Personal statement: mitigating factors for poor GPA

[legobikes]

---

Members do not see this ad.

All the courses that I've gotten less than a B in have one thing in common: they were morning classes. Unforunately they include ochem. Yeah, you get the picture. Is there any way I can explain this without sounding like the total idiot that I was to not have the willpower to get out of bed early in the morning?

I've changed myself now, but I don't know how to SHOW this instead of just SAYING it. The fact that I had to get up early every day I was doing a volunteer thing might help, but there's got to be a creative way to look at things more positively and to show how I've overcome the affliction of slackerness. I'm just not sure how.

 

[Law2Doc]

All the courses that I've gotten less than a B in have one thing in common: they were morning classes. Unforunately they include ochem. Yeah, you get the picture. Is there any way I can explain this without sounding like the total idiot that I was to not have the willpower to get out of bed early in the morning?

I've changed myself now, but I don't know how to SHOW this instead of just SAYING it. The fact that I had to get up early every day I was doing a volunteer thing might help, but there's got to be a creative way to look at things more positively and to show how I've overcome the affliction of slackerness. I'm just not sure how.

Medicine is an early morning profession. Your med school classes may well start at 8 am. When you get further along, you will find that rounds and meetings may be an hour earlier than that. If you go into surgery, morning will start even earlier. So, no, you absolutely don't want to suggest that mornings have anything to do with you not operating at 100% brainpower.

 

[fyi411]

All the courses that I've gotten less than a B in have one thing in common: they were morning classes. Unforunately they include ochem. Yeah, you get the picture. Is there any way I can explain this without sounding like the total idiot that I was to not have the willpower to get out of bed early in the morning?

I've changed myself now, but I don't know how to SHOW this instead of just SAYING it. The fact that I had to get up early every day I was doing a volunteer thing might help, but there's got to be a creative way to look at things more positively and to show how I've overcome the affliction of slackerness. I'm just not sure how.

Honesty is the best policy

 

[legobikes]

Medicine is an early morning profession. Your med school classes may well start at 8 am. When you get further along, you will find that rounds and meetings may be an hour earlier than that. If you go into surgery, morning will start even earlier. So, no, you absolutely don't want to suggest that mornings have anything to do with you not operating at 100% brainpower.

It's not that I couldn't function properly; its that I failed to attend class. I was lazy, not stupid. Well, I was stupid for being lazy.

I am not asking how to LIE on my personal statement, I'm just wondering if there's a better way to explain exactly what was going on, specially since I have changed my habits and do not do this anymore.

 

[Schaden Freud]

Actually, early morning classes ARE unfair, as sleep cycles are now becoming better understood. In puberty, the normal sleep pattern is to go to bed late and wake up late. In adulthood, go to bed early and wake up early. The very rapid transition between these two disparate tendencies has been argued by some to be telltale sign of the end of puberty. So... if someone makes the jump before they take OChem, they'll have no problems getting out of bed in the morning and will easily ace it. Their slightly less mature roommate will sleep their way to a C.
I have sadly experienced this myself. These days, I WISH I could sleep past 9 AM on a Saturday. Four years ago, getting up for class was like waking the dead.... and I have the GPA to show for it.

All the courses that I've gotten less than a B in have one thing in common: they were morning classes. Unforunately they include ochem. Yeah, you get the picture. Is there any way I can explain this without sounding like the total idiot that I was to not have the willpower to get out of bed early in the morning?

I've changed myself now, but I don't know how to SHOW this instead of just SAYING it. The fact that I had to get up early every day I was doing a volunteer thing might help, but there's got to be a creative way to look at things more positively and to show how I've overcome the affliction of slackerness. I'm just not sure how.

 

[ParvatiP]

Well, although this may be the reason for your poor grades, I would advise against explicitly stating it in your PS...

 

[legobikes]

scheudenfreud: yes, exactly like waking from death. it killed.

Well, although this may be the reason for your poor grades, I would advise against explicitly stating it in your PS...

sigh.

 

[Duchess742]

i can't help feeling like this is an excuse. if you really knew the material, you wouldn't have had to go to class anyway 😉

 

[BigKurz]

"Changed" or not, I strongly recommend you don't mention morning classes as the reason for your poor performance; furthermore, if you truly feel that you are justified in making this claim, you may want to reevaluate how you view yourself.

Try describing your situation in other words and you see how useless the excuse is: "I didn't do well because I didn't care enough about class to wake up," or "Of course I did bad...I didn't go to class!" Those responses are on par with "I didn't feel like reading the textbook," or "How can I do well in a class when I don't study?"

I'm sorry if I come off harsh here, but this "excuse" just seems absurd."Mitigating factors" are illness, death in the family, etc--not temporary lapses of willpower.

 

[Oculus Sinistra]

i can't help feeling like this is an excuse. if you really knew the material, you wouldn't have had to go to class anyway 😉

There might have been pop quizzes/mandatory attendance that affected the course grade. Who knows. I just finished a class like that over the summer... Bio quizzes at 8 am on the dot... not as bad as I thought it would be now that I go to bed at a reasonable time (11ish).

My personal opinion:
You probably shouldn't explain it in your PS because your PS is, as I understand it, about you parading your accomplishments as well as giving the adcoms a sense of you as a person and as an applicant. Therefore, it's probably best not to rain on your own parade.

If it came up in the interview, absolutely discuss it as a past/present comparison and emphasize how you've changed. That's all you can do.

 

[legobikes]

^^ I think thats a good idea.

"Changed" or not, I strongly recommend you don't mention morning classes as the reason for your poor performance; furthermore, if you truly feel that you are justified in making this claim, you may want to reevaluate how you view yourself.

Try describing your situation in other words and you see how useless the excuse is: "I didn't do well because I didn't care enough about class to wake up," or "Of course I did bad...I didn't go to class!" Those responses are on par with "I didn't feel like reading the textbook," or "How can I do well in a class when I don't study?"

I'm sorry if I come off harsh here, but this "excuse" just seems absurd."Mitigating factors" are illness, death in the family, etc--not temporary lapses of willpower.

I think you have the right of it. It really was a lack of willpower.


BUT SERIOUSLY, for me, waking up in the morning was worse than anything, once upon a time.

 

[nekrogg]

i wouldnt put anything negative on your personal statement. its about why you want to be a doctor, not about why you got a gpa. if they ask you on the interviews, be prepared. if not, you slipped right under the radar

 

[kevster2001]

I'd avoid that all together. ANd doesn't the PS ask for why you want to enter medical school? mentioning you are lazy is not a good reason

 

[Summer Sweet]

Actually, early morning classes ARE unfair, as sleep cycles are now becoming better understood. In puberty, the normal sleep pattern is to go to bed late and wake up late. In adulthood, go to bed early and wake up early. The very rapid transition between these two disparate tendencies has been argued by some to be telltale sign of the end of puberty. So... if someone makes the jump before they take OChem, they'll have no problems getting out of bed in the morning and will easily ace it. Their slightly less mature roommate will sleep their way to a C.
I have sadly experienced this myself. These days, I WISH I could sleep past 9 AM on a Saturday. Four years ago, getting up for class was like waking the dead.... and I have the GPA to show for it.

Ugh, if this is true, then I hope I get out of this phase quickly. I have no problem staying up past 3 am (in fact, I'm most productive after midnight), but I can't seem to wake up early enough for that 9 am class. Which, unfortunately, is O-Chem this quarter. I'm trying to fix my sleep schedule, but it's a challenge!