Education Adversely Affected Section?

[Pineapplelover]

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For the section where it asks if your education has been adversely affected in any way, would commuting or working go in this section or is that too much of a common thing students go through?

 

[Longcatislong]

I wonder this too. at one point i was driving 1.5 hours to school one way, because i had to move back in with my parents. I definitely got lower grades that semester.

 

[Pineapplelover]

I commuted all four years, so I agree with you that it affects grades. I just want to make sure it doesn't look like a poor excuse! I'm leaning on adding it into my application.

 

[Longcatislong]

Im leaning towards putting this down as well. Commuting, especially in dreadful, hardly moving trafffic, is exhausting.

 

[Baba Yaga]

No. Just no. I don't think that adding this to this section will be viewed seriously at all and I certainly see it as a poor excuse.

The way I see it, education adversely affected is for actual circumstances that adversely affected your education and are beyond your control (such as being sick with a verifiable medical disease or something of that nature) and not for things like "long commute."

I think commuting is a normal part of anyone's life. You could have chosen to live closer to the school had you wanted to and paid for the living expenses with loans just like most people do.

I get it. I commuted 1-1.5 hrs to get to my campus because I wanted to save money on living expenses, but I'm not about to argue that that "adversely" affected my situation because:

1) Where one lives is a choice and I could have taken out loans to live closer to school

2)Who doesn't have a commute? People in cities commute and take public transportation. People who don't live in cities drive. Everyone commutes. I know a ton of people who have long commutes to school or work. I actually don't know anyone my age who doesn't have a commute, especially since most of my peers live in huge cities and spend lots of time on public transportation because they don't have $$$$$$ to pony up to live in the expensive areas closer to the city center.

I'm just thinking...how is this going to look to the adcom member who commutes 1.5 hrs to his/her dental school to teach and then comes home to read your application where you say you got lower grades one semester due to commuting? I doubt it'll be taken seriously.

If I was that adcom member, I know I would be thinking, "Well, I have a long commute too and I manage to teach and do x, y, and z. How poor are their time management skills that they are unable to balance a courseload with a commute and their activities? Why didn't this person just move closer to campus mid-semester or take some other action to not spread themselves so thinly if the commute was affecting them that badly? What if this person has a 'long' commute during dental school? They will most likely have to commute while attending dental school. Is this an issue that is bound to come up again while they are commuting to dental school?"

See, that last question right there is a killer. You don't want to put anything on your application that could be construed as a negative point that could come up again.

Take ownership of your decisions and your actions. Don't try to use any excuse in the book you think you might get away with, because I'm sure they've seen it all before and can see through it in a fraction of a second.

 

[Baba Yaga]

Oops, double post.

 

[xbite]

No, commuting is not an excuse. People who live near/on campus have low grades, too, and 'suffer' from different things, such as having to cook for themselves and do their own laundry. Others have had to fly in from other countries and don't get to see their families at all. Everyone is disadvantaged in terms of living.

 

[bobatee]

I had to help separate relatives such as helping their business etc.. due to family issues almost every weekend so my GPA isn't as high as it could be. Do you think I could use that in this section?

 

[Baba Yaga]

No, commuting is not an excuse. People who live near/on campus have low grades, too, and 'suffer' from different things, such as having to cook for themselves and do their own laundry. Others have had to fly in from other countries and don't get to see their families at all.

Good point and so true.

Everyone is disadvantaged in terms of living.

It's not a disadvantage if everyone has to deal with it.

 

[blankman321]

No. Just no. I don't think that adding this to this section will be viewed seriously at all and I certainly see it as a poor excuse.

The way I see it, education adversely affected is for actual circumstances that adversely affected your education and are beyond your control (such as being sick with a verifiable medical disease or something of that nature) and not for things like "long commute."

I think commuting is a normal part of anyone's life. You could have chosen to live closer to the school had you wanted to and paid for the living expenses with loans just like most people do.

I get it. I commuted 1-1.5 hrs to get to my campus because I wanted to save money on living expenses, but I'm not about to argue that that "adversely" affected my situation because:

1) Where one lives is a choice and I could have taken out loans to live closer to school

2)Who doesn't have a commute? People in cities commute and take public transportation. People who don't live in cities drive. Everyone commutes. I know a ton of people who have long commutes to school or work. I actually don't know anyone my age who doesn't have a commute, especially since most of my peers live in huge cities and spend lots of time on public transportation because they don't have $$$$$$ to pony up to live in the expensive areas closer to the city center.

I'm just thinking...how is this going to look to the adcom member who commutes 1.5 hrs to his/her dental school to teach and then comes home to read your application where you say you got lower grades one semester due to commuting? I doubt it'll be taken seriously.

If I was that adcom member, I know I would be thinking, "Well, I have a long commute too and I manage to teach and do x, y, and z. How poor are their time management skills that they are unable to balance a courseload with a commute and their activities? Why didn't this person just move closer to campus mid-semester or take some other action to not spread themselves so thinly if the commute was affecting them that badly? What if this person has a 'long' commute during dental school? They will most likely have to commute while attending dental school. Is this an issue that is bound to come up again while they are commuting to dental school?"

See, that last question right there is a killer. You don't want to put anything on your application that could be construed as a negative point that could come up again.

Take ownership of your decisions and your actions. Don't try to use any excuse in the book you think you might get away with, because I'm sure they've seen it all before and can see through it in a fraction of a second.

I second this, and the best way to see if the adcom can take this section seriously is to write the sample out and visit maybe a local college counselor who can see if it qualifies as an hindrance to your education or not.

I too, also have a question about should this be written: although I have a lot of credits, I have only taken about 4 semesters full time while doing full time work and 3 semesters part time while doing full time work. This was due to financial constraints in my family (paying rent, taking care of parents, etc.).

I got good grades but the workload looks weak imo, do you think they would understand if I was able to show that I had to work on the side as well? or is that also considered a lame excuse.

 

[Baba Yaga]

I had to help separate relatives such as helping their business etc.. due to family issues almost every weekend so my GPA isn't as high as it could be. Do you think I could use that in this section?

I second this, and the best way to see if the adcom can take this section seriously is to write the sample out and visit maybe a local college counselor who can see if it qualifies as an hindrance to your education or not.

I too, also have a question about should this be written: although I have a lot of credits, I have only taken about 4 semesters full time while doing full time work and 3 semesters part time while doing full time work. This was due to financial constraints in my family (paying rent, taking care of parents, etc.).

I got good grades but the workload looks weak imo, do you think they would understand if I was able to show that I had to work on the side as well? or is that also considered a lame excuse.

I think you should both definitely put the work experience with a correct # of hours in your professional experiences section. Beyond that, whether it could be used as something that interrupted or adversely affected your education depends on whether your circumstances were exceptional.

bobatee, you said you worked "almost every weekend?" IMO a lot of students have part-time jobs and do just fine. You definitely were working part-time hours if you were only working on the weekends. It seems like you may have been working a fair amount, but you still had a lot of time to focus on your studies. For me, this could very well be seen as an excuse in the education adversely affected section and I therefore wouldn't write it up as something that adversely affected my education.

blankman321, I think that working full-time is an exceptional circumstance. I definitely think this will be apparent in your professional experiences section when you put down the # of hours you worked. In your case, I would possibly briefly mention it in the education adversely affected section just in case the adcom member accidentally glossed over that in your professional experience section. 1-2 sentences will do just fine, since it is already apparent in your professional experiences section. Also, I don't think this falls under adversely affecting education...I think this is something that interrupted your education.

 

[irishmom]

How about if I got pregnant a looooong time ago when I first entered college...Man I got 2 C's that semester. Should I list that? I got married and had a family and took time off (5 years) before going back and getting my RDH. Then I took 9 years before going back for my BS and now applying.

 

[Baba Yaga]

How about if I got pregnant a looooong time ago when I first entered college...Man I got 2 C's that semester. Should I list that? I got married and had a family and took time off (5 years) before going back and getting my RDH. Then I took 9 years before going back for my BS and now applying.

When I first read this post, I thought it was a joke...


If you are being serious, I would talk to a pre-health counselor about whether mentioning the pregnancy as something that adversely affected your education is a good idea, unless it was a medically complicated pregnancy that required you to take significant time off from school that semester (in this case the answer is obvious). As far as I am aware, a normal pregnancy is not a debilitating illness and people can and do finish semesters successfully while pregnant.

You should definitely explain each of the times you took time off, however.

 

[Baba Yaga]

I really think this section of the application is meant for holes in the timeline or to explain significant things that affected several semesters/years of coursework if there is a reason other than that you didn't prioritize well enough/lacked time management skills, made poor decisions, etc.

I had what I felt were some exceptional circumstances myself, and I talked to my pre-health counselor at length about this to get an idea of what is reasonable for me to include in this section of my application. I came to the conclusion that most of my issue was in prioritizing/time management and that is not something that I want to broadcast on my application. My improvement and more recent consistency in academic record speaks for itself, and I don't need to list things that can be viewed as excuses in this section, because it is likely that doing so could weaken my application as a result.

Anyway, for anyone who needs more specific examples, my pre-health counselor told me that people should use this section to explain timeline holes or significant life events that clearly affected them negatively, such as death(s) in the close family or having debilitating illnesses like cancer or mental illness (and doing poorly because of that or needing to take time off while doing treatment).

As always, consider carefully what you want to include in your application. If what you want to include in the application reveals a weakness that is unresolved/still lingers then it is cause for you to do serious soul-searching, and also cause to consider leaving out of the application.

 

[irishmom]

I was kinda semi serious. I did get pregnant my freshman year of college and was a single mother for 4 years. Because of this there is a 5 year gap between my first time at college right out of high school and going back to school to become a hygienist. Then I worked for 9 years before going back to school to become a (hopefully) dentist. So I do have gaps in my education do I need to address this and if so where. My personal statement does talk about it.

 

[tommyinVA]

I was kinda semi serious. I did get pregnant my freshman year of college and was a single mother for 4 years. Because of this there is a 5 year gap between my first time at college right out of high school and going back to school to become a hygienist. Then I worked for 9 years before going back to school to become a (hopefully) dentist. So I do have gaps in my education do I need to address this and if so where. My personal statement does talk about it.

i would assume this is something that would probably be covered in your PS. personally, if you did well when you came back then i don't see much reason in putting it "adverse affect" section.