After finding out the news last night that AACOMAS will be changing their grading policy, I literally broke down in tears. During the 2012/2013 academic year I went through a divorce that was devastating to me! I was taking Bio and Gen Chem, and failed these classes two semesters in a row. I put a hold on school, and life went on. I got remarried to an amazing women who fully supported me on quieting my high paying job, and pursue my career in medicine. I obtained A's in all of my retakes, and continued to excel in upper-division classes. It wasn't a upward trend it was a completely new life! I have also obtained amazing EC's (easily have volunteered 1000+ hours in the last two years. my wife, and I live for volunteering.) I worked at redoing my grades hoping an MD school would look kindly on my reinvention. Then I found out about grade replacement. I LOVED the idea of reinvention with DO schools. It was symbolic of my life! I found it representative on how life has treated me, and I was honored to be given a chance to prove myself.....
I was crying like a little baby last night when I told my wife that I had let her down. I had felt like all of the hard work SHE put into me was a waste! When she hugged me, and told me she was proud of me, will be a moment I will never forget! After an hour of just sitting there holding each other I was at complete ease! No way in HELL was some stupid organization going to dictate my future. I had Competed against the brightest kids in my school! Scoring in the 90th percentile on the orgo ACS finals.... Publishing a paper within 4 months of research. I have not pushed myself this far, and sacrificed this much to beg LUCOM to take me!!!
I have obtained UW's in all my failed classes, and will petition them to be changed to official W's.... This will raise my my sGPA to 3.2 as it stands. I will continue to kill my science classes (like I always have,) and finish my senior year at a 3.5 sGPA. I will then apply to SMP programs linked to MD programs. I am not completely immature in my writing off of DO programs. I will apply this spring, and see how the established schools approach the policy, but I am not going to beg to be amongst students that were in the middle of my class.
To the IDIOTS that think this policy change is the "move in the right direction"....... Really the one thing that the DO "boss man" could change to increase the communities image of DO schools, and he picked grade replacement!!! F'ing grade replacement!!!!!! NOT RESEARCH, NOT CLINICAL EDUCATION, NOT OMM QUACKERY!!!!! BUT F'ING GRADE REPLACEMENT!!!! slow clap to that ****!
My life has always been the long way round... So why should medicine be any different! Like M. Scott Peck said "One measure - and perhaps the best measure - of a person's greatness in the capacity for suffering."
I can't believe how lucky I am to find out this information the week before my MCAT prep. I have always excelled when my back was against the wall, or when I had to prove myself. A DO bar of 505 did not push me to my true capabilities. During Christmas break I did a diagnostic test and scored 508 without practice... I was about to spend the next four months pissing my potential away! Now I can push myself to the extreme! If anything I'm blessed for this challenge of personal growth!