I need help!

[Thecomebackkid]

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I am 20 yo and have recently, after many months of self-actualization, have decided to pursue a medical career (probably ortho-surgery, or cardiothoracic surgery). The problem im having is i had a less than desirable freshman year due to time constraints brought about by my playing football for a major division I school (8-10 hrs per day). I recently moved home and am in the process of starting anew. I have recently started looking into all the requirements and suggestions for applying to med school and have a few questions:
1. In the area of EC's what do i need to start doing (research, clinicals??)?
2. Do ADCOMS look at your entire ugrad GPA or mainly your pre-req GPA?
3. In the area of LOR's: Who? When?
4.Anything to boost my "resume"?
5. General suggestion or advice are greatly appreciated!
Thanks!

 

[canjosh]

1) Any exposure to medicine is good. Shadowing, volunteering, research are all possibilities.
2) They look at all of your coursework. There are many factors, but you can overcome a bad freshman year with good grades from here on out, and by crushing the sciences.
3) If you're at a university with a pre-professional advisory committee, you'll probably get one from them, and a couple from professors. You'll get them during the application process.
4) See #1 and #2.
5) Look at everything on these forums.

It's kind of interesting you posted this in the nontrad forum. I hope you don't think that at 20, you're old to be starting this pursuit. You might be more 'traditional' than you think!

 

[Thecomebackkid]

i dont think that im non-trad as far as the age aspect goes. i do feel, however that i am not traditional in the sense that i decided in my sophomore year to actually pursue medicine. i do have one more question: i just started at a new four year university, is there any way that i could just not mention the horrible grades at Florida State and only mention the ones from my new institution? i know it sounds shady, but im sure that there are more shady things that go on.

 

[Truth74]

i dont think that im non-trad as far as the age aspect goes. i do feel, however that i am not traditional in the sense that i decided in my sophomore year to actually pursue medicine. i do have one more question: i just started at a new four year university, is there any way that i could just not mention the horrible grades at Florida State and only mention the ones from my new institution? i know it sounds shady, but im sure that there are more shady things that go on.

It is shady. It's an ethics issue. They will check your background. That's what they do. If you could leave out poor performance from an earlier time, the pre-meds on this board with low grades from ten years ago would be accepted already.

 

[queenbee]

sorry, not to get technical about a little detail, but don't get how you're nontraditional. you state it's b/c you decided in your SOPHOMORE year that you wanted to pursue medicine??? how is this not the standard path that undergrads take? good luck to you, but this is not really a nontraditional situation.

 

[Empi]

I was just thinking I have a son about your age that plays football in college.

 

[ShyRem]

You are required to disclose any and all college credit courses that you signed up for. Yes, that includes the withdrawals, failures, incompletes, etc. If they find out you didn't put all that stuff on your application they can kick you out of med school --- even if you are supposed to graduate in 3 days. Personally, I wouldn't risk it. Just work extra hard to overcome any previous "ooops" that may exist on your academic record and chalk it up to a learning experience.

 

[Foghorn]

As per grades, you are required by law and by AAMC rules to list all grades good or bad into AMCAS from all schools. Since they have your social security number when you fill out that thing they will be able to do a background check and figure out where you have gone to school prior to where you are now. Don't think that you'd be able to outsmart them.

I don't think this is necessarily true. There was a previous thread about the state of Texas allowing students to "purge" college academic records if the individual left without completing an undergrad degree 10 or more years ago, from the present until the previous date of being a "college student". The individual has to initiate a petition though. I think Law2Doc explained it. Maybe Texas is the exception to this, I'm not sure about other states.

 

[drizzt3117]

I don't think this is necessarily true. There was a previous thread about the state of Texas allowing students to "purge" college academic records if the individual left without completing an undergrad degree 10 or more years ago, from the present until the previous date of being a "college student". The individual has to initiate a petition though. I think Law2Doc explained it. Maybe Texas is the exception to this, I'm not sure about other states.

What they said was true. The thing for Texas is for TMDSAS only, and isn't really that applicable to the OP anyways.

 

[doc212]

You are required to disclose any and all college credit courses that you signed up for. Yes, that includes the withdrawals, failures, incompletes, etc. If they find out you didn't put all that stuff on your application they can kick you out of med school --- even if you are supposed to graduate in 3 days. Personally, I wouldn't risk it. Just work extra hard to overcome any previous "ooops" that may exist on your academic record and chalk it up to a learning experience.

Okay, I’m a little worried after reading this. I’ve created a separate username because of the nature of this post.

I do have one transcript I didn’t submit, but I didn’t think I needed to (stupid, I know, but please read on). I had already graduated with a bachelors and was working. I took a few classes at a local JC, one was for my job but ended up being so remedial I didn’t complete. There were a few other classes (a writing class and a chem class) that I withdrew from because I was sent on out of state travel for my job so much that I couldn’t attend class. I did complete one class, but even so I always saw all that as not relevant or important, I guess because I already had my degree or something.

Now, I am in a post-bacc program, and am in the midst of secondaries, and I did not list this one JC on my primary. I did submit every other grade and transcript, even one not so great transcript containing two classes from a JC that was different from the one I took prior to going to a 4-yr.

I’m not sure how to handle this. I don’t know why I didn’t research this further before turning in my primary. Looking at it now I can see that it doesn’t make sense that I decided to not turn it in, since everyone can just decide to not turn in transcripts they consider irrelevant too and then we’d all have great gpas. But the situation is what it is. Any suggestions? Should I just wait until I have an interview or acceptance and then come clean and tell them the situation? At the interview? After the acceptance? I think it would be next to impossible to do anything in the middle of turning in secondaries?

 

[ShyRem]

If it were me, I would immediately contact AACOMAS and discuss the information and ask it be put on my application. I would also then contact every school that I applied to and state the information was "inadvertently left off" and I wanted to make sure they had my complete application. Of course, I would also then inquire about interview possibilities, state how much I loved the school, etc.

You can turn this into a "I don't know how it got lost in the shuffle" and "I really want to be honest" and put yourself in a really good ethical position here. There would be no doubt as to your morals and honesty. Of course, you can also stumble, flub, and make it sound like you got caught and tried to cover it up and look questionable. But if you have the finesse, this can be a nice positive note about your character.

I would absolutely NOT wait until after an acceptance. They can change their minds about an acceptance if they think you deliberately withheld information.

 

[Playmakur42]

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[Playmakur42]

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[thoffen]

I do have one transcript I didn’t submit, but I didn’t think I needed to (stupid, I know, but please read on). I had already graduated with a bachelors and was working. I took a few classes at a local JC, one was for my job but ended up being so remedial I didn’t complete. There were a few other classes (a writing class and a chem class) that I withdrew from because I was sent on out of state travel for my job so much that I couldn’t attend class. I did complete one class, but even so I always saw all that as not relevant or important, I guess because I already had my degree or something.

Is the JC an accredited college? There may be different rules if it isn't. I encourage you to find out.

Another way around this might be to get a contact for thes dean of admissions at the schools you have applied to and explain your situation and ask them directly whether they want you to submit this information. Whatever contact you have regarding this subject should be documented in writing.