Including explanation for poor grades in personal statement

[StudentDoGter]

Hello! I apologize for the rookie question, but after reading several threads/posts I've seen conflicting information. Should I use part of my personal statement to explain poor academic performance, or do I wait to do so in the secondaries? Thank you for your help, this is my first cycle so I want to make sure I format my PS correctly.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[djsbaseball2014]

DO NOT draw any attention to negative aspects of your app in the PS. Wait for secondaries and even in there, dont mention specific numbers, just say I had a slow start or struggled with x,y,z aspects of college. Let the adcms make the connection between your life struggle and grades by laying the timeframe out for them. And speak about how you stepped it up

 

[deleted889094]

Yeah, don't do it. You don't actually know if it's going to make a difference in the eyes of adcoms. Better to just not mention it. Schools that will be interested in you will connect the dots regarding your academic ability.

During the interview at the school I'll be going to, I was asked if I had anything I wanted to say about my application. I started to try to explain my low GPA, and the interviewer waved her hand dismissively and said "You're fine, you've got a great MCAT. Don't even worry about it" or something of the sort.

 

[lalalallala]

Some secondaries have room to explain bad grades or gaps in your activities. If they do then you could write something as long as it is legit and does not sound like you are making excuses. If your secondaries do not have a spot then do not say anything. They may give you a chance to talk about it in your interviews or you may just not get to.

The PS is asking you to show who you are and why you want to be a doctor. "I did poorly this semester bc" does not answer the question posed to you

 

[907914]

Would poor grades/or grade trends be a good topic for ‘adversity’ essays? Like, focus on the adversity that is associated with said trends, but mention the trend/grades in passing?

 

[deleted889094]

Would poor grades/or grade trends be a good topic for ‘adversity’ essays? Like, focus on the adversity that is associated with said trends, but mention the trend/grades in passing?

No, it's not really adversity. Sure, it's a challenge, but every student has to keep grades up. It's really common for students to get mediocre grades in the early years and come back from it.

You want to write about something that wasn't a result of something you chose. I think that's a good rule of thumb.

Some schools leave a space to talk about grades in the secondary. Don't bring it up unless it's relevant. Some things just speak for themselves and you can't change it no matter what you say

 

[LizzyM]

Here's what the AMCAS guide says about the "essay"
Use the Personal Comments Essay as an opportunity to distinguish yourself from other applicants. Consider and write your Personal Comments Essay carefully; many admissions committees place significant weight on the essay.

Here are some questions that you may want to consider while writing the essay:
• Why have you selected the field of medicine?
• What motivates you to learn more about medicine?
• What do you want medical schools to know about you that hasn’t been disclosed in other sections of the application?

In addition, you may wish to include information such as:
• Unique hardships, challenges, or obstacles that may have influenced your educational pursuits*
• Comments on significant fluctuations in your academic record that are not explained elsewhere in your application

* your house burned while you were attending your mother's funeral, and you left school to look after your siblings then returned to college 3 years later.

 

[Goro]

Hello! I apologize for the rookie question, but after reading several threads/posts I've seen conflicting information. Should I use part of my personal statement to explain poor academic performance, or do I wait to do so in the secondaries? Thank you for your help, this is my first cycle so I want to make sure I format my PS correctly.

No. No matter how they're written, they always come off as excuses.

 

[907914]

No, it's not really adversity. Sure, it's a challenge, but every student has to keep grades up. It's really common for students to get mediocre grades in the early years and come back from it.

You want to write about something that wasn't a result of something you chose. I think that's a good rule of thumb.

Some schools leave a space to talk about grades in the secondary. Don't bring it up unless it's relevant. Some things just speak for themselves and you can't change it no matter what you say

Here's what the AMCAS guide says about the "essay"
Use the Personal Comments Essay as an opportunity to distinguish yourself from other applicants. Consider and write your Personal Comments Essay carefully; many admissions committees place significant weight on the essay.

Here are some questions that you may want to consider while writing the essay:
• Why have you selected the field of medicine?
• What motivates you to learn more about medicine?
• What do you want medical schools to know about you that hasn’t been disclosed in other sections of the application?

In addition, you may wish to include information such as:
• Unique hardships, challenges, or obstacles that may have influenced your educational pursuits*
• Comments on significant fluctuations in your academic record that are not explained elsewhere in your application

* your house burned while you were attending your mother's funeral, and you left school to look after your siblings then returned to college 3 years later.

So one should not talk about their dip in grades, but talk about life circumstances surrounding of those in the time period in which they fell and then let the admissions committee members fill in the blank’s?

 

[LizzyM]

No. No matter how they're written, they always come off as excuses.

Sometimes it puts the grades in context. If one says, "In Fall 2016 I developed hypothyroidism although I did not know it at the time. As my energy level sagged and my health deteriorated, my academic performance suffered. It was not until April, when my internist put the parts of the puzzle together, tested me for thyroid function and prescribed medication that I began to recover my mental acutity and physical vigor." I would not see that as an "excuse" but an unfortunate outcome of an undiagnosed condition that explains the circumstances that accompanied a drop in GPA.

 

[Goro]

Sometimes it puts the grades in context. If one says, "In Fall 2016 I developed hypothyroidism although I did not know it at the time. As my energy level sagged and my health deteriorated, my academic performance suffered. It was not until April, when my internist put the parts of the puzzle together, tested me for thyroid function and prescribed medication that I began to recover my mental acutity and physical vigor." I would not see that as an "excuse" but an unfortunate outcome of an undiagnosed condition that explains the circumstances that accompanied a drop in GPA.

As a caveat, I have found that very few essay writers are able to pull this level of explanation off.
On a tangent, the worst offenders are those that have not recovered from their grades' downward spiral. Rather, they try to use the logic iof "if I hadn't gotten sick, I'd still be an A student"...except, we have no proof of that.

 

[ConsultantMD]

tl;dr: if you are going to mention this, it has to be for a purpose and not just an excuse as mentioned.

I brought up grades briefly in my personal statement. It was more of a nod to the fact I knew my grades were bad, but I mentioned this in the context of taking course overloads (sometimes 2.5x the usual), which might have been hard to specify from my busy transcript alone. I also did a post-bacc which countered this history of poor performance, so it served to create a striking delta in performance as part of my story.

During my interviews, I was only asked about this once in particular that I remember, an attending started off our conversation with "I don't think you want to go to medical school".... which was honestly a fair position to take on my application. Needless to say I didn't get in there. I did interview at 3 top 10 schools and a couple other top 20ish and ended up having 3 acceptances. Good luck!

 

[just-peace]

As a caveat, I have found that very few essay writers are able to pull this level of explanation off.
On a tangent, the worst offenders are those that have not recovered from their grades' downward spiral. Rather, they try to use the logic iof "if I hadn't gotten sick, I'd still be an A student"...except, we have no proof of that.

Slight co-opt of this thread: what if your GPA isn't so slick but there wasn't a giant, negative life event that happened? For all those who just struggled in one course, or consistently, keeping their GPA low, what kind of explanation are you supposed to have then? I know this is where explanations turn into excuses and writing about "struggling" with courses without a strong upward trend in your PS is just a waste of space. I assume this is where you need to have a strong post-bacc GPA that speaks for itself then include in your PS something about how you've matured and improved since your undergrad days?

Do these thoughts/questions ^^ fit with the narrative for applicants who just struggled academically (GPA flat-lined, no strong ups or downs)?

 

[907914]

Slight co-opt of this thread: what if your GPA isn't so slick but there wasn't a giant, negative life event that happened? For all those who just struggled in one course, or consistently, keeping their GPA low, what kind of explanation are you supposed to have then? I know this is where explanations turn into excuses and writing about "struggling" with courses without a strong upward trend in your PS is just a waste of space. I assume this is where you need to have a strong post-bacc GPA that speaks for itself then include in your PS something about how you've matured and improved since your undergrad days?

Do these thoughts/questions ^^ fit with the narrative for applicants who just struggled academically (GPA flat-lined, no strong ups or downs)?

I have a situation like that - my excuse is I was taking what are typically upper division classes in a lower division environment (Imagine taking hematology without having taken intro bio...) as part of a 40 semester hour in 6 month military program. It is still an excuse so I won't address it anywhere and just assume they pick it up on my transcript.

If they see a dip in your GPA with no corresponding life event but all else is good then meh. It won't really hamper things.

 

[deleted889094]

I think there's this pre-med mindset that you are a 4.0 student and if you have anything but a 4.0 there must be a reason for it. It's just not true. College isn't high school. Sometimes you didn't catch on right away, maybe you didn't know how to study, or perhaps you weren't great at separating school and life yet. But why would you get to excuse any of it? Sometimes you just don't do as well as you would like. That's that. If you want schools to think you're better than that C+ in Orgo, get an A in Biochem. You can use all the words you want, but unless something really serious happened, you just didn't do as well as you wanted.

 

[Goro]

Slight co-opt of this thread: what if your GPA isn't so slick but there wasn't a giant, negative life event that happened? For all those who just struggled in one course, or consistently, keeping their GPA low, what kind of explanation are you supposed to have then? I know this is where explanations turn into excuses and writing about "struggling" with courses without a strong upward trend in your PS is just a waste of space. I assume this is where you need to have a strong post-bacc GPA that speaks for itself then include in your PS something about how you've matured and improved since your undergrad days?

Do these thoughts/questions ^^ fit with the narrative for applicants who just struggled academically (GPA flat-lined, no strong ups or downs)?

There is no excuse. Low grades mean that as a student, one is weaker than people who get into medical school, OR, that as a medical student, one will have a lot of difficulty with the curriculum.

. So yes, a post-bac or SMP is needed to show that one can handle med school.