Low GPA due to previously undiagnosed major depression

[deleted1062646]

I am taking a gamble and posting my question here.
Since I am posting here, I am sure you know I am a nontraditional applicant. I don't want to make my story too long, so here goes:
I was a traditional student, but I struggled a LOT. I didn't have family to guide me or friends who understood what was going on in my life enough to guide me. I went to see medical professionals, but they always made excuses for how I felt ("Oh, of course you feel that way. You have this, this and this going on in your life...you'll be fine")
Well, I struggled for years and dropped out or just let my grades go to WFs.
I did graduate with a degree...barely...after leaving a trail of terror on my academic career.

Anyway, I was eventually diagnosed with major depression and began taking medication after someone took me seriously. It's amazing how things turned around and I am taking courses, working toward another bachelor's degree, with fantastic grades.

My question is this: How do I approach this in my eventual applications? I am not going to pretend that there won't be some people on admissions committees that will view mental health struggles as a red flag.
It really was the explanation for my extremely poor academic performance, so do I just explain it the best I can with honesty and hope for the best?
I plan to lay out what happened, what I did to change after the diagnosis, and how I plan to maintain this level of academic excellence.
Is this enough? Should I approach it differently?

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[futureapppsy2]

How poor of an academic performance are we talking about?

 

[deleted1062646]

How poor of an academic performance are we talking about?

I did well enough to graduate with my first degree...the bare minimum GPA.
I am doing an excellent job in my second degree (which includes every prerequisite for medical school and is a science degree)

There is an extreme difference between my first degree and my current one.

 

[futureapppsy2]

I did well enough to graduate with my first degree...the bare minimum GPA.
I am doing an excellent job in my second degree (which includes every prerequisite for medical school and is a science degree)

There is an extreme difference between my first degree and my current one.

Numbers would be really helpful. Glad you are doing better.

 

[Goro]

I am taking a gamble and posting my question here.
Since I am posting here, I am sure you know I am a nontraditional applicant. I don't want to make my story too long, so here goes:
I was a traditional student, but I struggled a LOT. I didn't have family to guide me or friends who understood what was going on in my life enough to guide me. I went to see medical professionals, but they always made excuses for how I felt ("Oh, of course you feel that way. You have this, this and this going on in your life...you'll be fine")
Well, I struggled for years and dropped out or just let my grades go to WFs.
I did graduate with a degree...barely...after leaving a trail of terror on my academic career.

Anyway, I was eventually diagnosed with major depression and began taking medication after someone took me seriously. It's amazing how things turned around and I am taking courses, working toward another bachelor's degree, with fantastic grades.

My question is this: How do I approach this in my eventual applications? I am not going to pretend that there won't be some people on admissions committees that will view mental health struggles as a red flag.
It really was the explanation for my extremely poor academic performance, so do I just explain it the best I can with honesty and hope for the best?
I plan to lay out what happened, what I did to change after the diagnosis, and how I plan to maintain this level of academic excellence.
Is this enough? Should I approach it differently?

You tell the truth, this isn't uncommon, and a long stretch of academic excellence will allay any Adcom qualms about your health issues.

 

[Bloobury]

Hi fellow friend in blue!

I struggled with anxiety and depression throughout school too (although I didn't get any D's, F's, or W's). I ended up with ~3.5 gpa. But unfortunately, most of my science course grades are B's. My "all other GPA" is a 3.9, and I do have an upward trend, but when I see people posting about how "low" their 3.5 is, I just feel like oh jeezus I have no chance.

HOWEVER, I have found a handful of unicorns out there who are now med students, residents, or attendings who got into school with lower stats, and who have been very encouraging. I've heard mixed things on being open about mental health issues. Personally, I think it's a strength to be vulnerable (to a degree) and to have developed some rock-solid coping skills. Med school and residency will be tough. Better to know what depression feels like, what your triggers are, how to get help, etc before going into it rather than crash and burn because you've never had to acknowledge you need help before. I wrote a few different versions of my personal statement that included various levels of detail about my struggles and ended it up cutting it back to barely hinting at it, because it felt too negative and my theme was more focused on growth and I didn't want it to read as "woe is me". Because of the experiences that I listed in my disadvantaged essay, I felt that it was pretty much implied that my life wasn't a cakewalk and that depression/anxiety would be pretty normal in those circumstances. Mine came down to essentially "things were stressful, I was working a lot and my grades suffered, and I was really discouraged - but through lots of introspection, learning to be vulnerable and seek help, etc, I started to find more meaning and direction, and develop better coping and studying skills".

When the time to apply comes around and you start drafting your personal statement and secondaries, it'll be easier to advise on what to include and how to explain/phrase things.

 

[deleted1062646]

You tell the truth, this isn't uncommon, and a long stretch of academic excellence will allay any Adcom qualms about your health issues.

Thank you

 

[deleted1062646]

Hi fellow friend in blue!

I struggled with anxiety and depression throughout school too (although I didn't get any D's, F's, or W's). I ended up with ~3.5 gpa (and honors, thanks to doing an excellent thesis), so it turned out okay.... until my application got verified and I was crushed to see AMCAS calculated my sGPA to a 2.94 (I was expecting a 3.1). I only have 3 C's on my transcript! But unfortunately, most of my science course grades are B's. My "all other GPA" is a 3.9, and I do have an upward trend, but when I see people posting about how "low" their 3.5 is, I just feel like oh jeezus I have no chance.

HOWEVER, I have found a handful of unicorns out there who are now med students, residents, or attendings who got into school with lower stats, and who have been very encouraging. I've heard mixed things on being open about mental health issues. Personally, I think it's a strength to be vulnerable (to a degree) and to have developed some rock-solid coping skills. Med school and residency will be tough. Better to know what depression feels like, what your triggers are, how to get help, etc before going into it rather than crash and burn because you've never had to acknowledge you need help before. I wrote a few different versions of my personal statement that included various levels of detail about my struggles and ended it up cutting it back to barely hinting at it, because it felt too negative and my theme was more focused on growth and I didn't want it to read as "woe is me". Because of the experiences that I listed in my disadvantaged essay, I felt that it was pretty much implied that my life wasn't a cakewalk and that depression/anxiety would be pretty normal in those circumstances. Mine came down to essentially "things were stressful, I was working a lot and my grades suffered, and I was really discouraged - but through lots of introspection, learning to be vulnerable and seek help, etc, I started to find more meaning and direction, and develop better coping and studying skills".

When the time to apply comes around and you start drafting your personal statement and secondaries, it'll be easier to advise on what to include and how to explain/phrase things.

I think I have determined how to write my personal statement. If someone wants to keep me out of medicine because of the truth, then that school is not for me. I'll do an update later on when I actually apply. Thank you for your input.

 

[Dave1980]

I think I have determined how to write my personal statement. If someone wants to keep me out of medicine because of the truth, then that school is not for me. I'll do an update later on when I actually apply. Thank you for your input.

How many years between the 1st degree and 2nd? Is the 2nd degree at a community college, an online school, or a 4 year school?

 

[FrkyBgStok]

as said, do you have numbers? if you are dealing with 150 credits at a 1.5 GPA, you are going to need hundreds of credits to increase enough to get cut offs.

 

[Dr Tapatio]

You say bare minimum GPA. That means you got around a 2.0 in what should be about a 120 hour degree. That means you'd have to get another 120 hours with a 4.0 to get to a 3.0. The issue here is not that people won't see past it. The issue is that your application won't be seen at all in most places because there's a 3.0 cutoff. I would really re-think this before embarking into a 4-year journey + MCAT + EC. It's not impossible by any means, but you have left yourself no room for error

 

[YoungDrummer]

I am taking a gamble and posting my question here.
Since I am posting here, I am sure you know I am a nontraditional applicant. I don't want to make my story too long, so here goes:
I was a traditional student, but I struggled a LOT. I didn't have family to guide me or friends who understood what was going on in my life enough to guide me. I went to see medical professionals, but they always made excuses for how I felt ("Oh, of course you feel that way. You have this, this and this going on in your life...you'll be fine")
Well, I struggled for years and dropped out or just let my grades go to WFs.
I did graduate with a degree...barely...after leaving a trail of terror on my academic career.

Anyway, I was eventually diagnosed with major depression and began taking medication after someone took me seriously. It's amazing how things turned around and I am taking courses, working toward another bachelor's degree, with fantastic grades.

My question is this: How do I approach this in my eventual applications? I am not going to pretend that there won't be some people on admissions committees that will view mental health struggles as a red flag.
It really was the explanation for my extremely poor academic performance, so do I just explain it the best I can with honesty and hope for the best?
I plan to lay out what happened, what I did to change after the diagnosis, and how I plan to maintain this level of academic excellence.
Is this enough? Should I approach it differently?

If you are at all uncomfortable about mentioning that you suffer from depression, you could just state that you have a health problem that is under control. And your post-bac coursework and your MCAT score will be a reflection of it.

If you don't mind me asking this, have you tried rTMS for depression? This treatment has been around for awhile. You may want to look into it because this could also be of help to you.

 

[MedicallyEnthused]

You say bare minimum GPA. That means you got around a 2.0 in what should be about a 120 hour degree. That means you'd have to get another 120 hours with a 4.0 to get to a 3.0. The issue here is not that people won't see past it. The issue is that your application won't be seen at all in most places because there's a 3.0 cutoff. I would really re-think this before embarking into a 4-year journey + MCAT + EC. It's not impossible by any means, but you have left yourself no room for error

Not all schools screen like this. There are tons of schools out there that will look at your app more holistically and some that may just look at your last 2 years or so. And for many students who did poorly in undergrad it may not be feasible or even possible to get your ugpa to a 3.0 I'm not saying its impossible, but if you need upwards of 90-120 credits at a 4.0gpa to achieve a 3.0cgpa and sgpa, its out of the question in my opinion.

The best option is just do really well for 1-2 years in a postbacc program and move on to a SMP with linkages offered at a medical school. I have read about many people who have done this and were successful, many of which were under a 3.0ugpa.

If you can show a solid 2-3 years of a 3.7+ gpa in the hard sciences including a SMP, gpa shouldn't be the reason you don't get in, even if you are under a 3.0ugpa. You just need to pick the right schools to apply to that don't have a strict 3.0 cutoff.

 

[Dr Tapatio]

Not all schools screen like this. There are tons of schools out there that will look at your app more holistically and some that may just look at your last 2 years or so. And for many students who did poorly in undergrad it may not be feasible or even possible to get your ugpa to a 3.0 I'm not saying its impossible, but if you need upwards of 90-120 credits at a 4.0gpa to achieve a 3.0cgpa and sgpa, its out of the question in my opinion.

The best option is just do really well for 1-2 years in a postbacc program and move on to a SMP with linkages offered at a medical school. I have read about many people who have done this and were successful, many of which were under a 3.0ugpa.

If you can show a solid 2-3 years of a 3.7+ gpa in the hard sciences including a SMP, gpa shouldn't be the reason you don't get in, even if you are under a 3.0ugpa. You just need to pick the right schools to apply to that don't have a strict 3.0 cutoff.

Obviously not all schools screen the same, but then you're giving yourself an ever smaller pool of possible schools to attend. At some point the odds are simply against you. Unfortunately, most premeds with low grades seem to suffer the gamblers mentality where you just need to keep betting more and more. In my many years, I've only seen a handful of people actually overcome those odds; literally all 99% that didn't were sure they'd be the 1% that would

I agree that an SMP could theoretically work. My understanding is that most of them require a 2.7+. It's also a huge gamble, but I agree it's probably the more reasonable gamble than to do 4 extra undergrad years for at a 4.0 for a total of 3.0