Medical How should I disclose that an assault led to bad grades one semester in secondaries?

[Goro]

I experienced an assault leading to trouble focusing and one particularly bad semester in college (sub-3.0 GPA). All my other semesters are cGPA/sGPA of around 3.8-4.0 (including 5 semesters after the bad semester). My total GPA is now around 3.7.

1) I'm wondering if any adcoms can comment on where, if anywhere, it is appropriate to explain this. Some schools specifically ask an explanation of bad grades so I could say it there. But for schools that don't explicitly ask, should I put it in a "aspects not addressed" secondary or leave it out?

2) Also, I know they might ask about the semester during interviews and in case they do, what's the best way to address it gracefully?

Basically, I don't want to make anyone uncomfortable unnecessarily, but I know the one semester probably stands out so it might make people wonder. By the way, I don't believe this incident will hinder my performance in the future as I took many steps (asked for help from friends, sought therapy, journaling, etc) to move on from it.

Very sorry to hear of this.

Sadly, this is more common than you would think, and so it is perfectly acceptable to mention. Your resilience is something we look for in med students.

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[Catalystik]

1) I'd suggest that the assault, subsequent GPA drop, and how you coped could be mentioned in a Secondary essay on Adversity, Challenge you overcame, Major stress and how you handled it, or Is there anything else we should know?, or possibly in the Activities section if you engaged in some sort of advocacy or volunteer work with survivors because of your experience.

Do you have an advisor or faculty member aware of the challenge you faced who might be willing to write you an LOR that would attest to your coping strategies and your resiliency in bouncing back?

2) Addressing the issue gracefully in an interview situation means trying to avoid becoming emotional. The best way to armor yourself against this reaction is to practice discussing it.