How considerate are adcoms regarding circumstances?

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superintroduction

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I am a low stats applicant (3.4 cGPA 3.14 sGPA) and want to use the optional secondary sections to explain my low gpa which was due to chronic health issues that required a lot of doctor visits and treatments but I’m not sure if adcoms will be understanding about that? I also took the MCAT twice, got a 495 the first time because I could literally not afford any prep material and had to rely on free resources which turned out to be not representative at all (did not know about FAP). Once I found out about FAP I was able to improve my score 6 points to a 501 because I had more accessible resources but do you guys think I should explain these circumstances?

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Has your chronic health issue been cured? If not, is it likely to create the need for a lot of doctor visits and treatments during your medical training? Your academic record and test scores are of concern. While your health condition offers an explanation, it does not offer a reassurance that you are up to the intellectual and physical rigors of medical training. if you are willing to bet $50K that you could end up in the top 25% of a medical school class, then a SMP might be a good choice -- if not, you should consider alternatives to MD or DO schools in the event that you are not admitted in this cycle.
 
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Has your chronic health issue been cured? If not, is it likely to create the need for a lot of doctor visits and treatments during your medical training? Your academic record and test scores are of concern. While your health condition offers an explanation, it does not offer a reassurance that you are up to the intellectual and physical rigors of medical training. if you are willing to bet $50K that you could end up in the top 25% of a medical school class, then a SMP might be a good choice -- if not, you should consider alternatives to MD or DO schools in the event that you are not admitted in this cycle.

OP is probably OK for DO though, no?
 
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I am a low stats applicant (3.4 cGPA 3.14 sGPA) and want to use the optional secondary sections to explain my low gpa which was due to chronic health issues that required a lot of doctor visits and treatments but I’m not sure if adcoms will be understanding about that? I also took the MCAT twice, got a 495 the first time because I could literally not afford any prep material and had to rely on free resources which turned out to be not representative at all (did not know about FAP). Once I found out about FAP I was able to improve my score 6 points to a 501 because I had more accessible resources but do you guys think I should explain these circumstances?
If a prompt asks for "explain any academic issues", then that's the place for it.

Unfortunately, you only have a single good quarter. Nowhere near enough data points to convince Adcoms that you can handle med school. Your stats are DOA for MD and many DO schools, including mine.

Read this:
 
Here’s the other thing: circumstances can sometimes be overlooked, but in your case it might come into question why you didnt take a LOA while dealing with all of this.
 
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