Should I Address This In My Personal Statement?

[DcK]

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Any and all advice greatly appreciated.

My BS in Biology, graduating in 1995, has all pre-reqs required, with 3.61 cumm GPA (I'm concerned because some of my earlier pre-reqs date back to completion upon 03-1993. In Texas, there's a 10 year rule, but I'm not sure if it's the time the course ends, or the degree.)

I'm taking the MCAT this August.

I have my DC (Doctorate of Chiropractic) whereby I graduated in 2000, cumm GPA of 2.4.

Questions:

1. Should I address my low GPA of DC school within my personal statement?

If I DO, then I run this risk of drawing more attention to it. The Adcom's may not even care about this (b/c the standards or soooo different from school to school, they're seen as academic islands, no med school will accept the courses as transfer anyway, etc.)?

If I DON'T, they may not invite me in for an interview because they think I can't handle the cirriculum. (In reality, it's so low b/c I quit DC school half way. The school was bordering on ethical violations IMO and I realized I'd made a HUGE personal mistake in going the DC route. I only went back to finish on principle, and just did the bare minimum necessary to finish, GPA wise).

Thanks very much, DcK

 

[DrMom]

Hard call. Since you had concerns about the school itself, you may want to address it. I think that you should touch on the subject when explaining why you are wanting to become a DO now.

 

[paramed2premed]

Well, what does the rest of your life look like? I imagine that are many elements in your application that you have not mentioned: ECs, LORs, work experience, exposure to medicine.

I flunked/dropped out of a master's of mathematics program. Seven years later I got interviews at two allo schools, and not shabby ones either. (We'll see if I get off the WLs!) Those schools did not seem too concerned with my math school foible, as I had a mass of evidence of my commitment to medicine to point to and discuss.

Try to put your DC near-miss in perspective, as the ad-coms probably will do. Emphasize that which defines you now. In that context, an explanation of the DC thing could only take a line or two.

Don't let that that one episode define your too-short personal statement!

Good luck.

 

[Rev. Horace]

I agree with paramed. If you're that worried about it address it, but don't spend a whole lot of time on it. If they're still concerned with it, it'll come up in your interview and you'll have a chance to explain it more in depth. I wouldn't worry too much about it though. 😉

 

[DcK]

Thanks everyone. I appreciate it, there seems to be some hope.

I think I'll just write a one-line sentence addressing why I decided during chiropractic school that it wasn't right for me. Then, just move on to all my experiences and how I desire to move from limited musculoskeletal to a incorporation of all medicine has to offer in order to help and treat patients.

DcK

 

[irish79]

DcK, I think that sounds good. I wouldn't go into too much detail (unless they ask) and I would be sure to stay positive. I think it would look bad if you started bashing the school or used excuses as to why you did poorly.

 

[Stillfocused]

For the 2003 application, there are questions on the AACOMAS about professional school grades and DC school grades in particular.

I guess that the answer to this question depends on the reason why you DC grades were low. If you were facing a huge family/personal crisis has it resolved? Or, was it something about the DC classes that you has trouble with, there is a lot of overlap between the two curriculums. For example, if you had real trouble with gross in DC school what has changed so that you can learn it better now?

Also, I would recommend against disparaging your profession in any from - it looks really bad - be proud of your accomplishments and accentuate the positive...........

That said, the AACOM personal state is really short. If you use words longer than a syllable you'll see that 500 word limit shrink quickly. I think that you need one, maybe two, sentences that directly address this question.

Best wishes

 

[DcK]

Irish, I understand your point, well received.

Atty, I'm not sure yet, I guess I may know more shortely when the May 1 gets here.. if your correct, that may be a lifesaver.

Stillfocused,
I'll explain here why I choose not to excel academically, yet I'd never really have enough room to explain this to the schools in 500 words, nor would I want to make this the focus of the essay.

That being said, here's MY PERSONAL take on DC GPA's and how they are truely meaningless:

-1. During chiropractic orientation, the advisor explain to us in length how the most important thing is NOT to focus on grades, but to focus on completion and future practice.
-2. Many faculty reinforced this fact that grades in chiropractic school was not very relavent, due in part, because of so many credit hours taken each semester, and most important was to get through the program.
-3. Every upper level student that came to our classes to answer question and give advice simply stated, "grades don't matter."
-4. One of our school instructors would commonly brag in class about how low his GPA was in chiropractic school and then talk about how successful he was in practice.
-5. There are little to no postgraduate degrees available, none of which are competitive or base admission upon GPA.
grades are not required for any postgraduate DC work,
-6. DC's have no residency placement, thus, no GPA's required for placement,
-7. No hiring field DC ever request or concerns themselves with GPA,
-8. Almost any chiropractic student who passes their classes will have no problem passing chiropractic national boards,
-9. There's no universal standard between chiropractic schools, some have PhD's would make the courses very difficult, while others have mostly DC's who's courses are easy. Thus, no consistency of GPA's between schools, a 4.0 at school A could be equivalent to a 2.5 at school B.
-10. I finally realized that I made a mistake enrolling in chiropractic school, I even quit for a semester, and only returned to finish the school as a matter of principle of finishing what I started. Needless to say, while finishing the school, I had no desire to do more than "finish."

I also had many personal problems in DC school, mostly ethical, such as: --Recommending routine and frequent care for non-symptomatic patients,
--Routine & frequent care for people who have complete and otherwise normal functions,
--I personally believe that no two DC's can agree on the philosophical construct of the elusive and non-existant "subluxation" which our school based it's whole ciriculum around,
--I thought it was highly inappropriate for the school to require the student to solicit and "reqruit" their own patients,
--The clinic director advised me to go door to door as a "community outreach" and solicit for new patients, and to also reqruit my family and friends to come in for x-rays, exams, and care WITHOUT the need (this meeting is what the straw that broke my back, & I left the school),
--This system of all the students paying an EXTREMELY high tuition and then then on top of that required to bring in Dozens of new patients, fulfilling hundrends of treatments on patients who may not need them, is a self-ish, unethical system setup by the school to further increase revenue.

I could continue and write a book on this subject. Yet, I'll just leave it at that above. Needless to say, I felt the ethics of chiropractic and my school was in dire need of reform. (Please, no DC's getting on here and telling me how wrong I am. I speak the facts AS I EXPERIENCED them from my frame of view.)

DcK

PS) Again, this is NOT going to be the focus of my personal statement. 😀

 

[rbassdo]

Questions for Dck,

After going to school for 8 years post HS, while also having a terminal degree (DC) that would allow you to make a good living, why do you want to subject yourself to a minimum of 7 years of further educational training? Why didn't you go to med. school in the first place? I'm just curious. How long have you been practicing Chiropractics, if at all? Did you go to chiropractic school with the intention of applying to med school later on? If so...wow!

Thanks,

Ryan

 

[DcK]

Originally posted by rbassdo
Questions for Dck,

After going to school for 8 years post HS, while also having a terminal degree (DC) that would allow you to make a good living, why do you want to subject yourself to a minimum of 7 years of further educational training? Why didn't you go to med. school in the first place? I'm just curious. How long have you been practicing Chiropractics, if at all? Did you go to chiropractic school with the intention of applying to med school later on? If so...wow!

Thanks,

Ryan

Ryan,

I want to subject myself to another 7 years of training because it's been my dream, to serve others as a doctor. I made a HUGE mistake by thinking chiropractic could fulfill this role. Looking back, I should have definately went DO/MD route in the first place, that would have save me $125,000 in student loans and 4 years of DC school. I have been a practicing DC since 2000. While going through chiro school, I had no intentions of going back to med school. Yet, after geting out and practicing, practice became boring, limiting, and non-fulfilling, partly due to the narrow scope of chiropractic and partly due to the limited success one sees w/chiropractic. Thus.... now I'm looking to try and get into med school at 30 years olds.

Thanks, DcK

Edit: For anyone interested, here's a very accurate account of school & practice as a DC:
http://www.chirobase.org/03Edu/lattanze.html

 

[paramed2premed]

Your account of DC school chilled me to the marrow. (Is there a manipulation that cures that?) It confirmed my worst cynical nightmares.

Yet, many of the nurses, medics, and doctors I work with swear by it. Weird.

 

[AntGod22]

Hey man I would address anything u want to in your personal statement. I addressed my bad grades and change of major in my persoanl statement. If u want ill show you my statement as a guide. I have so far been accepted to UNECOM and PCOM