MD & DO High MCAT, low GPA + long undergrad, SMP? apply?

[eklektikos]

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[DaMedDude]

I think you should be fine to apply MD and MD/PhD. Congrats on the incredible MCAT score. You will obviously have to explain what happened those first 3 semesters in about every interview you receive and stability and good mental health is extremely important in a physician. But I think you've come a long way and could make a convincing argument that you are capable of dealing with the stress of medical school and as a practicing physician. Essays and interviews will be extremely important for handling this. I wish I had better advice for you, hopefully Goro or gyngyn will come through.

 

[gyngyn]

You have an extraordinarily strong discordance that will require a plausible explanation.

 

[eklektikos]

I think you should be fine to apply MD and MD/PhD. Congrats on the incredible MCAT score. You will obviously have to explain what happened those first 3 semesters in about every interview you receive and stability and good mental health is extremely important in a physician. But I think you've come a long way and could make a convincing argument that you are capable of dealing with the stress of medical school and as a practicing physician. Essays and interviews will be extremely important for handling this. I wish I had better advice for you, hopefully Goro or gyngyn will come through.

You have an extraordinarily strong discordance that will require a plausible explanation.

Thank you very much for your replies. I am hoping that if I am honest and open about with what I was going through at the time, what I learned from the experience by overcoming it and how I have matured as a person I can convince them that my problem is in the past and the ordeal beneficial to me in the long run.

I do have a question as to where I might do the convincing, the answer is probably the interview but to even get there...

The purpose of the SMP for me is to demonstrate with action who I am now.

And my plan is to use my personal statement (PS) to address this issue. But every resource I have referenced tells me that I should explain myself but it shouldn't be the theme of my PS. My thoughts are that this general advice is not intended for people such as myself who show an "extraordinarily strong discordance"... and yet I tend to agree and plan on succinctly devoting at most, a paragraph of my PS to this issue because it is a part of why I want to become a doctor but not the whole picture.

Is this a mistake? Will I be shooting myself in the foot by not explaining it rigorously in my PS?

 

[DaMedDude]

Maybe a short paragraph. You could sort of make it the theme, like use it in the introduction and then explain all the things that happened afterwards that made you want to be a doctor and conclude with how even with 3 bad semesters you still decided you were going for it because of all the stuff you mentioned in the body of the essay. I think that could be good. Just make sure you mention a lot of other things. But, a lot of schools just send all applicants secondaries so you will be able to explain it thoroughly there.

 

[eklektikos]

Maybe a short paragraph. You could sort of make it the theme, like use it in the introduction and then explain all the things that happened afterwards that made you want to be a doctor and conclude with how even with 3 bad semesters you still decided you were going for it because of all the stuff you mentioned in the body of the essay. I think that could be good. Just make sure you mention a lot of other things. But, a lot of schools just send all applicants secondaries so you will be able to explain it thoroughly there.

Thank you for your reply, that is more or less what I am thinking of doing.