Explaining poor grades

[PressPforPi]

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Long story short, I'm unsure if I should mention some of the reasons why I had a rough year academically. Under what circumstances should we try to elaborate on things like this?

 

[sss1219]

Unless you have a very viable reason for why your grades dropped, I'm a fan of the 'let your transcripts do the talking' route of action

The biggest thing to avoid doing if you do decide to bring something up in your essays is sounding like you are making excuses. Own up to it, be apologetic, and focus on how you worked to overcome the deficit.

 

[I'mJustCurious]

I was told not to bring it up in your primary essay. Only bring it up in your secondaries if they ask if there was anything you wanted to mention.

 

[esob]

I would say it depends on the reason as well. Although I am an academic fresh start applicant in TX, it doesn't apply to AMCAS and AACOMAS. When I joined the military I unenrolled from college....or at least I thought I did. It turns out my unenrollment was not processed and so I got a full semester of F's. For every other course I've taken (over 200 hrs since then) I've never received anything lower than a B and the last 140 hrs have been straight A's, so the fact that I had an entire semester of F's twenty years ago needed to be explained.

 

[PressPforPi]

This is for a specific school in the DO primary that asks about explaining anything I would like them to know about my grades or my MCAT score. It was a rough year due to family deaths and other things.

 

[esob]

I would say definitely explain, but also explain how you learned something from it. The truth is, life is generally one giant $*** storm and adcoms want to know that you won't fall apart when things go south because invariably they will.

 

[Goro]

Long story short, I'm unsure if I should mention some of the reasons why I had a rough year academically. Under what circumstances should we try to elaborate on things like this?

IN a PS, you do NOT do this! That's not what the PS is for. And any attempts to explain will simply look like excuses, poor judgement, or both.

Save explanations for the secondaries, and interviews.

 

[etp123]

Funny enough AMCAS does say you might wanna include explanations for poor academic performance in your PS... lol but I'd probably listen to the other advice here and try to make a compelling story first. If they wanna ask you about it they will.

 

[esob]

I did put a single line in my PS for AMCAS b/c it was part of my chronology as a non-trad and part of my transition in the military. TMDSAS has its own section to address such issues but AMCAS does not.

 

[andrek82]

Goro is probably right with the advice not to put it in your PS. That said, I did that. I had very bad grades and was on academic suspension. I came back, didn't get another B, and got my Master's . And that's what I wrote. I only got one interview, but I had had real jobs, so an interview I could do, and all I needed was one. Long story short, no excuses. If you want to talk about why, it had better be in the context of what you changed to be better. Excuses (hard classes, unfair profs, that kind if thing) will only hurt you. It sounds like at least part of your issues were unavoidable, but you still need to show that you have a plan to avoid academic failure in the future.

 

[esob]

I hadn't submitted my AACOMAS essay yet so I took that line out of the essay. It was never in TMDSAS because of academic fresh start those classes were thrown out. So I have a bit of a controlled experiment going on. If I get any interviews we will see if it gets brought up. As with all advice in the process, I often hear conflicting information from equally qualified parties, so sometimes you have to tailor the advice to what seems best for your situation.

 

[Eccesignum]

Seconding Goro and a few other folks, it doesn't go in the PS. The PS is the story of why you want to become a doctor and why you feel you'd make a good one, not a time to explain bad grades.

Many schools will have a secondary that will allow you to address this somewhere. I used a few "Tell us about challenges in your life" or other of those type essays to gently brush against the issue, but always framed it as "I acknowledge I messed up years ago, but more importantly here's what it taught me and why I was able to come back swinging" -- and usually it was a small part of a larger essay. Don't use an entire secondary to talk about old shortcomings unless it specifically asks you to do so, or you feel you can spin it well into a better picture of your current self. Always acknowledge, always say what you did to overcome whatever was going on, never make excuses. And remember that it'll only be a focal point of your application if you make it one.

My slew of bad grades were nearly twenty years ago -- since then I've done two other degrees with very strong grades, but of course my cumulative stayed very low. I brought it up myself in my very first interview, thinking that would be a huge issue and I'd be grilled every time about it. My interviewer chuckled and said he'd noticed my old records but he wasn't interested in that at all; he wanted to know about the me of now. After that I never mentioned it in an interview again. I was asked only twice after that, and it was more of a "So tell me how you learned to be a better student" sort of framing.

 

[esob]

I guess I would rescind my initial comment of "definitely explain." Again, I've heard conflicting advice on this point from reputable sources but I'm not in a position to give advice as a member of an adcom, so disregard my comments.