Poor previous grade. Very poor.

ohiowannabedoc · May 14, 2014

After being rejected from every medical school this past cycle, I'm still going to attempt (even more rigorously) to get into an osteopathic school next fall. However, I am extremely concerned with previous grades. I attended school "A" for three years before transferring to school "B" for two years to obtain my B.S. in Chemistry. At school "A" I received an F in an upper level inorganic chemistry course. However, at school "B", I retook the equivalent course (it was actually 400 level at school "B" and 300 level at school "A") and received an A. The problem here is that even though I took an equivalent course at school "B" and received an A in the class, it cannot replace the F that I obtained at school "A". So, in summary, the F obtained from school "A" will be part of the transcript I send to AACOMAS and will obviously hinder my GPA but so will the A that I received from school "B" (from a different transcript of course). Would it be necessary to cover this in my personal statement for the next application cycle? Are there any solutions to this problem? It should be noted that the F I received originally occurred during a rough personal period in my life and I turned a new leaf at school "B" earning multiple awards from the chemistry department and maintaining a 3.5 GPA. I am just concerned this one F I obtained will haunt me forever. Any advice????

chizledfrmstone · May 14, 2014

AACOMAS will replace the grade if they were the same.

The latest grade counts.

The F in a pre-req looks a bit bad but at least you got an A on the retake!

ohiowannabedoc · May 15, 2014

They were different courses. Both were advanced inorganic chemistry but at school "A" it was Chem 376 and at school "B" it was Chem 425. They are equivalent courses but not the same exact course so I don't know if a grade replacement will occur. BTW, advanced inorganic does not fall under the pre-req courses. I know you have the option on AACOMAS to select "retake" and "final retake" and that only the "final retake" option for that course will appear on the application. However, these courses are from different schools which doesn't allow me to use the "final retake" and associate the two courses together because they are from different schools. Do you understand my conundrum? Thanks for your input!!

polylux · May 15, 2014

No, I don't understand. Your posts are incredibly hard to read through.

Regardless of where you took the course, only the last retake will be counted as long as the course name is almost the same and the second course has an equal or greater number of credits earned than the original failed course.

So if at school 1, you took chem 101 gen chem and got a F, that F would be replaced by a retake of that course. If you go to school 2 and took chem 201 gen chem and got an A, it will count for the retake. Obviously not every school has the same numbering system, so the same course may have different numbers or slightly different names between schools, but if they are equivalent in credits it will count for the retake.

Awesome Sauceome · May 15, 2014

Does not matter what the name is. If its essentially the same course and you designate it as a retake, they will say its a retake. It happens all the time that it is a different numbered course or slightly different name

Also, so long as your gpa is good (which 3.5 is good) and you did decent in all of the prerequisite courses then you will be fine.

Its not the F that is keeping you out, its MD schools... A 3.5 is not a good gpa for MD. But for DO you are set to go so long as your MCAT is decent too

Sent from my RM-917_nam_usa_100 using Tapatalk

AliciaAccepted · May 16, 2014

ohiowannabedoc said: ↑

After being rejected from every medical school this past cycle, I'm still going to attempt (even more rigorously) to get into an osteopathic school next fall. However, I am extremely concerned with previous grades. I attended school "A" for three years before transferring to school "B" for two years to obtain my B.S. in Chemistry. At school "A" I received an F in an upper level inorganic chemistry course. However, at school "B", I retook the equivalent course (it was actually 400 level at school "B" and 300 level at school "A") and received an A. The problem here is that even though I took an equivalent course at school "B" and received an A in the class, it cannot replace the F that I obtained at school "A". So, in summary, the F obtained from school "A" will be part of the transcript I send to AACOMAS and will obviously hinder my GPA but so will the A that I received from school "B" (from a different transcript of course). Would it be necessary to cover this in my personal statement for the next application cycle? Are there any solutions to this problem? It should be noted that the F I received originally occurred during a rough personal period in my life and I turned a new leaf at school "B" earning multiple awards from the chemistry department and maintaining a 3.5 GPA. I am just concerned this one F I obtained will haunt me forever. Any advice????
Click to expand...

One grade will not hold you back as long as you provide a clear explanation in your personal statement about what was going on in your life at the time and how you improved. I recommend that you include an academic paragraph that focuses on your grades and how you became a stellar student, earning awards, etc. Start with the rocky grade and end on a high note. It's important to reveal the level of your self awareness.

For more information about how to overcome a low MCAT or GPA when applying, see this article. Good luck!

sb247 · May 16, 2014

what's the end results here.... what are your mcat, cgpa and sgpa?

JDMcNugent · May 16, 2014

It doesn't matter when coding R01 and L01 on AACOMAS if they are different schools. Just put R01 for Chem 376 under school "A" and L01 for Chem425 under school "B". AACOMAS will figure it out by looking at the transcripts to verify. I have re-taken several courses as a post-bac at a institution differnent from my undergrad and it works fine.

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Poor previous grade. Very poor.

ohiowannabedoc 2+ Year Member

chizledfrmstone MSIV SDN Moderator 7+ Year Member

ohiowannabedoc 2+ Year Member

polylux 2+ Year Member

Awesome Sauceome SDN Gold Donor Gold Donor 2+ Year Member

AliciaAccepted Exhibitor 2+ Year Member

sb247 wait...you mean I got in? 5+ Year Member

JDMcNugent 2+ Year Member

poor grades....

poor grades

Poor grades = Poor MD?

Poor grade AFTER verification?

Very poor medicine rotation grade, still competitive?

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