One bad quarter/semester

[thedelicatessen]

Do you think it would hurt chances at med school admissions if I had one bad quarter in the middle (3rd year) of my college career? My cum and BCPM GPAs are still above average. I took all my biology electives in one quarter and happened to choose significantly difficult ones. If the rest of my transcript is much better, do you think I'll still have to explain myself?

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[nekrogg]

Do you think it would hurt chances at med school admissions if I had one bad quarter in the middle (3rd year) of my college career? My cum and BCPM GPAs are still above average. I took all my biology electives in one quarter and happened to choose significantly difficult ones. If the rest of my transcript is much better, do you think I'll still have to explain myself?

if its a B no, if its a C yes

i have heard people getting asked about Cs on their transcript.. it may also help if you give us the specific numbers that you recieved

 

[jebus]

I suspect it will help if you have a compelling reason. "I spent too much time volunteering at the soup kitchen" will sound much better than "dude, my roommate scored a qp of some killer dank the first week of the semester and then we decided to make a habit of sparking up before and after every meal all semester long." Of course, with the munchies, we only increased the frequency of meals, and....

 

[Chris127]

I have heard that not so great grades are forgivable your freshman year, AS LONG as you show an upward, consistent, positive trend.

 

[nekrogg]

I suspect it will help if you have a compelling reason. "I spent too much time volunteering at the soup kitchen" will sound much better than "dude, my roommate scored a qp of some killer dank the first week of the semester and then we decided to make a habit of sparking up before and after every meal all semester long." Of course, with the munchies, we only increased the frequency of meals, and....

 

[deleted50541]

I failed an entire semester (illness) and it hasn't stopped me from getting a truckload of interviews. Of course, I had to work my butt off to make up for it too.

 

[BubbleHead]

Why there is a "W" on your transcript.
Why your GPA dropped one semester.
How you overcame a bad semester and rocked the MCAT through 2 hours of religous prep daily.
How you needed to work 40 hrs/wk one semester and take a lighter load.

I don't care if you say...

I was sick all semester
I had a family emergency
I had a family death
I actually died during the middle of my 3rd year, missed all the finals, but then came back to life and spent the summer in Europe.

You better not even think about not telling me what was going on, don't think we'll miss that little issue or overlook that "W" or that "C" or even a "B" when all your other sciences are "A" marks. If you pretend it doesn't exist, then I'll think you will pretend a disease process doesn't exist or you won't want to address something with your patient when it is unfavorable or makes you uncomfortable. I'll $hit-can you application so fast I might get a paper cut.

 

[PhillyEaglesFan]

My fall semester junior year: Organic I, C; Cell Bio C+

However, I got an A in Organic II, and above B+ on remaining Bio classes. A few C's will not keep you out of med school; however, be sure to rebound strongly.

 

[Zoom-Zoom]

Why there is a "W" on your transcript.
Why your GPA dropped one semester.
How you overcame a bad semester and rocked the MCAT through 2 hours of religous prep daily.
How you needed to work 40 hrs/wk one semester and take a lighter load.

I don't care if you say...

I was sick all semester
I had a family emergency
I had a family death
I actually died during the middle of my 3rd year, missed all the finals, but then came back to life and spent the summer in Europe.

You better not even think about not telling me what was going on, don't think we'll miss that little issue or overlook that "W" or that "C" or even a "B" when all your other sciences are "A" marks. If you pretend it doesn't exist, then I'll think you will pretend a disease process doesn't exist or you won't want to address something with your patient when it is unfavorable or makes you uncomfortable. I'll $hit-can you application so fast I might get a paper cut.

I have been told by some former adcom members that while adressing a significant drop in grades is definitely a must, pointing out things that might have otherwise been overlooked can be a detriment...so it is tricky. I understand why some adcomms would prefer to have everything out on the table though.

 

[deleted50541]

You better not even think about not telling me what was going on, don't think we'll miss that little issue or overlook that "W" or that "C" or even a "B" when all your other sciences are "A" marks. If you pretend it doesn't exist, then I'll think you will pretend a disease process doesn't exist or you won't want to address something with your patient when it is unfavorable or makes you uncomfortable. I'll $hit-can you application so fast I might get a paper cut.

I never made any attempts in my interviews to circumvent explaining the glaring blotch on my record. The issue only came up in two of my interviews, however. I guess the others felt that I adequately explained what happened in my personal statement.