Troubled by old grades

[Julianus]

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I'm currently in my mid twenties and looking to start over my academic career again after a long hiatus. However, I just found out that all accredited institutions require students to disclose their academic history. This is especially troubling for me because when I was 18, I attended two semesters at a local community college and received a couple of F's, several C's, W's..etc. I thought I'd be able to start clean in order to pursue my goal, but this was just terribly disheartening. Does anyone else have a similar background and get successfully accepted to a med school?

I'll be attending Fall of 2014.

 

[theseeker4]

I'm currently in my mid twenties and looking to start over my academic career again after a long hiatus. However, I just found out that all accredited institutions require students to disclose their academic history. This is especially troubling for me because when I was 18, I attended two semesters at a local community college and received a couple of F's, several C's, W's..etc. I thought I'd be able to start clean in order to pursue my goal, but this was just terribly disheartening. Does anyone else have a similar background and get successfully accepted to a med school?

I'll be attending Fall of 2014.

What is the number of course credits you took back then, and what was the total overall GPA in science, and overall? If you are talking about a couple semesters with just a couple Fs and some Cs, you are not in bad shape. If you have a full bachelor's-degree worth of credits, and your GPA is ~2, you will have a lot more work to do. There is almost no academic record so bad that you could never even dream of being able to gain admission to some US MD or DO school; for us to tell you what you will need to do, and how much work it will be for you, we will need a few more details about your record. Do you have a bachelor's degree? What is your complete academic history at college-level courses? etc.

Welcome to SDN!

 

[Julianus]

What is the number of course credits you took back then, and what was the total overall GPA in science, and overall? If you are talking about a couple semesters with just a couple Fs and some Cs, you are not in bad shape. If you have a full bachelor's-degree worth of credits, and your GPA is ~2, you will have a lot more work to do. There is almost no academic record so bad that you could never even dream of being able to gain admission to some US MD or DO school; for us to tell you what you will need to do, and how much work it will be for you, we will need a few more details about your record. Do you have a bachelor's degree? What is your complete academic history at college-level courses? etc.

Welcome to SDN!

Thanks for your reply.

This was about 7 years ago and 27 credits. My GPA was around in the low 2's. I only have a hazy memory of the details, but I requested to see a copy of the transcripts in order to assess the exact damage and see what I need to do. Most of the courses I took consisted of gen-ed requirements for the associates I was working on, until life circumstances pushed me into something else.

 

[silleme]

That sounds VERY fixable. It's only 1 year of bad grades, and if you didn't even take your science pre-reqs for the AA, then your science GPA is still pristine and will only be affected by what you do going forward. I'm currently working from a 2.8ish GPA with 28 credits complete, and did the math and know I can raise my GPA to around a 3.3, with a 4.0 in sciences since I didn't take any.

If you wanted to go the DO route, you could re-take the gen-ed courses you got Ds and Fs in for their offered grade replacement and your GPA would be much higher under the AACOMAS system. Whichever route you take, just know that plenty have walked the path becore you (see below 3.0 GPA support thread) and know that as long as you push yourself to only shoot for the best possible grade in a course from here on out it's very do-able.

You'll find plenty of resources, a couple people who force you to check your decision and look at it from all angles to make sure it's the right thing for you, but most importantly, there are a great number of people willing to support each other on the non-trad journey. Please take what is being said in Pre-Allo as a little bit neurotic and with a heavy dose of 'I may have been like this at 18' and you'll be alright. I mostly stay in this area, as I find it less neurotic and more helpful.

Welcome.

 

[thereshope]

It will be impressive to show your growth over the years and your accomplishments in other extra-curricular areas. Bringing a 2.2 GPA up to a 4.0 can be incredible in helping you get accepted and truly shows your readiness and survival ability; that you can get back up after you have fallen. Perhaps you can use your personal statement/application essays as tools to vocalize what you have learned and accomplished. I encourage you to try hard and remain motivated!
We all have our "down" phases. But it's important to realize that being a physician, in the end, is not all about your grades. It's about you being a well-rounded individual with passions and ambition. And yes, skill. But skill is acquired. Improve your skill by, perhaps, going back to community college and re-taking classes and completing pre-med requirements. Challenge yourself (realistically), take it step-by-step, focus, breathe. Wishing you the best!

 

[TeddyBoomBoom]

I'm currently in my mid twenties and looking to start over my academic career again after a long hiatus. However, I just found out that all accredited institutions require students to disclose their academic history. This is especially troubling for me because when I was 18, I attended two semesters at a local community college and received a couple of F's, several C's, W's..etc. I thought I'd be able to start clean in order to pursue my goal, but this was just terribly disheartening. Does anyone else have a similar background and get successfully accepted to a med school?

I'll be attending Fall of 2014.

Shoot.. I have quite literally 27 Fs/Ws and have been accepted to 3 D.O. schools, and waitlisted at a state MD school. Granted, it took me a loooong time to repair my mistakes (think: multiple multiple years), but it is doable. If you KNOW this is what you want, it may be painful, but it *is* doable.

 

[DrMidlife]

This subforum is full of people who recovered from transcript damage. In my view you have *only* one year of damage - I had a decade of it.

Search SDN for "low GPA" to find relevant threads for you.