whole point was the make yourself stand out, not blend in? I mean I'm not trying to be difficult or anything, part of my background is working in psychiatry and mental health advocacy so I feel like I'd be going against my own work to hide something like this. You kinda understand what I'm saying?

Nothing wrong with blending into the 4.0/528 nature publication crowd.

 

[deleted480308]

I thought the whole point was the make yourself stand out, not blend in? I mean I'm not trying to be difficult or anything, part of my background is working in psychiatry and mental health advocacy so I feel like I'd be going against my own work to hide something like this. You kinda understand what I'm saying?

Imagine going to the nfl combine and trying to stand out by talking about your multiple knee and ankle surgeries

But it’s your life, do what you want

 

[lalalallala]

There is usually a spot to explain extenuating circumstances / poor grades, but I do not think it would be to your advantage to bring it up. I understand that you work in the mental health field and believe that people should be able to be open about their mental health problems, especially in the medical field. However, you have to think about it from the other side too. Mental illness is one of the leading causes of medical students doing poorly, dropping out, burnout, physician suicides, etc. It happens to previously healthy people, so with a history of depression, even with help, they would not be unreasonable to be concerned about how you would do, especially since you say you struggled with it for 2.5 years. You can choose to take a stand in the name of honesty and destigmatizing mental illness and speak your truth, but just know that you will very likely end up hurting your chances - perhaps not with every adcom at every school but certainly with some.

 

[ruecglias]

Imagine going to the nfl combine and trying to stand out by talking about your multiple knee and ankle surgeries

But it’s your life, do what you want

Maybe I framed this wrong--I was depressed for 2.5 years but didn't realize what it was, and since starting treatment I have not struggled. I don't think adcom can ding me based on my past medical history, that seems a little discriminatory.

That being said, I'm not mentioning this in hopes that adcom will take pity on me. I am considering bringing it up as an instance of overcoming adversity, learning about the value of practicing medicine as a means to improve not only physical health but the richness of human wellbeing in general.

 

[IlDestriero]

It seems safer to say that you changed your career path and found brains you didn’t know you had then to say that you had disabling mental illness.

 

[nimbus]

There is usually a spot to explain extenuating circumstances / poor grades, but I do not think it would be to your advantage to bring it up. I understand that you work in the mental health field and believe that people should be able to be open about their mental health problems, especially in the medical field. However, you have to think about it from the other side too. Mental illness is one of the leading causes of medical students doing poorly, dropping out, burnout, physician suicides, etc. It happens to previously healthy people, so with a history of depression, even with help, they would not be unreasonable to be concerned about how you would do, especially since you say you struggled with it for 2.5 years. You can choose to take a stand in the name of honesty and destigmatizing mental illness and speak your truth, but just know that you will very likely end up hurting your chances - perhaps not with every adcom at every school but certainly with some.

And if you want to take a stand, it’s much better to do so after you have your foot in the door.

 

[IlDestriero]

My wife has survived the cutthroat business world for 20 years. There you never admit weakness or you’ll be managed out. She has so many stories from a few different companies.
They won’t discriminate against you because you’re sick, they’ll blame it on 57 other things. You’re either up, out, or in a dead end path. Lots of people like the dead end desk job I guess. She’s pretty good about reading the prevailing winds.

 

[ciestar]

Maybe I framed this wrong--I was depressed for 2.5 years but didn't realize what it was, and since starting treatment I have not struggled. I don't think adcom can ding me based on my past medical history, that seems a little discriminatory.

That being said, I'm not mentioning this in hopes that adcom will take pity on me. I am considering bringing it up as an instance of overcoming adversity, learning about the value of practicing medicine as a means to improve not only physical health but the richness of human wellbeing in general.

Discriminatory or not, it is what it is and they COULD ding you. Ask the adcoms around here and they’ll say the same thing.

But, you’ve made up your mind so I’ll just wish you the best of luck.

 

[Goro]

I went through a bout of depression in undergrad that lasted about 2 years before I realized I needed help, and during that time my grades really suffered. I came out with around a 3.2 (BA English with all the pre-reqs). When I finally started treatment and started working toward medical school, it was around the middle of my junior year. There is a strong upward trend until graduation. I did then a MS in Biomedical Sciences and under treatment came out with a 3.72.

Is this a something I should bring up in my primary application personal statement or somewhere else in the application? I feel this is an important part of my story. I am afraid that some of my reach schools won't even look at my application in light of my GPA. What do you guys think?

Use the prompts in secondaries for "anything not in your app you want us to know?"

OR

Adversity/resilience prompts

OR

"explain any poor grades"

 

[Goro]

I thought the whole point was the make yourself stand out, not blend in? I mean I'm not trying to be difficult or anything, part of my background is working in psychiatry and mental health advocacy so I feel like I'd be going against my own work to hide something like this. You kinda understand what I'm saying?

Part of the app process is reducing risk, not increasing it.

We Adcom members are very sensitive to the risks that mental health issues pose ot medical students. Look, medical school is a furnace, and I've seen it break even healthy students. The #1 reason my school loses students to withdrawal, dismissal or LOA is to unresolved mental health issues.