Making my app stronger to overcome red flags - withdrawals and an F

[Naiya]

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First, thank you for any advice.

I just finished my junior year, but I won’t be applying until June 2017. I need to think about how to proceed in making my application stronger to overcome the 6 – 7 withdrawals and an F on my transcript, or if I'm delusional start thinking about other career paths.

Major: Natural Sciences (I could easily finish a minor in french or psychology)
Overall GPA: 3.67 (104 credits) It would have been a 3.8 until that ridiculous F.
My science GPA is technically unreasonably low, but I still have over 30 BCMP credits to take. (See below for more details).
I should be able to get my overall gpa to a 3.74+ (up to 3.8) and my science gpa to 3.50+ (up to 3.57).
I won't take the MCAT for another year or year and a half.
I just turned 21.

My extracurricular activities:

• Completed
  • ER Scribe ~ 1,500+ hours over 2.5 years
  • Vice president of a chapter of an international medical volunteer NGO ~ 1.5 years
    • Included a two week mobile medical outreach clinic to villages in Latin America.
• In Process
  • Cancer Immunotherapy Research ~ est. 1 year
    • I should have a poster presentation.
  • President of a chapter of a well-known service club ~ 2 years by time of application
• Will Start Soon/In the Future
  • Refugee Family Mentor (Volunteer) ~ est. 1 - 2 years (about to start)
  • NICU Volunteer ~ At least 6 months
• Misc
  • I'm involved in the LGBT community; i.e. ally training, campus clubs, etc.
  • French Club (I’ll be an advanced speaker by the time I apply. I'm learning French because of my global health interests. I will learn Spanish prior to attending medical school, but I'll only have very limited ability prior to applying.)
  • Intramural Sports and community leagues.

Timeline of badness

• I did well my freshman year; 40 semester credits with a 3.8 cGPA and 3.7 sGPA. I was quite gung-ho.
• Fall semester of my sophomore year I essentially withdrew from all of my academic classes (3 lectures and a lab). I had just started scribing and became vice president of a club when my grandfather, uncle, and dog all died on top of other stresses. I returned Spring and summer.
• Junior Year - Fall semester I had two withdrawals. Unfortunately I don't have any good reason; I can't report a specific incident to explain it. Honestly, it came down to taking on too much and making human mistakes. During college I've learned the importance of having a support network (I used to be stubbornly independent) and judging how much to take on.

What to do now
I am extremely bent on going to an allopathic medical school, but if it's unrealistic I'll look at alternatives. Now let’s assume I have no more academic hiccups (humor me). My current plan for the next 2 years is as follows:

• I will take additional extra upper division biology coursework.
• Have strong grades for the next two years. The B's and withdrawals weren't due to the difficulty of the class and my inability to learn, but simply not enough time do everything I took on (which obviously I should not ever do again).
• Continue my extracurricular activities as noted above (I can balance these fine).
• Rock the MCAT. I actually enjoy exams, and I will be dedicating a good chunk of time preparing for it.
• Study abroad (for personal reasons and because I intend to use both French and Spanish in my future career) - so most likely a summer or two in a French and/or Spanish speaking country.

Is there anything else I can do? I do have one semester and a summer with some wiggle room, but I'm thinking I should just take try to buff my GPA. I could theoretically join the Americorps in January/February of 2017. I could try defer another year and do a special master's program if it was really needed, but I'd rather not wait longer. I've considered doing a public health research project either locally or perhaps through Unite for Sight (I'm interested in getting a MPH down the line). I realize how I do this next year and on the MCAT will greatly influence how to go about things.

Thanks again!

 

[Naiya]

As of right now these are my science course grades:

• Gen Bio w/ Lab I (A)
• Gen Bio w/ Lab II (A)
• Gen Chem I (B); same for lab
• Gen Chem II (A); same for lab
• Physics I (B)
• Physics I Lab (A)
• Organic Chem I (B)
• Human Anatomy & Physiology I (B)
  
• 400 level Medical Physiology (A) - taught my medical school faculty
• Genetics (F) - Ugggggh. I had transportation issues, then unexpectedly joined an awesome research opportunity, intended to drop the class, missed several tests, then didn't note the change in drop/withdrawal deadline, and at some point realized there was no coming back from it so I focused on other things. Basically it's my fault.
• [I technically get upper division biology credit for independent research, so that's another 3 credits (A)]

 

[DrHart]

If you're already at 104 credits, buffing your overall GPA would be very tough, especially if you take upper division science courses. BUT a 3.7//3.5 is definitely not bad. Combined with strong ECs, you look like a good applicant - maybe not at some of the top tier schools, but definitely at the mid-low tier schools.
Sorry bout your granddad, uncle, and dog. I've been there too, certainly not easy.

 

[Goro]

Your GPA right now is very competitive, so one F will not keep you out of medical school. Be prepared to be asked about it ad nauseum at interviews though.

Just keep doing all the successful things you're doing, and do well on MCAT, and then aim high.

Remember also, that this is SDN, where we get legions of pre-meds asking "will a C will keep them out of med school?"

First, thank you for any advice.

I just finished my junior year, but I won’t be applying until June 2017. I need to think about how to proceed in making my application stronger to overcome the 6 – 7 withdrawals and an F on my transcript, or if I'm delusional start thinking about other career paths.

Major: Natural Sciences (I could easily finish a minor in french or psychology)
Overall GPA: 3.67 (104 credits) It would have been a 3.8 until that ridiculous F.
My science GPA is technically unreasonably low, but I still have a lot of science classes to take. (See below for more details).
I should be able to get my overall gpa to a 3.74+ (up to 3.8) and my science gpa to 3.50+ (up to 3.58).
I won't take the MCAT for another year or year and a half.
I just turned 21.

My extracurricular activities:

• Completed
  • ER Scribe ~ 1,500+ hours over 2.5 years
  • Vice president of a chapter of an international medical volunteer NGO ~ 1.5 years
    • Included a two week mobile medical outreach clinic to villages in Latin America.
• In Process
  • Cancer Immunotherapy Research ~ est. 1 year
    • I should have a poster presentation.
  • President of a chapter of a well-known service club ~ 2 years by time of application
• Will Start Soon/In the Future
  • Refugee Family Mentor (Volunteer) ~ est. 1 - 2 years (about to start)
  • NICU Volunteer ~ At least 6 months
• Misc
  • I'm involved in the LGBT community; i.e. ally training, campus clubs, etc.
  • French Club (I’ll be an advanced speaker by the time I apply. I'm learning French because of my global health interests. I will learn Spanish prior to attending medical school, but I'll only have very limited ability prior to applying.)
  • Intramural Sports and community leagues.

Timeline of badness

• I did well my freshman year; 40 semester credits with a 3.8 cGPA and 3.7 sGPA. I was quite gung-ho.
• Fall semester of my sophomore year I essentially withdrew from all of my academic classes (3 lectures and a lab). I had just started scribing and became vice president of a club when my grandfather, uncle, and dog all died on top of other stresses. I returned Spring and summer.
• Junior Year - Fall semester I had two withdrawals. Unfortunately I don't have any good reason; I can't report a specific incident to explain it. Honestly, it came down to taking on too much and making human mistakes. During college I've learned the importance of having a support network (I used to be stubbornly independent) and judging how much to take on.

What to do now
I am extremely bent on going to an allopathic medical school, but if it's unrealistic I'll look at alternatives. Now let’s assume I have no more academic hiccups (humor me). My current plan for the next 2 years is as follows:

• I will take additional extra upper division biology coursework.
• Have strong grades for the next two years. The B's and withdrawals weren't due to the difficulty of the class and my inability to learn, but simply not enough time do everything I took on (which obviously I should not ever do again).
• Continue my extracurricular activities as noted above (I can balance these fine).
• Rock the MCAT. I actually enjoy exams, and I will be dedicating a good chunk of time preparing for it.
• Study abroad (for personal reasons and because I intend to use both French and Spanish in my future career) - so most likely a summer or two in a French and/or Spanish speaking country.

Is there anything else I can do? I do have one semester and a summer with some wiggle room, but I'm thinking I should just take try to buff my GPA. I could theoretically join the Americorps in January/February of 2017. I could try defer another year and do a special master's program if it was really needed, but I'd rather not wait longer. I've considered doing a public health research project either locally or perhaps through Unite for Sight (I'm interested in getting a MPH down the line). I realize how I do this next year and on the MCAT will greatly influence how to go about things.

Thank again!

 

[Naiya]

Thank you DrHart. 🙂 I enjoy learning and value exposure to a variety of fields, so I kind of diverged and took quite a few courses in psychology, public health, French, Spanish, etc. I was primarily referring to improving my science GPA.

Thanks Goro! My primarily concern was the combination of the F and multiple withdrawals over more than one semester. Should I retake Genetics if I can get an A? I'd rather take other biology courses in terms of interest, but I could do it.

I intend to apply to 20 schools (low - mid tier schools). My top choices would be Tufts and George Washington University. I know they have a high volume of applications. Are these still reasonable on my radar? Would I need more impressive EC's than I currently have and a high MCAT?

I apologize for the typo/grammatical error in my prior post. It was a late night with an unhealthy keyboard.

 

[GrapesofRath]

The science GPA is low but like you said there is time to improve it. Also what semester did the F occur? Your GPA is well within range and you have done things to build up your application; you aren't in a position to be asking if you are at a point of no recovery at all. But as I'll describe below your biggest issue is proving you have gotten past your mistakes which have occurred now multiple times and within the past year even.

The biggest red flag on here isn't really the F; like @Goro said, one grade like that won't keep you out of medical school particularly if it's in a non science class and you still have a 3.7. Your bigger issue however is that you had to withdraw from a semester of classes(which in itself isn't some deal breaker) but that you came back to school and had to withdraw AGAIN from a couple classes. On top of that, those withdrawals are from this past academic year. That is not an indicator of someone who has gotten it together, figured out their mistakes from the past, and is now in good enough standing that they aren't a risk for a medical school to take on.

If you have had to withdraw in the past year due to non personal issues and have an F on your transcript, forget about convincing med schools you aren't at risk to have more academic issues, can you honestly say to yourself there's no chance I don't have to withdraw from another class again or have a struggle in another class? If you are being honest with yourself, regardless of what you think personally about the question I posed, there is clearly evidence to suggest it's not some sure thing based off your past 2 years that a 3rd party observer would look at and have some doubt about. You've proven you can do well in school but consistency is the key to proving to an ADCOM that all your issues are behind you. It sounds like you are going to do a 5th year from what you said having two years left; doing well in those two years without these hiccups will go along way to helping your case to show you have overcome your personal issues and learned from mistakes of overscheduling classes and making too many commitments.

You aren't in a situation where you need to make all A's or something like many people who are trying to recover from their academic performance and had bad GPAs. Your goal should be to maintain a 3.7-3.8 academic performance over the next 2 years without any of these miscues. A couple B's isn't an issue. But consistency----keeping that GPA range every semester for the next 2 years, that's what you need to do. Pick classes wisely(input from those who have already taken teachers you are going to take is invaluable that can never be stressed enough). Don't take on too much. As much as anything you need to show you can make good decisions more so than prove you can handle the difficulty of medical school. Clubs and leadership positions are well and good but if there is a chance of them interfering with your academic performance they aren't worth the major commitment they might take. You have enough clinical experience through being a scribe. MCAT and GPA take priority over everything else by a healthy margin in medical school admission. If you can show favorably in those two and build off your research experience, that's your path to success to getting in.

 

[Goro]

Yes

Thanks Goro! My primarily concern was the combination of the F and multiple withdrawals over more than one semester. Should I retake Genetics if I can get an A?

Yes
I intend to apply to 20 schools (low - mid tier schools). My top choices would be Tufts and George Washington University. I know they have a high volume of applications. Are these still reasonable on my radar?

No
Would I need more impressive EC's than I currently have and a high MCAT?

 

[ChrisMack390]

I wish I had a 3.74...

 

[Naiya]

I completely agree and came to similar conclusions @GrapesofRath . I do honestly think I can show strong consistency for the next two years prior to applying. I appreciate the advice.

 

[Banco]

Your GPA isn't even bad. If you can improve it further that's great, just kill your science classes from now on. And of course do well on the MCAT.