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fve17

Cornell C/O 2022
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Hey all,

I was wondering if anyone could give me advice.
I have a bunch of interviews coming up in the next few months. It seems schools are interested in me.
I have a handful of poor grades (C range and below) in prerequisites. Some of them are as recent as can be; some are not. There is no upward trend to speak of, although I did retake the worst classes.
The rest of my application does not worry me.

I had depression and have been in therapy/on medication for years. I'm doing better now.
This is the reason for all of my poor grades, although there are concurrent medical issues that correspond with the very worst grades. I've read through many threads on SDN about this topic; the general consensus is not to mention mental health at all, or risk jeopardizing your application, even if there's a positive ending.

So now I have a bunch of ugly-looking grades with no explanation -- how do I approach this? Obviously I won't lie but what should I emphasize to fill in the gaps? The ol' should have studied more? What's your opinion on this?

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I think if it comes up, you can say that you were dealing with some health issues at the time that have since been resolved, but you don't have to go into detail. Basically schools just want to know if they should be concerned about you struggling academically in vet school, which is understandable. As you probably know, vet school and vet med in general often bring out depression and anxiety even in people that didn't have those issues beforehand, so it's smart to have some coping strategies at your disposal. I was asked in a couple of my interviews how I deal with stress. But back to your question, I definitely wouldn't draw attention to your low grades if they don't ask about them. Many schools are doing closed-file interviews now (MMI or behavioral), so in that case there wouldn't be questions about anything from your application.
 
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I think if it comes up, you can say that you were dealing with some health issues at the time that have since been resolved, but you don't have to go into detail. Basically schools just want to know if they should be concerned about you struggling academically in vet school, which is understandable. As you probably know, vet school and vet med in general often bring out depression and anxiety even in people that didn't have those issues beforehand, so it's smart to have some coping strategies at your disposal. I was asked in a couple of my interviews how I deal with stress. But back to your question, I definitely wouldn't draw attention to your low grades if they don't ask about them. Many schools are doing closed-file interviews now (MMI or behavioral), so in that case there wouldn't be questions about anything from your application.

Thank you! They're not going to ask me to go into detail, or think it's a red flag that I'm not going into detail voluntarily, right?
I took a gap year or so off partly because I wanted to focus on my mental health and learn better coping strategies. It seems to have been sort of successful actually...
On the plus side, I now have experience working through/dealing with depression if it pops up again.

I'm acutely aware of mental health / vet school so I'm trying to be as proactive as possible; I'll likely find a therapist in the area as soon as humanly possible lol. Luckily, working in the veterinary field for years has shown me that it's actually therapeutic for me relative to everything else. :rolleyes: (that's a first, huh?)
 
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Thank you! They're not going to ask me to go into detail, or think it's a red flag that I'm not going into detail voluntarily, right?
I don't think they could legally ask that you go into detail, but I'm not 100% sure!
 
Hey all,

I was wondering if anyone could give me advice.
I have a bunch of interviews coming up in the next few months. It seems schools are interested in me.
I have a handful of poor grades (C range and below) in prerequisites. Some of them are as recent as can be; some are not. There is no upward trend to speak of, although I did retake the worst classes.
The rest of my application does not worry me.

I had depression and have been in therapy/on medication for years. I'm doing better now.
This is the reason for all of my poor grades, although there are concurrent medical issues that correspond with the very worst grades. I've read through many threads on SDN about this topic; the general consensus is not to mention mental health at all, or risk jeopardizing your application, even if there's a positive ending.

So now I have a bunch of ugly-looking grades with no explanation -- how do I approach this? Obviously I won't lie but what should I emphasize to fill in the gaps? The ol' should have studied more? What's your opinion on this?

Don't have time to read other replies, so I might just be repeating...

But what I encourage people to do in this situation is be very honest, but make sure that if you talk about it with them (let them bring it up) you spend 1/4th of your time talking about the 'difficulty' itself (depression) and 3/4th of the time talking about your successful management of it (seeking treatment, utilizing medical management, improving).

The goal is to acknowledge the problem, but focus on your successful management of it.

I do not think it is good advice to hide it. Two reasons: First off, focusing on successful management allows them to see that hey, this candidate had a pretty big struggle, and managed it well. Second, as someone who does vet school interviews, it is trivial to tell when a candidate is ducking a question or lying or omitting important information. You might be able to pull it off, but more likely you'll leave them thinking "ok.... what were they hiding and why?" and that won't help your case. That said, I would not bring it up unless they do.
 
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Hey @fve17! I can’t speak for all schools, but I think I saw you posting about getting an interview in the Ohio State thread. If it comes up, definitely don’t feel the need to lie about it or make excuses about it at your OSU interview (and I imagine many other places too...mental health in vet med is a huge topic right now). They take mental health sooooo seriously here and it’s not a taboo topic. If anything, most people would look at you in a positive light for overcoming what you have:) That said, there’s a very good chance that those grades won’t even come up.

Getting interviews is awesome. Schools are definitely interested. Don’t waste any bit of time thinking/focusing on what your lacking. No one is perfect. We all have our weaknesses. Just show all those schools how awesome you are! Good luck!
 
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Like LIS said, focusing on your successful management of what you've dealt with is a great idea.

When I interviewed at OSU I spoke about a serious physical health issue that I've dealt with for almost a decade and how it's affected me mentally and physically, as well as how dealing with it has put things into perspective and has made me a better person for it. I felt like it was a great opportunity to incorporate some of my actual self which is sometimes hard to do from a lot of the generic interview questions, so be honest and I'm sure you'll do fantastic.
 
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At my Ohio State interview I mildly panicked when they asked about a difficult time I experienced and how I dealt with it. I brought up my brother committing suicide and depression and struggles my family and I had afterwords. But more importantly talked about coping skills and how it made us stronger. There were positive comments about it in my interview evaluation :)
 
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Vet school is hard as all get out. If it comes up, I don't think it would be to your detriment at all to acknowledge that you have already been through things that are hard as all get out and came out successfully on the other side.

As others have noted, just be sure to clearly communicate and emphasize how you successfully managed those challenges and continue to do so.
 
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Don't have time to read other replies, so I might just be repeating...

But what I encourage people to do in this situation is be very honest, but make sure that if you talk about it with them (let them bring it up) you spend 1/4th of your time talking about the 'difficulty' itself (depression) and 3/4th of the time talking about your successful management of it (seeking treatment, utilizing medical management, improving).

The goal is to acknowledge the problem, but focus on your successful management of it.

I do not think it is good advice to hide it. Two reasons: First off, focusing on successful management allows them to see that hey, this candidate had a pretty big struggle, and managed it well. Second, as someone who does vet school interviews, it is trivial to tell when a candidate is ducking a question or lying or omitting important information. You might be able to pull it off, but more likely you'll leave them thinking "ok.... what were they hiding and why?" and that won't help your case. That said, I would not bring it up unless they do.

Hey LetItSnow,

Thank you very much for your advice. It's especially helpful for me to find out how easily interviewers will be able to tell that I'm avoiding something. I should probably try harder to be more open about my experience -- it's not like I murdered someone or something! I just had depression and got better.
 
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Hey @fve17! I can’t speak for all schools, but I think I saw you posting about getting an interview in the Ohio State thread. If it comes up, definitely don’t feel the need to lie about it or make excuses about it at your OSU interview (and I imagine many other places too...mental health in vet med is a huge topic right now). They take mental health sooooo seriously here and it’s not a taboo topic. If anything, most people would look at you in a positive light for overcoming what you have:) That said, there’s a very good chance that those grades won’t even come up.

Getting interviews is awesome. Schools are definitely interested. Don’t waste any bit of time thinking/focusing on what your lacking. No one is perfect. We all have our weaknesses. Just show all those schools how awesome you are! Good luck!

Thank you so much for your support. :love: I'm aware of many veterinarians speaking up/writing about mental health these days -- especially with the high-profile suicides in our field recently. It's great to know that the change is being reflected in veterinary schools and their admissions processes too! From browsing pre-med threads on this topic and speaking with friends in medical school, it seems they're much less open/accepting of mental health issues.
 
Thank you so much for your support. :love: I'm aware of many veterinarians speaking up/writing about mental health these days -- especially with the high-profile suicides in our field recently. It's great to know that the change is being reflected in veterinary schools and their admissions processes too! From browsing pre-med threads on this topic and speaking with friends in medical school, it seems they're much less open/accepting of mental health issues.

Absolutely. Interviewing is stressful, I totally get it. Try to enjoy it, it can actually be really fun! OSU has a full-time counselor just for the vet school (who is genuinely one of the nicest/friendliest people ever) for those very reasons. Your past challenges aren’t something to hide out of fear or lie about, they’ve made you stronger in the long run I’m sure.
 
Hey all,

I was wondering if anyone could give me advice.
I have a bunch of interviews coming up in the next few months. It seems schools are interested in me.
I have a handful of poor grades (C range and below) in prerequisites. Some of them are as recent as can be; some are not. There is no upward trend to speak of, although I did retake the worst classes.
The rest of my application does not worry me.

I had depression and have been in therapy/on medication for years. I'm doing better now.
This is the reason for all of my poor grades, although there are concurrent medical issues that correspond with the very worst grades. I've read through many threads on SDN about this topic; the general consensus is not to mention mental health at all, or risk jeopardizing your application, even if there's a positive ending.

So now I have a bunch of ugly-looking grades with no explanation -- how do I approach this? Obviously I won't lie but what should I emphasize to fill in the gaps? The ol' should have studied more? What's your opinion on this?
From my own personal experience: own it without any doubts or self consciousness. I was (and am) fairly open about my own mental health issues in applications, when talking to administrators/professors/classmates, and when talking to pre-vets looking to apply. It's your own choice what and how much you do share, but there is absolutely nothing wrong with having had a problem before, especially if you have taken steps to treat it healthily. Mental health issues are extremely common in veterinary students and in the profession as a whole - any school looking to mark students down simply for having experienced mental health problems in the past is at best short sighted and at worst tackling this issue from the completely wrong direction.
Absolutely. Interviewing is stressful, I totally get it. Try to enjoy it, it can actually be really fun! OSU has a full-time counselor just for the vet school (who is genuinely one of the nicest/friendliest people ever) for those very reasons. Your past challenges aren’t something to hide out of fear or lie about, they’ve made you stronger in the long run I’m sure.
CSU also has a full time counselor who only works with vet students and our employees (interns/residents/etc.). :)
 
OSU's is sadly not for interns/residents :(
You know, now that you say that I'm slightly less confident that she does see interns/residents. I thought she did but I don't remember for sure and can't find anything very specific about it online. Maybe I should email her and double check lol
 
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