cGPA: 3.89, 520, just realized I have an IA

[tiredandweary]

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cGPA: 3.89 and sGPA: 3.95
MCAT: 520 (129, 127, 132, 132)
NY resident; Asian
Liberal Arts University
clinical experience: 250 hours; non-clinical: 400
120 hours shadowing experience (nephrologist, pulmonologist, cardiologist, primary care)
800+ hours research experience; 1 poster
Volunteer for my school's anonymous student peer support hotline
President of club; 100 hours Chem TA; Pre-Med Mentor but like kinda worthless

In my junior spring I took Physics II. Due to a scheduling error, I wasn't able to find a lab section time that worked with my schedule. My professor did me a favor and told me I could take the class now and do the lab portion over the summer. At the end of the semester, he sent me an email saying that since the lab was 20% of my grade, he would just put my grade as incomplete and once I finished the section in the summer, he would put in my final grade. I didn't think too much of it. However, due to a low number of credits, my GPA fell below my school's limit of 2.67 and in the middle of the summer I got an automatic email from my dean telling me I had been placed on academic probation with the condition of being changed to academic warning if a final grade was posted by the end of the summer; my prof put in a placeholder grade a couple days later and I got changed to academic warning for my senior fall semester which isn't recorded on your transcript. I basically forgot it even happened.

I just realized this week that my school's letter packet committee and AMCAS asks for even non-recorded IA's to be reported because technically, I was on academic probation/warning; to be honest it kinda makes me tweak. I would hate for this to disrupt my chances or cause me to be automatically filtered by ADCOMs. It really just feels like a miscommunication/clerical error. Is anyone familiar with this process? Does a minor IA like this cause some schools to automatically filter me out/hurt my chances?

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Please submit a full WAMC profile.

Can you describe what is the "accidental" IA?

 

[tiredandweary]

Sorry, pressed publish before I was finished but just edited it.

 

[Faha]

What is the nature of your clinical and non clinical volunteering hours?

 

[tiredandweary]

250 hrs as a nursing assistant; non-clinical: volunteer at my school's crisis hotline; volunteered with elementary kids at an after-school program

 

[Mr.Smile12]

On the IA, what have your prehealth advisors/committee members told you? It sounds like you did not include your academic/major advisor when it came to understanding the consequences of the incomplete. Given your self-reported GPA of around 3.9, could you explain how the incomplete made your term GPA drop below 2.67? How could you still be on an academic warning?

 

[Faha]

You should accumulate 150+ hours of non clinical volunteering such as food bank, homeless shelter, etc. before you submit your application.
I suggest these schools with your stats:
All 4 SUNYs
Hofstra
Einstein
Mount Sinai
Albany
New York Medical College
Rochester
NYU
Columbia
Cornell
Vermont
Tufts
Boston University
UMass
Jefferson
Pittsburgh
George Washington
Duke
USF Morsani
Miami
Vanderbilt
Washington University (in St. Louis-almost a guaranteed interview with your stats)
Northwestern
Iowa
Western Michigan
U Michigan
Cincinnati
Colorado
Arizona (Phoenix)

 

[tiredandweary]

On the IA, what have your prehealth advisors/committee members told you? It sounds like you did not include your academic/major advisor when it came to understanding the consequences of the incomplete. Given your self-reported GPA of around 3.9, could you explain how the incomplete made your term GPA drop below 2.67? How could you still be on an academic warning?

Apologies—I went back to the email and realized that my academic probation was not due to a GPA issue but rather for not completing a satisfactory number of credits for a full-time semester. I was enrolled in 13 total credits, with 5 coming from Physics II, and the requirement is to complete at least 9 credits.

My major advisor has never been particularly helpful, and when my physics professor suggested this plan—who I believe also wasn’t really aware that the incomplete could have immediate consequences—as we saw it more as a temporary placeholder rather than a grade in itself. Because of that, I didn’t fully consider the potential repercussions, which is ultimately my responsibility.

My academic probation was conditional, with the possibility of being converted to an academic alert if a grade was posted by the end of the summer, which it was. My dean confirmed that because my status was downgraded to academic alert, there would be no transcript notation, as academic alert is not considered to be in bad standing with the school. Academic alert remains in place until the following semester (Fall 2024), after which it was removed from completing a semester in good academic standing. On the email chain, my dean implied that only standing academic probation or something warranting transcript notation would be something I need to mention to med schools. Yes, I should have looked into this more but I was studying for the MCAT and was really stressed and took her word for it.

I haven’t yet spoken with my school’s pre-health committee members. We have an internal application for the pre-health committee (our school no longer provides a committee letter but instead a letter packet), and while working on it, I realized I will need to report this on the AMCAS as well. Since it's a significant application, I wanted to carefully think through my approach and understand how this might affect me before discussing it with my school. I will for sure be forthcoming with my school since being dishonest would be far worse than the incident itself, but the situation is still quite stressful.

I understand I should have thought through whether there would be any issues having a incomplete on my transcript for a couple months repercussions for this and that is on me. But I also feel like this is pretty unfortunate if it’s the reason my med school chances get messed up. I’ve worked really hard in undergrad and it would be really heartbreaking if this was the reason my chances got messed up.

 

[tiredandweary]

You should accumulate 150+ hours of non clinical volunteering such as food bank, homeless shelter, etc. before you submit your application.
I suggest these schools with your stats:
All 4 SUNYs
Hofstra
Einstein
Mount Sinai
Albany
New York Medical College
Rochester
NYU
Columbia
Cornell
Vermont
Tufts
Boston University
UMass
Jefferson
Pittsburgh
George Washington
Duke
USF Morsani
Miami
Vanderbilt
Washington University (in St. Louis-almost a guaranteed interview with your stats)
Northwestern
Iowa
Western Michigan
U Michigan
Cincinnati
Colorado
Arizona (Phoenix)

Okay! Great, thank you for this list. I will try to get those 150 hours. Do you think it looks at all shady that those additional hours were gained before applying?

I was also considering Emory, UNC (unlikely), Yale (unlikely but location is ideal for me), UChicago, Brown, Rutgers, USC, UCLA, UVA, UMD. I know some of these are not OOS-friendly but thought it wouldn't hurt. Thoughts?

 

[Faha]

You could try Emory, Brown, UVA, UMD. The California schools and Rutgers admit few non residents with no connection to the state. Your clinical and non clinical hours are low for top tier schools.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Apologies—I went back to the email and realized that my academic probation was not due to a GPA issue but rather for not completing a satisfactory number of credits for a full-time semester. I was enrolled in 13 total credits, with 5 coming from Physics II, and the requirement is to complete at least 9 credits.

My major advisor has never been particularly helpful, and when my physics professor suggested this plan—who I believe also wasn’t really aware that the incomplete could have immediate consequences—as we saw it more as a temporary placeholder rather than a grade in itself. Because of that, I didn’t fully consider the potential repercussions, which is ultimately my responsibility.

My academic probation was conditional, with the possibility of being converted to an academic alert if a grade was posted by the end of the summer, which it was. My dean confirmed that because my status was downgraded to academic alert, there would be no transcript notation, as academic alert is not considered to be in bad standing with the school. Academic alert remains in place until the following semester (Fall 2024), after which it was removed from completing a semester in good academic standing. On the email chain, my dean implied that only standing academic probation or something warranting transcript notation would be something I need to mention to med schools. Yes, I should have looked into this more but I was studying for the MCAT and was really stressed and took her word for it.

I haven’t yet spoken with my school’s pre-health committee members. We have an internal application for the pre-health committee (our school no longer provides a committee letter but instead a letter packet), and while working on it, I realized I will need to report this on the AMCAS as well. Since it's a significant application, I wanted to carefully think through my approach and understand how this might affect me before discussing it with my school. I will for sure be forthcoming with my school since being dishonest would be far worse than the incident itself, but the situation is still quite stressful.

I understand I should have thought through whether there would be any issues having a incomplete on my transcript for a couple months repercussions for this and that is on me. But I also feel like this is pretty unfortunate if it’s the reason my med school chances get messed up. I’ve worked really hard in undergrad and it would be really heartbreaking if this was the reason my chances got messed up.

I understand the craziness of academic bureaucracy, but you should communicate this issue with others overseeing your application in the prehealth advising office. They should consistently describe your situation with the citation, including the policy that the probation will be removed with satisfactory performance through Fall 2025. Your application relies on your transcript once your spring 2025 grades are posted, so explaining the policy with your incomplete/probation helps screeners understand it is unlikely to be a problem.

Culturally (and for what it's worth), we expect prospective and health professions students to disclose every possible issue of this sort honestly. It may not be consistent with the letter of various policies, but admissions deans have consistently stated this expectation.

 

[tiredandweary]

You could try Emory, Brown, UVA, UMD. The California schools and Rutgers admit few non residents with no connection to the state. Your clinical and non clinical hours are low for top tier schools.

Got it. Thank you! Re Rutgers: I live in NY on the border of NJ. I went to high school in NJ, most of my family lives there and I spent a significant portion of my childhood there. My parents plan to move there by end of 2026 as my Dad is retiring soon. Do you think that would help with OOS connection? I also know quite a few people who went/go to RWJ/Rutgers. I also took a class at a NJ community college for what it's worth lol. Thanks!

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Got it. Thank you! Re Rutgers: I live in NY on the border of NJ. I went to high school in NJ, most of my family lives there and I spent a significant portion of my childhood there. My parents plan to move there by end of 2026 as my Dad is retiring soon. Do you think that would help with OOS connection? I also know quite a few people who went/go to RWJ/Rutgers. I also took a class at a NJ community college for what it's worth lol. Thanks!

You'll have to ask Rutgers.

 

[tiredandweary]

I understand the craziness of academic bureaucracy, but you should communicate this issue with others overseeing your application in the prehealth advising office. They should consistently describe your situation with the citation, including the policy that the probation will be removed with satisfactory performance through Fall 2025. Your application relies on your transcript once your spring 2025 grades are posted, so explaining the policy with your incomplete/probation helps screeners understand it is unlikely to be a problem.

Culturally (and for what it's worth), we expect prospective and health professions students to disclose every possible issue of this sort honestly. It may not be consistent with the letter of various policies, but admissions deans have consistently stated this expectation.

Yes! I definitely plan on being forthcoming with all the necessary parties I have no doubt about that. My school's packet letter committee application is due soon and I plan explaining it on that under the question asking whether I've had any institutional action and will also reach out over email to the office. This situation has been just stressing me out so I wanted to get someone's read of it. To be clear, I was taken off academic probation in the summer (2024) a few weeks after being put on and stayed on academic warning during Fall of 2024 semester, so I am currently off and am fully in good standing with the school (FYI I graduate this May)

At the risk of being redundant, it sounds like this will be, for the most part, a non-issue as long as I work with my school to explain the situation well?

 

[Mr.Smile12]

At the risk of being redundant, it sounds like this will be, for the most part, a non-issue as long as I work with my school to explain the situation well?

You want everyone who supports you to be on the same page when describing this situation to assure the admissions committee this is not an issue of concern. "Tiredandweary was a great student except for that one time..."