Hypothetical: Accepted to medical school, won't graduate in time to matriculate

[JRWPREMED]

I'm not in this situation (yet)... I'm just curious.

Let's say that you apply and get accepted to medical school. You plan to matriculate the next fall, but find that you will be short a few courses to graduate from your 4-year university. What do you do? Do medical schools allow students to defer for this reason?

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[Barcu]

Um. I'm guessing this wouldn't end well. You said in your app when you would be done, so I don't really see them liking this much. Deferrals are hard/almost impossible to get, so I think you would be outta luck and lose your spot in the class.

How this affects possible reapplication, I don't know.

 

[MCATBUSTER]

and what about you have completed your BS degree/pre-med requirements and now working on your Master's degree but you won't graduate on time, what would happen?

 

[justoneplease]

im not positive but i believe that medical schools can rescind the acceptance since that was part of the agreement in the first place.

 

[JRWPREMED]

To add to this, let's say that you initially thought that you would graduate on time. You had all of your classes planned out, but something happens and the courses don't fit in your schedule or a course is removed due to lack of enrollment.

 

[Ismet]

Options:
1. Take the class(es) you're missing over the summer. They just have to be completed before you matriculate.
2. Defer for a year. Especially if there was some kind of miscommunication or mistake on your school's part, you might be granted a deferral.

 

[JRWPREMED]

There is a chance that this could happen to me if I can't get my courses scheduled correctly. I guess it is a good thing that my first choice medical school is the medical school at the university I currently attend, so they would probably understand since it is the same faculty anyway. I'm meeting with my pre-med advisor tomorrow... I'll see what she thinks.

 

[phltz]

Not all med schools absolutely require you to have a bachelor's degree before applying. So my first piece of advice would be to call the med school(s) you've been accepted to and ask their policies about that. If they all want you to have your degree, your next step is to look into summer classes. With luck and hard work, you can knock out a couple of classes in the summer. You might have to go somewhere else to find the right classes, but if you can wrap everything up, you should do it. Failing both options one and two, you're pretty much looking at having to defer or reapply.

 

[NickNaylor]

I find it hard to believe that this would actually be a problem unless you're missing highly specific courses that are required to graduate (see phltz's post). Worst case scenario you could work with your institution to see if they might be willing to allow you to "substitute" courses so that you're able to graduate on time.

 

[FL1234]

This could end badly.

I actually have a friend this happened to. He was accepted (but off the waitlist) to the medical school from the University that he went to undergrad for. He applied for graduation, walked, and everything. It never occurred to him that he never received a diploma. The couple of weeks before he started med school in August, the med school called him saying that he did not graduate and they never recieved a diploma. Come to find out he had to take a 1 credit lab and while they let him walk, he had not completed his degree.

The med school ended up withdrawing his acceptance and he had take the lab that fall. He didn't apply for that cycle because it was so late and didn't think he needed to since he had got into med school, so he had to wait until the NEXT cycle to apply for schools. He ended up at another school, but ended losing 2 years basically. It was his fault obviously, because he should've been on top of everything- but it still sucks for him. Oh well- he's happy now and i am sure he learned his lesson.

 

[JRWPREMED]

Okay so I've decided to bump my old thread. It looks like this might actually be a problem for me next year (See Above).

I'm going to be about 10 credits short of the 120CR required for my degree, so my choices are:

1) Overload two semesters with 19-20 credits each. This will allow me to graduate on-time and apply to medical school for the 2013-2014 cycle. The problem is that I have Biochem I/II and P-Chem I/II next Fall and Spring. I don't think those would be great semesters to overload on.

2) Graduate Summer 2014 instead of Spring. Push the 10 credits of free electives to Summer. Don't overload my last two semesters and risk my grades to graduate on time.

Option 2 is the better option academically, but I don't know how that will affect applying to medical school next year. Do all requirements have to be finished the Spring prior to matriculation or can you finish up some loose ends during the summer and everything be okay? I'd hate to put medical school off (Assuming I get accepted) for an entire year over a 6 week summer session. What do you all think I should do?

 

[Nymphicus]

Okay so I've decided to bump my old thread. It looks like this might actually be a problem for me next year (See Above).

I'm going to be about 10 credits short of the 120CR required for my degree, so my choices are:

1) Overload two semesters with 19-20 credits each. This will allow me to graduate on-time and apply to medical school for the 2013-2014 cycle. The problem is that I have Biochem I/II and P-Chem I/II next Fall and Spring. I don't think those would be great semesters to overload on.

2) Graduate Summer 2014 instead of Spring. Push the 10 credits of free electives to Summer. Don't overload my last two semesters and risk my grades to graduate on time.

Option 2 is the better option academically, but I don't know how that will affect applying to medical school next year. Do all requirements have to be finished the Spring prior to matriculation or can you finish up some loose ends during the summer and everything be okay? I'd hate to put medical school off (Assuming I get accepted) for an entire year over a 6 week summer session. What do you all think I should do?

School specific. You should probably be fine with the summer session. Call admissions for your specific medical school choices to be sure. Most just want to see the bachelors degree posted before you start classes.

 

[Aerus]

You actually don't have the problem you stated in your OP, since you weren't actually accepted to a medical school yet.

Try the advice above, but if worst comes to worst, take an extra year and fill it with more clinical exposure, research, etc. (Do whatever to make it meaningful)

 

[ScholarStud]

I'm not in this situation (yet)... I'm just curious.

Let's say that you apply and get accepted to medical school. You plan to matriculate the next fall, but find that you will be short a few courses to graduate from your 4-year university. What do you do? Do medical schools allow students to defer for this reason?

My university has an option that allows us to complete our degree in medical school by transferring the courses as undergrad credit. Your school may have something similar; Ask an advisor.

 

[487806]

Okay so I've decided to bump my old thread. It looks like this might actually be a problem for me next year (See Above).

I'm going to be about 10 credits short of the 120CR required for my degree, so my choices are:

1) Overload two semesters with 19-20 credits each. This will allow me to graduate on-time and apply to medical school for the 2013-2014 cycle. The problem is that I have Biochem I/II and P-Chem I/II next Fall and Spring. I don't think those would be great semesters to overload on.

2) Graduate Summer 2014 instead of Spring. Push the 10 credits of free electives to Summer. Don't overload my last two semesters and risk my grades to graduate on time.

Option 2 is the better option academically, but I don't know how that will affect applying to medical school next year. Do all requirements have to be finished the Spring prior to matriculation or can you finish up some loose ends during the summer and everything be okay? I'd hate to put medical school off (Assuming I get accepted) for an entire year over a 6 week summer session. What do you all think I should do?

Why not take a gap year as others have mentioned?

 

[music2doc]

I'm not in this situation (yet)... I'm just curious.

Let's say that you apply and get accepted to medical school. You plan to matriculate the next fall, but find that you will be short a few courses to graduate from your 4-year university. What do you do? Do medical schools allow students to defer for this reason?

Likely withdrawal of offer. You'd definitely be a reapplicant. Other schools shouldn't know you were previously accepted, although the school to which you were accepted and then "un-accepted" might choose to auto-reject you the second time around.