Do medical schools care about medication and mental illness?

[bigspongebobfan]

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Hello!

I am reaching out because I've been wondering if when discussing academic struggles, should one avoid discussing mental health? I've heard a lot of conflicting point of views, but I have heard medications/mental illness can be viewed as a red flag.

Thank you!

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Hello!

I am reaching out because I've been wondering if when discussing academic struggles, should one avoid discussing mental health? I've heard a lot of conflicting point of views, but I have heard medications/mental illness can be viewed as a red flag.

Thank you!

Tell us more if you want to, but here are my thoughts.

Applying to medical school is not like going to a confessional. You have a right to disclose your own personal health information (HIPAA), so whatever you say about your health is up to you. However, you aren't visiting a doctor; you're engaged in an admissions process. What do you want your entire class and your faculty body to know about your mental health? You don't need to talk about the prescriptions you have taken or are taking, and as long as you are actively managing your health, you should be okay.

Leave those conversations to secure, safe, confidential spaces with people whose job it is to entrust the information. If you are requesting accommodations, follow the process.

 

[bigspongebobfan]

Tell us more if you want to, but here are my thoughts.

Applying to medical school is not like going to a confessional. You have a right to disclose your own personal health information (HIPAA), so whatever you say about your health is up to you. However, you aren't visiting a doctor; you're engaged in an admissions process. What do you want your entire class and your faculty body to know about your mental health? You don't need to talk about the prescriptions you have taken or are taking, and as long as you are actively managing your health, you should be okay.

Leave those conversations to secure, safe, confidential spaces with people whose job it is to entrust the information. If you are requesting accommodations, follow the process.

Thank you! I've just heard that it makes you look worse and less competitive against other applicants, and my advisor said this is true for some but not all schools. That's why I just wanted to confirm.

Thanks!

 

[Goro]

Hello!

I am reaching out because I've been wondering if when discussing academic struggles, should one avoid discussing mental health? I've heard a lot of conflicting point of views, but I have heard medications/mental illness can be viewed as a red flag.

Thank you!

It can be a red flag. It always makes me worry about what would happen when the applicant has to deal with the pressure of medical school. As I've mentioned many times before medical school is a furnace and I've seen it break even healthy students.

That said, a long period of academic Excellence can allay many admissions committee members fears.

You can always state that you dealt with an illness, and what the income will be interested in is your coping skills and how you displayed resilience. We are not allowed to ask you about your illness.

 

[Hollow Knight]

I wouldn’t mention it. Medicine is kind of toxic. You want to present an image of yourself as this confident, wickedly smart, emotionally capable robot who can be sensitive and caring at hour 37 of a 36 hour shift.

Of course, those people don’t exist, but that’s what you’re going for.

Also note I think this is ridiculous. But I’m just explaining how some people will evaluate you. You don’t want to show weakness really.

 

[bigspongebobfan]

I wouldn’t mention it. Medicine is kind of toxic. You want to present an image of yourself as this confident, wickedly smart, emotionally capable robot who can be sensitive and caring at hour 37 of a 36 hour shift.

Of course, those people don’t exist, but that’s what you’re going for.

Also note I think this is ridiculous. But I’m just explaining how some people will evaluate you. You don’t want to show weakness really.

It can be a red flag. It always makes me worry about what would happen when the applicant has to deal with the pressure of medical school. As I've mentioned many times before medical school is a furnace and I've seen it break even healthy students.

That said, a long period of academic Excellence can allay many admissions committee members fears.

You can always state that you dealt with an illness, and what the income will be interested in is your coping skills and how you displayed resilience. We are not allowed to ask you about your illness.

Oh, I can understand that. Medicine is one of those fields where the pressure is on 24/7, so I guess someone who isn't very promising isn't a good look. I'll try to turn that narrative around in my benefit.

I would like to ask a quick question: I'm faced with a dilemma regarding my which Biochem section to pick.
The first is a virtual section, which would reduce my commute to only Mondays and Fridays and give me more flexibility for studying and potentially doing extracurricular activities if I feel confident in my grades. However, the course grade is based solely on four exams.

The second option is an in-person lecture, which requires commuting four days a week (Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday). This section will include exams, homework, and a presentation, and because it is a smaller class, I may also be able to build a relationship with my professor and possibly secure a letter of recommendation.

Thank you! : )

 

[Mr.Smile12]

I would like to ask a quick question: I'm faced with a dilemma regarding my which Biochem section to pick.
The first is a virtual section, which would reduce my commute to only Mondays and Fridays and give me more flexibility for studying and potentially doing extracurricular activities if I feel confident in my grades. However, the course grade is based solely on four exams.

The second option is an in-person lecture, which requires commuting four days a week (Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday). This section will include exams, homework, and a presentation, and because it is a smaller class, I may also be able to build a relationship with my professor and possibly secure a letter of recommendation.

Thank you! : )

If you need a strong contemporary LOR, do in-person. Of course, the virtual professor may also do office hours, so I would take full advantage if you have no other options but virtual (ask the professor what they prefer if you wanted a strong LOR). Plus, you never know with study groups... it feels easier to set up in-person.

 

[polymerization]

To be clear, having emotional issues does not make you inherently any less "promising." Everyone has emotional issues, not everyone identifies or attempts to treat them through the clinical pipeline (although they should).

In fact, the ones that repress their issues are the ones all of these evaluators are actually worried about, because those are the students that smile through the pain until some tired administrator breaks their spirit and they jump off the roof... and then everyone at the school does a whole lot of hand-wringing and "praying for the family" hoping nobody comes knocking about what's going on within the program.

It's well-known medical students are extremely busy with medical school, to the detriment of all other areas of life. If life is no longer worth living, that's a reflection of the life afforded to the student by the school. It makes sense to investigate... and so there's a risk analysis for admissions that is front-loaded in identifying students who would be least likely to crack under the pressure.

The best advice I'd received early on in my process was what @Mr.Smile12 said: this process is not a confessional. This was very different to what I had heard up until that point, which, for the last several years, was "be as honest and upfront about your 'story' as possible."

My view as an applicant was that an FBI agent would sit with your application for a full afternoon to ensure each word is true to your actual life, and that my "story" meant a literal chronological recounting of everything that happened to me. I think changing my mindset from "forensic investigation" to "job interview" really helped reinforce that the horizons of this process are closer than you think.

I really liked Dr. Angela Collier (astrophysicist, but still a fantastic and relevant scientific communicator) who offers a great perspective in her video:

I don’t think it’s appropriate to mention family issues or mental health struggles in a personal statement or job application. It’s not that having them is bad, nor do I think it would necessarily harm your application—but it doesn’t add anything either. Your depression, for example, isn’t likely to affect your graduate school experience, and an employer doesn’t need to see it in your materials. If you require accommodations, that’s entirely valid, but the right moment to discuss them is after you’ve been admitted or hired. In my view, that kind of disclosure simply doesn’t belong in an application.