MD & DO COVID-related W's within my reinvention years - when to apply?

[deleted1075378]

I obtained too many withdrawals and mediocre grades during my freshman and sophomore years due to a poorly controlled chronic illness. I found something that worked for me around March-April of my sophomore year, which was Spring 2019. Since getting healthy, I have been getting straight A's. This started in summer 2019 and continued in fall 2019.

In March 2020, I got 5 more withdrawals (a semester's worth), but this time not related to the illness that caused the other withdrawals. Myself and much of my family got REALLY sick with COVID in March of 2020. We nearly lost my dad, who got critically ill with COVID even though he was a middle-aged healthy guy. We had medical bills and so I had to quit school because we couldn't pay the remainder of my tuition.

I was planning to spend two years, Summer 2019-Spring 2021, with going to summer school every summer, establishing a pattern of academic success (meaning no withdrawals). As stated above, COVID clearly threw a wrench in my plans.

If I explain the above, do you think I would be wise to keep my original plan and still apply spring 2021? I would only have 1 year of mostly or all A's and 0 withdrawals instead of the 2 years I originally planned. I'm just wondering how likely they would be to make an exception to the "2 years of reinvention" soft policy because this was directly pandemic-related.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[LeaveNoTrace]

In March 2020, I got 5 more withdrawals (a semester's worth), but this time not related to the illness that caused the other withdrawals. Myself and much of my family got REALLY sick with COVID in March of 2020. We nearly lost my dad, who got critically ill with COVID even though he was a middle-aged healthy guy. We had medical bills and so I had to quit school because we couldn't pay the remainder of my tuition.

OK. What is your GPA now? What would it be if you stuck to your original plan, and got all A's? The above quote is a pretty good explanation for your withdrawals; I'm not sure how much you want to tell medical schools about your chronic illness. That's above my paygrade; maybe ask Goro or LizzyM or one of the other adcoms for advice here. You don't need to go to summer school unless you want to...or your GPA is very low and you need all the As you can get. Better to spend that time on clinical or nonclinical volunteering...or research.

Good luck with everything; you have a half-decent 'overcoming adversity' story...

 

[deleted1075378]

OK. What is your GPA now? What would it be if you stuck to your original plan, and got all A's? The above quote is a pretty good explanation for your withdrawals; I'm not sure how much you want to tell medical schools about your chronic illness. That's above my paygrade; maybe ask Goro or LizzyM or one of the other adcoms for advice here. You don't need to go to summer school unless you want to...or your GPA is very low and you need all the As you can get. Better to spend that time on clinical or nonclinical volunteering...or research.

Good luck with everything; you have a half-decent 'overcoming adversity' story...

Thank you for your reply. To answer your question, 3.6 for both BCPM and cumulative. I plan to take the MCAT in January because I didn't want to take the shortened COVID version.

I was thinking of applying mostly DO given my W issues. What do you think about that @Goro ? Do you think DO schools would be more forgiving of the W history?

 

[Goro]

Thank you for your reply. To answer your question, 3.6 for both BCPM and cumulative. I plan to take the MCAT in January because I didn't want to take the shortened COVID version.

I was thinking of applying mostly DO given my W issues. What do you think about that @Goro ? Do you think DO schools would be more forgiving of the W history?

Stop acting like the Ws are Fs. You withdrew for the exact reasons Ws were invented.

 

[deleted1075378]

Stop acting like the Ws are Fs. You withdrew for the exact reasons Ws were invented.

Thank you for your help.

Your cat is so cute I just want to reach through my screen and pet them!

 

[candbgirl]

No need to develop a big framing story. Just explain truthfully why and move on. Don’t over talk it. Be brief and be done.

 

[LeaveNoTrace]

You have a 3.6 now? Plenty of MD schools would take you with that; while you might want to add a few DO schools for insurance, it all comes down to your ECs and MCAT. If the former checks the box and the latter is above 514, you might even be a strong-enough applicant for an MD-only cycle. Especially with an upward trend and a decent story. You're headed into your senior year with a 3.6, a solid GPA as it is...and a year of runway to boot.