One bad semester explanation

[sena]

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Looking through the searches, I see a lot of people looking for explanations to explain a bad semester of grades, when their dad/mom/cat/brother whatever became ill.

I had one semester in my second year that had a 2.78 GPA. Classes were Nutrition, Chem 1110 (for nurses), physiology and it's lab, plus medical terminology. Grades were B, B- C+ and an A respectively. I know it's not "terrible", and my cGPA is around 3.6. I don't have an explanation for why they are as low as they are, other than I decided to have a social life one semester. How much do you think an adcom will focus on this? And if asked, what would you recommend saying rather than "I just didn't care that semester"...

 

[MedPR]

Looking through the searches, I see a lot of people looking for explanations to explain a bad semester of grades, when their dad/mom/cat/brother whatever became ill.

I had one semester in my second year that had a 2.78 GPA. Classes were Nutrition, Chem 1110 (for nurses), physiology and it's lab, plus medical terminology. Grades were B, B- C+ and an A respectively. I know it's not "terrible", and my cGPA is around 3.6. I don't have an explanation for why they are as low as they are, other than I decided to have a social life one semester. How much do you think an adcom will focus on this? And if asked, what would you recommend saying rather than "I just didn't care that semester"...

Don't kid yourself, that is a terrible semester especially because you were taking such a light load and you did poorly in chem and physio.

You can tell them that you partied too much and then learned your lesson and did better the next semester. It won't be the first or last time someone gets in even though they messed up once.

 

[abolt18]

Don't kid yourself, that is a terrible semester especially because you were taking such a light load and you did poorly in chem and physio.

You can tell them that you partied too much and then learned your lesson and did better the next semester. It won't be the first or last time someone gets in even though they messed up once.

+1 My whole first year of school was a crapshoot and I've had to explain it in every interview (2.19 GPA at the end of it). I explained that I didn't know what I wanted to do and had no goals etc. So far I've been accepted to my first two schools I interviewed at and waiting to hear from the third. If they see that you did poorly but not recently, I don't think it's a big deal as long as you can tell them "I sucked, I know it, I got my act together and improved"

 

[HalfListic]

Looking through the searches, I see a lot of people looking for explanations to explain a bad semester of grades, when their dad/mom/cat/brother whatever became ill.

I had one semester in my second year that had a 2.78 GPA. Classes were Nutrition, Chem 1110 (for nurses), physiology and it's lab, plus medical terminology. Grades were B, B- C+ and an A respectively. I know it's not "terrible", and my cGPA is around 3.6. I don't have an explanation for why they are as low as they are, other than I decided to have a social life one semester. How much do you think an adcom will focus on this? And if asked, what would you recommend saying rather than "I just didn't care that semester"...

Having one semester like this will likely not even come up in most interviews.

Rather than saying you 'partied', I'd probably call it a moment where you were caught off guard, had unbalanced work schedule, or something else along those lines. Then *be sure to briefly say how this experience helped you to become a more organized, student and person.


This should all be very brief...they will follow up if they want to.

 

[Goro]

I'm a firm believer in that if you make mistakes, you own up to them. We expect people who want to go to medical school to be able to walk and chew gum at the same time. This means that we expect you to be able to do well in college AND have a life as well.

So blowing off your responsibilties will not come across well. If you answer like you do below, you may very well get low wait listed. We get plenty of people who have better reasons for a single bad semester, so why should we accept you?

Thus, my advice is to put some better "spin"on your answer.

Looking through the searches, I see a lot of people looking for explanations to explain a bad semester of grades, when their dad/mom/cat/brother whatever became ill.

I had one semester in my second year that had a 2.78 GPA. Classes were Nutrition, Chem 1110 (for nurses), physiology and it's lab, plus medical terminology. Grades were B, B- C+ and an A respectively. I know it's not "terrible", and my cGPA is around 3.6. I don't have an explanation for why they are as low as they are, other than I decided to have a social life one semester. How much do you think an adcom will focus on this? And if asked, what would you recommend saying rather than "I just didn't care that semester"...

 

[Elevencents]

Don't kid yourself, that is a terrible semester especially because you were taking such a light load and you did poorly in chem and physio.
.

Terrible? Quite the exaggeration.

I doubt you'll even be asked to explain yourself. Most of us have dips and valleys on our transcripts. Except for maybe Mr. Don't kid yourself. I wouldn't fret.

 

[MedPR]

Terrible? Quite the exaggeration.

I doubt you'll even be asked to explain yourself. Most of us have dips and valleys on our transcripts. Except for maybe Mr. Don't kid yourself. I wouldn't fret.

You don't think a 2.78 is terrible?

Sent from my SGH-T999 using SDN Mobile

 

[abolt18]

You don't think a 2.78 is terrible?

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I'd call that bad. I'd call my first year terrible/awful.

 

[jitothe10]

I had two years that were miserable. I struggled to do well. I made up with a good résumé, good mcat, and improvement. I was only asked at one of six schools where I interviewed about my grades.

In that ii, the question was phrased as "please explain the discrepancy between your gpa and mcat."

 

[deleted357625]

They want the truth. Just say it. You're young, you fixed the problem. They'll understand.

 

[corpsman33]

You don't think a 2.78 is terrible?

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2.78 is not terrible when you are speaking in terms of your worst semester of your college career and you still have a 3.6 cumulative GPA.

I had a 1.0 for my entire first year (granted it was 14 years ago, and I didn't go to school the entire year except for finals). I had no problem getting interviews and acceptances. A 2.78 should be a cake walk, depending upon his explanation should they ask him.

 

[MedPR]

2.78 is not terrible when you are speaking in terms of your worst semester of your college career and you still have a 3.6 cumulative GPA.

I had a 1.0 for my entire first year (granted it was 14 years ago, and I didn't go to school the entire year except for finals). I had no problem getting interviews and acceptances. A 2.78 should be a cake walk, depending upon his explanation should they ask him.

Personal standards for myself: <3.50 disappointing <3.00 terrible. <2.00 embarrassing.

 

[Iheartnachos]

You can tell them that you partied too much and then learned your lesson and did better the next semester. It won't be the first or last time someone gets in even though they messed up once.

+1 for this, as long as its an experience you learned from (i.e. you grades improved). Whatever you tell them, don't make excuses. Own up to your mistakes.

 

[Mehd School]

Personal standards for myself: <3.50 disappointing <3.00 terrible. <2.00 embarrassing.

This is somewhat accurate for me as well.

However, since I've been stung by the 4.0 bug, anything less than all A's sucks a little bit. I've yet to take a class that I know I can't get an A in, so I'm sure that would be a different scenario.

 

[apt22]

I wish I only had one bad semester. mine is 5 semesters. Partied too much and didn't know what direction I was going or what I wanted do since I had family pushing me in all different directions. I got my crap together this semester and will be retaking every class I can. I will not settle for anything less than an A. People make mistakes. No one is perfect. just give them an honest explanation.

 

[RosettaStoned]

Personal standards for myself: <3.50 disappointing <3.00 terrible. <2.00 embarrassing.

That's exciting.

 

[IslandStyle808]

This is somewhat accurate for me as well.

However, since I've been stung by the 4.0 bug, anything less than all A's sucks a little bit. I've yet to take a class that I know I can't get an A in, so I'm sure that would be a different scenario.

Wait if I remember right you were getting Bs on your biochem exams and it seems like you were giving it your all too. You think you could have done something different if you knew about the class structure before hand?

Sorry I don't mean to put you down or anything. I am just wondering how you feel you could have changed your grade to an A. I too am curious about those come back stories that everyone has (maybe I can learn a new study technique or something).

 

[coolingglasses]

Tell the truth. Although if you partied too hard, I'd find a neater way to phrase it.

I had two atrocious years to explain for, I was honest and told them I had no direction or any idea what I really wanted to do with my life.

 

[Mehd School]

Wait if I remember right you were getting Bs on your biochem exams and it seems like you were giving it your all too. You think you could have done something different if you knew about the class structure before hand?

Sorry I don't mean to put you down or anything. I am just wondering how you feel you could have changed your grade to an A. I too am curious about those come back stories that everyone has (maybe I can learn a new study technique or something).

I meant to say that I haven't taken a class where I knew going in that an A was out of the question. Those classes certainly exist at my university, and I have avoided them.

I thought an A was possible in Biochem. It was, I guess. I'm just not sure how I could have prepared any differently.

 

[IslandStyle808]

I meant to say that I haven't taken a class where I knew going in that an A was out of the question. Those classes certainly exist at my university, and I have avoided them.

I thought an A was possible in Biochem. It was, I guess. I'm just not sure how I could have prepared any differently.

I see... I know what you mean and I too try to avoid those classes. I usually try to get the syllabus of the class beforehand (meaning previous semester) from the professor. This helps me figure out if the classes are doable.

 

[Dreamstoo]

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