I need advice on what adcoms or amcas will think about my situation

[hereandnowiamu]

This is the situation:

After I graduated high school I attended Loyola University. I was there for a little over a week and was just unable to afford school as I was not getting any financial aid from them. Unfortunately, I did not know how to withdraw from classes so I just stopped going and called the university and told them that I would no longer be attending, they did not tell me that I needed to fill out paper work and said that it was fine. Then I started in at a small private university where I excelled, my gpa was 3.75. After a couple of semesters, I transfered to NIU. While at NIU my mom lost her job and needed me to come back home to support her, otherwise she was going to be thrown out. Since I was an EMT, I immediately stopped attending courses and moved back home t to work and help her pay the bills. I did not attend classes at NIU for more than a month, the add/drop deadline for this school did not pass and attendance records would show that I was not at any of my courses. I am currently talking out this issue with the Dean at NIU, I am pretty sure this is going to get resolved. However, according to Loyola I owe them like 13,000 dollars or else I cant get a transcript. And if it doesn't work out with NIU then I would have to pay 8,000 in order to get a transcript. Being the first person in my family to graduate high school and go to college sucks!
While at my current institution I have done extremely well and continue to hold a gpa of 3.7 with my science gpa a 3.98 having taken a lot of upper level biology courses. I am worried that I am going to have to send transcripts from the other universities and report them on AMCAS app. Are there any exceptions to the transcript policy? I don't mind reporting the schools as I will be completely honest with the issues I have had with college and my family/financial struggles but it would really hurt my gpa as those grades or lack thereof would be factored into my AMCAS gpa. What should I do?!!! I will not sacrifice my honesty and will tell med schools exactly what happened but I am just worried thats all...

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[ColKurtz]

After I graduated high school I attended Loyola University. I was there for a little over a week and was just unable to afford school as I was not getting any financial aid from them. Unfortunately, I did not know how to withdraw from classes so I just stopped going and called the university and told them that I would no longer be attending, they did not tell me that I needed to fill out paper work and said that it was fine.

However, according to Loyola I owe them like 13,000 dollars or else I cant get a transcript.

Were your courses at Loyala dropped? If so I don't think that you will need a transcript from them.

 

[John Hops]

You won't need transcripts from Loyola. You didn't actually complete any classes there, from your description.

As for your situation...this probably sounds terrible, but your situation is pretty great. You have an amazing GPA that you were able to maintain DESPITE an incredible number of road blocks thrown in your way.

Grade-wise, you are the epitome of what I think med schools are looking for; your story, rather than explaining your bad grades, makes the great grades you got look all the more amazing.

You won't have ANY problem with your GPA.

If you get a good MCAT score, you'll be unstoppable.

 

[ChubbyChaser]

Your post seemed to confuse mea bit, but If any of those schools ended up giving you a grade, then you will probably have to get a transcript. I would call AAMC.

 

[Jolie South]

You won't need transcripts from Loyola. You didn't actually complete any classes there, from your description.

As for your situation...this probably sounds terrible, but your situation is pretty great. You have an amazing GPA that you were able to maintain DESPITE an incredible number of road blocks thrown in your way.

Grade-wise, you are the epitome of what I think med schools are looking for; your story, rather than explaining your bad grades, makes the great grades you got look all the more amazing.

You won't have ANY problem with your GPA.

If you get a good MCAT score, you'll be unstoppable.

gradewise, there won't be a problem if no "F"s were reported at Loyola.

The OP will, however, have to report that she enrolled at Loyola on AMCAS and submit transcripts. The Ws or Fs or whatever were received will show up. Somehow, AMCAS knows all the schools that you've registered at and will request the transcript anyways.

 

[HumidBeing]

Ugh, I don't like to tell people to worry when they are asking not to. I think you do have a problem, though. If you never filled in paperwork to officially drop the courses, you may have transcripts from the school, or schools, that are all "F's".

You said that you did not attend classes at NIU for more than a month and that the add/drop period did not pass. Did you OFFICIALLY drop the courses there, and wind up owing them partial tuition for the term, or did you just not go and assume that you would be dropped for non-attendance? Since you said that you are working with them, there's a chance that whatever happened there can get ironed out.

You do need to contact Loyola, as well, and find the proper person there to work with in order to settle your dispute. Their claims that you left 15,000 and 8,000 worth of unpaid debt might get in the way when you tried to obtain loans for med school - or anything else.

These are just thoughts because I don't claim to have any experience dealing with that sort of thing, but I do believe that your worries are very valid and that you need to work with both schools to clear your record; otherwise, I think this may prevent you from getting to the point where you have the opportunity to explain anything do adcomms. There are ways to resolve these problems, but it's going to take work on your part.

 

[hereandnowiamu]

Were your courses at Loyala dropped? If so I don't think that you will need a transcript from them.

Being a late admission to Loyola they did not give us instructions on how to properly drop courses. I do not know if they dropped the courses, I will find out soon enough...

 

[HumidBeing]

Schools don't necessarily sit you down and tell you these things verbally. The instructions are in the handbooks, and often online. Students are responsible for looking up information and being informed on their own. It's not like most actually sit down and read through the info, but they can be held responsible, anyway. I wish you much luck with this. I do think that you have a good chance of persuading them to work in your favor.

 

[littlealex]

You won't need transcripts from Loyola. You didn't actually complete any classes there, from your description.

As for your situation...this probably sounds terrible, but your situation is pretty great. You have an amazing GPA that you were able to maintain DESPITE an incredible number of road blocks thrown in your way.

Grade-wise, you are the epitome of what I think med schools are looking for; your story, rather than explaining your bad grades, makes the great grades you got look all the more amazing.

You won't have ANY problem with your GPA.

If you get a good MCAT score, you'll be unstoppable.

According to his description, he never dropped his classes at Loyola.

 

[hereandnowiamu]

so anyone got any other suggestions as to how to spin this in my personal statement?

 

[Vihsadas]

You definitely need to work this out with Loyola. Hopefully they will understand your situation and at least put 'W's' on your transcript. The W's and your story combined hopefully will be enough to explain your situation to adcoms.

Lizzy?

 

[hereandnowiamu]

Lizzy?[/quote]

LOL I don't know where anyone received the notion that I was female within the comments above, I am all man.

 

[HumidBeing]

LizzyM is an adcomm member who posts advice here. He was referring to her.

 

[hereandnowiamu]

LizzyM is an adcomm member who posts advice here. He was referring to her.

LOL, my apologies...

thanks.

 

[ColKurtz]

so anyone got any other suggestions as to how to spin this in my personal statement?

You could discuss the obstacles you have faced as an undergrad and how you overcame them, what you learned from them, how they have made you a better person, etc.

 

[Jolie South]

if you were disadvantaged, you could save all talk of your undergrad career for the specific prompt for that on AMCAS.

i wasn't disadvantaged, but apparently if you check that box, another textbox will appear and give you the chance to explain the circumstances.

 

[Law2Doc]

so anyone got any other suggestions as to how to spin this in my personal statement?

I think you need to address the problems one at a time. The first is that you are going to need all transcripts from every school you ever enrolled in, whether you took classes, adequately dropped them, or what have you. This all has to go to AMCAS, and probably again to any med school before you matriculate. So you need to resolve this problem. Might end up with a much lower GPA, as HumidBeing suggested, which may or may not affect what you have to explain.

 

[Tired]

You actually started, attended for a week, then realized you weren't getting financial aid?

What?

 

[hereandnowiamu]

You actually started, attended for a week, then realized you weren't getting financial aid?

What?

Since I was a late admission, I didn't meet with a financial aid adviser until the end of the first week... That is when the school scheduled me to meet with the financial aid office. What was even crazier is that my EFC was only like a thousand dollars.

 

[hereandnowiamu]

if you were disadvantaged, you could save all talk of your undergrad career for the specific prompt for that on AMCAS.

i wasn't disadvantaged, but apparently if you check that box, another textbox will appear and give you the chance to explain the circumstances.

Thats a great idea, thanks. This will save me mucho room in my personal statement.

 

[hereandnowiamu]

Worse comes to worse I will have to become an RN for a year to pay off debt and release the transcripts... I have sent out like 30 emails to all of the directors/administrators at Loyola concerning this issue. I explained the situation and also said that if they are bent on me paying the tuition that is not a problem but the transcripts should be fixed to W's in order to reveal the type of student that I am, as I have never received an F in any course that I have completed. Not to mention that in both instances I was out before the add/drop deadline. I will keep all of you updated on the situation, thanks for the advice.

 

[ColKurtz]

Worse comes to worse I will have to become an RN for a year to pay off debt and release the transcripts... I

Do you have a nursing degree? I could be way off but I have heard that medical schools are reluctant to admit nurses. Because of the shortage of both nurses and physicians schools are trying to discourage people from wasting training spots.

 

[dancinRN1022]

hiya I am typing from my phone... I had a similar problem with transcripts and my school temporarily released my transcripts while we resolved the issue... I would call amcas if I were u too... but u do have to reach a resolution with the schools regarding the debt because it may affect your credit rating like someone else said... good luck... by the way... every interviewer I have met has told me that med schools like nursing...esp if u have a good reason for becoming one... needing to support urself is a great reason... good luck!!!

 

[LizzyM]

I agree that there are many situations that need to be ironed out here:

money owed at 2 schools

transcripts that might be showing an entire semester of dropped courses or an entire semester for Fs.

earn money to pay off debts before medical school

getting into schools and not following through


The debt is a big headache -- it is interesting that the school hasn't sued you to recoupe the debt and it is interesting that the school offered no financial aid although you claim to have had an estimated family contribution of $1,000.

The transcripts are going to be a problem in that they must be reported to AMCAS. All Ws will raise questions, particularly when it happened twice, but all Fs will raise questions and play havoc with your gpa.

Going into nursing is going to raise a question: why leave one health profession to pursue another? Some people are able to adquately answer this question but many are not which is why it may seem that adcoms aren't enamoured by nurses as applicants. (Nurses don't always have great grades either and nursing "labs" are hell on the gpa and consume an enormous amount of time).

Finally, any school will wonder if you are going to have your stuff together when you matriculate or if you will be flakey again and drop out during week 1. Sure, there were extenuating circumstances the second time but that still raises the question, "will things happen such that your only solution is dropping out of school?" With so many terrific applicants without baggage, an adcom is really going to need to see something remarkable (not just good grades, there are thousands of those applicants) to want to take a chance on you.