How Should a Reinvention Student Write Their Personal Statement

[kenykj49]

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The general advice appears to recommend addressing my low GPA (I've had 90 credits @3.95, but cGPA is still 3.27). How did other reinventors address their red flags? I want my personal statement to strike a positive note about growth, introspection, and resiliency. Any thoughts?

EDIT: Now that I'm reading more I'm getting some conflicting advice. Should the low GPA be mentioned in the personal statement?

 

[Sfts_88]

Do not mention it in your personal statement. I did not mention my low gpa at all and only brought it up in a secondary or interview if directly asked. Your personal statement should be about why you want to pursue medicine NOT your grades.

adcoms can see your grades and the trend speaks for itself.

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

I would not mention it. You don’t want to draw attention to negatives. They have your grades. They can see you have had 90 credits of an almost 4.0. If they want to know about your prior stuff they’ll ask.

I had a 3.4 cGPA even with 60 credits of a 3.9 and did not address it at all in my personal statement. The personal statement is to show them why you want to be a physician, not address your shortcomings.

 

[viralhiker]

Reinvention student here. Had a sub 3.0 sGPA and I've had an extremely fortunate cycle thus far. Do NOT bring up your prior weaknesses and poor academics in your personal statement. Focus on positives: why you want to be a physician, what have you done to prepare yourself for this career, and show that you are a reflective and mature individual. Your improved grades will speak for themself.

 

[ekmf27050]

I "reinvented" to a 3.4/3.3 science. Talk about post-reinvention, not pre-reinvention.

Example: "My senior year/postbacc/masters I was flexible in exploring new, more efficient study strategies. This allowed me to gain valuable experience shadowing Dr. X in his primary care clinic/building orphanages with my bare hands/saving puppies."

Like, I think it's okay if you briefly mention becoming more efficient or disciplined or whatever so they don't think your initial bad grades were a case of "going to weekday keggers the entire freshman year". But you have limited characters to highlight your strengths, so balance it with that.