MD Valid reasons to appeal repeating year

[seayew]

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[Oedipa Maas]

I think it’s a great idea to meet with your dean and discuss this before appealing. It is easy to see how all of those external factors would have made it difficult to succeed and how you feel as though your grades are not reflective of your abilities but these circumstances. I can also understand that repeating a year is undesirable for many reasons. Regardless, I think you should look at your knowledge (not just scores) in these areas and ask yourself what you know. Do you know enough for future blocks and rotations that may require or build upon this knowledge? Do you know enough in these two blocks for step? Or will you be taking a significant amount of time to relearn ( or learn for the first time) this information? I think these are the concerns of the committee proposing that you repeat a year. If they thought your reasons were invalid or unacceptable, I think you would be having a very different conversation.

 

[Mass Effect]

It sounds like you haven't learned the material. You likely need to repeat the year so you can actually learn it. Were these the only two failures this year or have you failed other things too? Don't let anyone tell you that repeating a year is the kiss of death. It's not ideal, but you can still succeed and do pretty well for yourself.

Praying for your mom.

 

[seayew]

I think it’s a great idea to meet with your dean and discuss this before appealing. It is easy to see how all of those external factors would have made it difficult to succeed and how you feel as though your grades are not reflective of your abilities but these circumstances. I can also understand that repeating a year is undesirable for many reasons. Regardless, I think you should look at your knowledge (not just scores) in these areas and ask yourself what you know. Do you know enough for future blocks and rotations that may require or build upon this knowledge? Do you know enough in these two blocks for step? Or will you be taking a significant amount of time to relearn ( or learn for the first time) this information? I think these are the concerns of the committee proposing that you repeat a year. If they thought your reasons were invalid or unacceptable, I think you would be having a very different conversation.

Thanks for the reply! And thank you for pointing out the fact that I'm essentially using my extenuating circumstances as a crutch for why I failed, haha. I understand my lack in knowledge being of primary concern for the dean/committee, especially when it means going into second year and needing to do well on Step/apply my knowledge during rotations. Of course, this is from my perspective, but I think I've come a ways from my lack of knowledge in the Neuro block last month, as that was the basis for the MB block I just finished (I tried to grind really hard for the last month). Is it enough to do well on Step? I'm not sure, but I do feel as though Neuro/MB is one of my strongest suits across the system blocks now. I definitely appreciate your advice and have more or less come to terms with repeating.

 

[seayew]

It sounds like you haven't learned the material. You likely need to repeat the year so you can actually learn it. Were these the only two failures this year or have you failed other things too? Don't let anyone tell you that repeating a year is the kiss of death. It's not ideal, but you can still succeed and do pretty well for yourself.

Praying for your mom.

At the time (2 months ago), I definitely did not know the material. I can say that I do, to some extent, now. Is it Step-worthy knowledge? Prob not. I'm basing this evaluation off of my performance in the MB block that builds off of Neuro, but are considered 2 different blocks. I'm probably repeating and it is what it is. It'll be pretty embarrassing socially and I feel as though I'll be a disappointment to my loved ones, but I've gotta keep going. Thanks for the encouragement and prayers!

edit: To answer your question, those two are my only failures, lol. My school's policy does leave room for a few options if 2 blocks are failed: remediate (both blocks I presume) at the end of the year, repeat the year, or face dismissal. I have not heard (and probably will never hear) about anyone repeating 2 blocks. The common path is just a repeat!

 

[FalconSlice]

Hello, guys!

Long time lurker, here. I (M1) was wondering what some valid reasons to appeal to my school's promotion committee would be. I don't want to stick my neck out when I shouldn't have. If you would like to read about my situation, please continue to read (not required, haha).



For background information, I plan on sending in a 'formal' appeal tomorrow evening as I meet with my M1 Dean tomorrow afternoon to discuss what went wrong (in which he will most likely tell me I must repeat the year). I initially did not do well in my Reproductive/Endo block 2 months ago and ended up not passing by 3 points. I've come to terms with this completely and expected to repeat the Block over the summer as that's the normal course of action. I met with the Dean and was really determined to do well in the following Neuro block. At that time everything was conveniently beginning to fall apart, haha. I ended up getting pretty sick for the first 3 days of Neuro (I have record/receipt of this). I then, unfortunately, ended up getting into an accident on the highway that absolutely totaled my car and left me dealing with pains/lawyers/chiropractors/billing situations for the remainder of that week (also documented). On that Friday, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, administration and housing spun on the dime and were telling everyone to evacuate dorms immediately, so I ended up going back to my parents' home within a few hours of receiving the message. Throughout the following week, as a few of you might be able to relate to, I was kind of a mess -- not able to focus, running errands for my parents/siblings, etc. On Tuesday(?) of that week, I took a quiz that they extended for me as a result of my accident (although I was still definitely not prepared for it) and ended up failing miserably. Throughout the next 2 weeks, I spent most of my time worrying about my Mom (she was diagnosed with a form of leukemia late last semester and was prepping for her transplant). I also had to deal with renting a car, driving back to school, and moving out over the span of 2 days as a result of a sudden requirement for everyone to move out all their belongings from campus. This all happened about a week before the block final. This left me -- you guessed it -- about a week for me to get really serious for the Final exam. Boy, did I bomb that thing. Of course, we had our anatomy practical afterward that was combined with the following block's practical but that did nothing to save my grade (although I did pull out a B by the end of our last block). I was and am devastated as to how things turned out, but there's only room for me to move forward now. Anything here worthy of an appeal? If not, I'm fine sucking this up and licking my wounds somewhere else.

My mom is scheduled for her transplant on Sunday, and she'll be squatting in the hospital for 2-3 weeks. If you're religious, please pray for her!

Sorry to hear about your and your family troubles. That being said, it seems that your needing to repeat the year is a combination of being a below average student and extenuating circumstances. If you never got into an accident and/or your mother kept being healthy, perhaps you could've turned it around and finished your first year adequately. However, the fact is you never learned the basics of a major chunk of first year. No matter why that is (people say "no excuses" but I prefer "no matter what the reason"), you are still not equipped to continue on to second year. Also, I implore you to hit the restart button and get in "do or die" mode when you get that second second chance. This is the only time to build a strong foundation of medicine for the rest of your life as a physician. You will never get a coupon to come back to first year of medical school and relearn things like the opportunity you have now. Good luck. Enjoy this time.

 

[seayew]

Sorry to hear about your and your family troubles. That being said, it seems that your needing to repeat the year is a combination of being a below average student and extenuating circumstances. If you never got into an accident and/or your mother kept being healthy, perhaps you could've turned it around and finished your first year adequately. However, the fact is you never learned the basics of a major chunk of first year. No matter why that is (people say "no excuses" but I prefer "no matter what the reason"), you are still not equipped to continue on to second year. Also, I implore you to hit the restart button and get in "do or die" mode when you get that second second chance. This is the only time to build a strong foundation of medicine for the rest of your life as a physician. You will never get a coupon to come back to first year of medical school and relearn things like the opportunity you have now. Good luck. Enjoy this time.

Thanks for the good wishes. I am definitely going to have to go all in for this second chance, you're right! Not only to make up for my academic performance/report, but for my deficiencies in certain areas as well. Hopefully, all will go well the next time around and in the future.

 

[libertyyne]

Sorry to hear about what you are going through.
Maybe talk to the dean to see if they would be willing to let you attempt to remediate during the summer by retaking the exams you failed.
But realistically the way you have laid out what happened sounds like you were in a though spot before and eveyrthing fell apart academically. Which means you actually might benefit from repeating the year.
Good luck.

 

[Oedipa Maas]

At the time (2 months ago), I definitely did not know the material. I can say that I do, to some extent, now. Is it Step-worthy knowledge? Prob not. I'm basing this evaluation off of my performance in the MB block that builds off of Neuro, but are considered 2 different blocks. I'm probably repeating and it is what it is. It'll be pretty embarrassing socially and I feel as though I'll be a disappointment to my loved ones, but I've gotta keep going. Thanks for the encouragement and prayers!

edit: To answer your question, those two are my only failures, lol. My school's policy does leave room for a few options if 2 blocks are failed: remediate (both blocks I presume) at the end of the year, repeat the year, or face dismissal. I have not heard (and probably will never hear) about anyone repeating 2 blocks. The common path is just a repeat!

I have two friends who repeated years. One joined my class because of the repeat. One left it and joined the class below. Your good friends are going to stay your friends and you will make new ones. Plus now you are going to have all of these connections in the class above that can give you advice and help you prep for what comes next!

I can’t speak for your family but if someone I knew was going through one of the most grueling educations out there all while dealing with what you dealt with, I wouldn’t be disappointed in them for taking steps to ensure that they were getting the most out of their program.

 

[deleted1005514]

It'll be pretty embarrassing socially and I feel as though I'll be a disappointment to my loved ones, but I've gotta keep going. Thanks for the encouragement and prayers!

I'm repeating year 1 next year after taking a personal LOA. I felt embarrassed to be repeating at first, and I really didn't want anyone to know or have to spend a lot of time explaining myself. Once I started being forced to tell people in my social circles, I realized that the vast majority of people either:

1. Don't care or don't have any idea how medical education works, so they don't understand the impact of repeating a year, or

2. They are very encouraging (usually people in medicine or medical education). I've honestly received nothing but support from anyone within medicine who knows I'm on a LOA.

As for graduating in 5 years instead of 4...at my school, lots of people do fellowship years where they teach anatomy or OMM, so having 5 year medical students isn't really a big deal. Students move classes every year, for a variety of reasons including academic, personal and medical, and I personally don't think those reasons are anyone else's business unless the person chooses to share, and I don't assume anyone moving a year is doing so for academic reasons.

One thing I've learned through introspection during my LOA is that once I entered medical school, I actually entered the medical profession at that moment, which comes with not only expectations, pressure, & stress, but also support. Physicians get sick sometimes, or have mental health issues, or personal problems, and they need extra help or to take time off to regroup, etc. Medical students are no different, we're just not as far along in our "careers" as attendings. When I first took my LOA, I considered it a failure on my part to be able to handle everything at once. Now that I've rested, regrouped and tackled my issues, I'm looking forward to returning, and I view taking a LOA as a gift and an opportunity to make sure that this is what I want, develop a plan to make it happen, and set up good self-care for my return. I wish you all the best, OP!

 

[deleted480308]

Hello, guys!

Long time lurker, here. I (M1) was wondering what some valid reasons to appeal to my school's promotion committee would be. I don't want to stick my neck out when I shouldn't have. If you would like to read about my situation, please continue to read (not required, haha).



For background information, I plan on sending in a 'formal' appeal tomorrow evening as I meet with my M1 Dean tomorrow afternoon to discuss what went wrong (in which he will most likely tell me I must repeat the year). I initially did not do well in my Reproductive/Endo block 2 months ago and ended up not passing by 3 points. I've come to terms with this completely and expected to repeat the Block over the summer as that's the normal course of action. I met with the Dean and was really determined to do well in the following Neuro block. At that time everything was conveniently beginning to fall apart, haha. I ended up getting pretty sick for the first 3 days of Neuro (I have record/receipt of this). I then, unfortunately, ended up getting into an accident on the highway that absolutely totaled my car and left me dealing with pains/lawyers/chiropractors/billing situations for the remainder of that week (also documented). On that Friday, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, administration and housing spun on the dime and were telling everyone to evacuate dorms immediately, so I ended up going back to my parents' home within a few hours of receiving the message. Throughout the following week, as a few of you might be able to relate to, I was kind of a mess -- not able to focus, running errands for my parents/siblings, etc. On Tuesday(?) of that week, I took a quiz that they extended for me as a result of my accident (although I was still definitely not prepared for it) and ended up failing miserably. Throughout the next 2 weeks, I spent most of my time worrying about my Mom (she was diagnosed with a form of leukemia late last semester and was prepping for her transplant). I also had to deal with renting a car, driving back to school, and moving out over the span of 2 days as a result of a sudden requirement for everyone to move out all their belongings from campus. This all happened about a week before the block final. This left me -- you guessed it -- about a week for me to get really serious for the Final exam. Boy, did I bomb that thing. Of course, we had our anatomy practical afterward that was combined with the following block's practical but that did nothing to save my grade (although I did pull out a B by the end of our last block). I was and am devastated as to how things turned out, but there's only room for me to move forward now. Anything here worthy of an appeal? If not, I'm fine sucking this up and licking my wounds somewhere else.

My mom is scheduled for her transplant on Sunday, and she'll be squatting in the hospital for 2-3 weeks. If you're religious, please pray for her!

You failed twice and are still in school. Take the win and thank them for the chance

 

[seayew]

I have two friends who repeated years. One joined my class because of the repeat. One left it and joined the class below. Your good friends are going to stay your friends and you will make new ones. Plus now you are going to have all of these connections in the class above that can give you advice and help you prep for what comes next!

I can’t speak for your family but if someone I knew was going through one of the most grueling educations out there all while dealing with what you dealt with, I wouldn’t be disappointed in them for taking steps to ensure that they were getting the most out of their program.

Hey, thanks for your kind words. It makes me feel a lot more at ease for the next few meetings I'll be having as well as moving forward. I'll be trying to take this experience positively from here on out. Have a good one!

I'm repeating year 1 next year after taking a personal LOA. I felt embarrassed to be repeating at first, and I really didn't want anyone to know or have to spend a lot of time explaining myself. Once I started being forced to tell people in my social circles, I realized that the vast majority of people either:

1. Don't care or don't have any idea how medical education works, so they don't understand the impact of repeating a year, or

2. They are very encouraging (usually people in medicine or medical education). I've honestly received nothing but support from anyone within medicine who knows I'm on a LOA.

As for graduating in 5 years instead of 4...at my school, lots of people do fellowship years where they teach anatomy or OMM, so having 5 year medical students isn't really a big deal. Students move classes every year, for a variety of reasons including academic, personal and medical, and I personally don't think those reasons are anyone else's business unless the person chooses to share, and I don't assume anyone moving a year is doing so for academic reasons.

One thing I've learned through introspection during my LOA is that once I entered medical school, I actually entered the medical profession at that moment, which comes with not only expectations, pressure, & stress, but also support. Physicians get sick sometimes, or have mental health issues, or personal problems, and they need extra help or to take time off to regroup, etc. Medical students are no different, we're just not as far along in our "careers" as attendings. When I first took my LOA, I considered it a failure on my part to be able to handle everything at once. Now that I've rested, regrouped and tackled my issues, I'm looking forward to returning, and I view taking a LOA as a gift and an opportunity to make sure that this is what I want, develop a plan to make it happen, and set up good self-care for my return. I wish you all the best, OP!

Thanks for coming to me with your situation! I'm definitely feeling a bit embarrassed as you might have read, but I think/hope I'll get over that pretty quickly. My classmates and friends, as far as I know, like me for who I am and I also have quite a few friends who've repeated. After finding out, I really didn't care at all, haha. It's great to hear that you've been able to regroup and refocus on medicine and find support through your school. Hopefully, I'll have the same experience! As a traditional, try-hard student, I've been in autopilot trying to get to this end goal of being a doctor, but this is good for me in that I'll finally really be able to take the time and figure out what I want (while also destroying these in house-exams). I've always wanted to be a doctor, but I was always thinking about the actual doctoring part, not the whole school thing. Best of luck to you!!

 

[seayew]

Sorry to hear about what you are going through.
Maybe talk to the dean to see if they would be willing to let you attempt to remediate during the summer by retaking the exams you failed.
But realistically the way you have laid out what happened sounds like you were in a though spot before and eveyrthing fell apart academically. Which means you actually might benefit from repeating the year.
Good luck.

If the dean/committee mentions the possibility then I'd be a fool not to take it, haha. I don't think I'll be pushing it on them though, my failures are all on me. In any case, I'll just this next year as a learning experience to address the academic deficits that I've come to figure out through my M1 year. Thanks for the advice!

 

[longhaul3]

Tough situation, sorry to hear all of that. It does sound like your performance was a result of your circumstances, but just because there's an explanation doesn't mean you're ready to move on academically.

I think a "valid reason to appeal" would be that you think that their judgment was in error. Based on what you've said here, it sounds like repeating the year is reasonable, and I would say that their judgment was appropriate. The last thing you want to do is convince them to promote you, barely scrape by, and then be at a deficit of an entire year's worth of knowledge staring down Step 1, rotations, and CK. Things will snowball quickly and you only get one shot at Step 1, so you don't want to screw yourself. You can't expect to keep up with 2nd year material AND relearn everything from first year on your own at the same time.

I say repeating the year is by far the better option here. It won't look great if you want to do something competitive, but that's on its way out the window at this point anyway and will be totally out if you plow ahead and bomb Step 1.

 

[Goro]

Hello, guys!

Long time lurker, here. I (M1) was wondering what some valid reasons to appeal to my school's promotion committee would be. I don't want to stick my neck out when I shouldn't have. If you would like to read about my situation, please continue to read (not required, haha).



For background information, I plan on sending in a 'formal' appeal tomorrow evening as I meet with my M1 Dean tomorrow afternoon to discuss what went wrong (in which he will most likely tell me I must repeat the year). I initially did not do well in my Reproductive/Endo block 2 months ago and ended up not passing by 3 points. I've come to terms with this completely and expected to repeat the Block over the summer as that's the normal course of action. I met with the Dean and was really determined to do well in the following Neuro block. At that time everything was conveniently beginning to fall apart, haha. I ended up getting pretty sick for the first 3 days of Neuro (I have record/receipt of this). I then, unfortunately, ended up getting into an accident on the highway that absolutely totaled my car and left me dealing with pains/lawyers/chiropractors/billing situations for the remainder of that week (also documented). On that Friday, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, administration and housing spun on the dime and were telling everyone to evacuate dorms immediately, so I ended up going back to my parents' home within a few hours of receiving the message. Throughout the following week, as a few of you might be able to relate to, I was kind of a mess -- not able to focus, running errands for my parents/siblings, etc. On Tuesday(?) of that week, I took a quiz that they extended for me as a result of my accident (although I was still definitely not prepared for it) and ended up failing miserably. Throughout the next 2 weeks, I spent most of my time worrying about my Mom (she was diagnosed with a form of leukemia late last semester and was prepping for her transplant). I also had to deal with renting a car, driving back to school, and moving out over the span of 2 days as a result of a sudden requirement for everyone to move out all their belongings from campus. This all happened about a week before the block final. This left me -- you guessed it -- about a week for me to get really serious for the Final exam. Boy, did I bomb that thing. Of course, we had our anatomy practical afterward that was combined with the following block's practical but that did nothing to save my grade (although I did pull out a B by the end of our last block). I was and am devastated as to how things turned out, but there's only room for me to move forward now. Anything here worthy of an appeal? If not, I'm fine sucking this up and licking my wounds somewhere else.

My mom is scheduled for her transplant on Sunday, and she'll be squatting in the hospital for 2-3 weeks. If you're religious, please pray for her!

Oh man!! very very sorry to hear of this, OP.

That said, your school is doing you a favor by forcing you to repeat. You didn't merely fail Neuro by 3 points, you failed to reach even minimal competency in the material, much less gain any mastery of it.

The hard truth is that you've too much going on. You need to take time to heal and fix things, and then come back stronger.

Sadly, I've seen too many medical careers destroyed by my students who tried to bulldoze thier way through med school when Life clobbered them with a baseball bat. This isn't the argument from authority, it's the argument from bitter experience.

 

[deleted393595]

It sounds like you haven't learned the material. You likely need to repeat the year so you can actually learn it. Were these the only two failures this year or have you failed other things too? Don't let anyone tell you that repeating a year is the kiss of death. It's not ideal, but you can still succeed and do pretty well for yourself.

Praying for your mom.

Given that he's had a lot of personal things and that this year has been screwy due to COVID that this will be overlooked for residency admissions as long as he does well from this point onwards?

 

[libertyyne]

Given that he's had a lot of personal things and that this year has been screwy due to COVID that this will be overlooked for residency admissions as long as he does well from this point onwards?

Under the best of conditions 5-20% of the class repeats a year. Its no big deal if the person is aiming for a relatively non-competitive speciality. If they want to match derm at MGH they probably need to re-evaluate their chances.

 

[Mass Effect]

Given that he's had a lot of personal things and that this year has been screwy due to COVID that this will be overlooked for residency admissions as long as he does well from this point onwards?

I don't know about overlooked, but if he repeats the year and does well from this point on, it will likely just be a blip that he'll be asked about. He WILL be asked about it and he'll also likely have to explain on licensing apps since many (if not all) states ask if you took more than 4 years to complete med school. It should be no big deal for licensing and if he plays his cards right, it may not affect him negatively for the match either.

 

[Mass Effect]

Under the best of conditions 5-20% of the class repeats a year

That seems terribly high. Where did you get those numbers?

 

[libertyyne]

That seems terribly high. Where did you get those numbers?

I actually undersold the rates. The 4 year graduation rates is closer to 85%.

https://www.aamc.org/system/files/reports/1/graduationratesandattritionratesofu.s.medicalstudents.pdf

This one is a little older, but the gist remains the same. This places the 4 year grad rates closer to 80 than to 85. But it breaks down the LOA rate to around 7 percent.

https://www.aamc.org/system/files/reports/1/may2014aib-graduationratesandattritionfactorsforusmedschools.pdf

Osteopathic schools do not provide this information, but I would not be surprised if they had even lower 4 year graduation rates.

 

[CyrilFiggis]

I actually undersold the rates. The 4 year graduation rates is closer to 85%.

https://www.aamc.org/system/files/reports/1/graduationratesandattritionratesofu.s.medicalstudents.pdf

View attachment 306207

This one is a little older, but the gist remains the same. This places the 4 year grad rates closer to 80 than to 85. But it breaks down the LOA rate to around 7 percent.

https://www.aamc.org/system/files/reports/1/may2014aib-graduationratesandattritionfactorsforusmedschools.pdf

Osteopathic schools do not provide this information, but I would not be surprised if they had even lower 4 year graduation rates.

I think it’s important to note, this percentage includes dual degrees, research years as well as remediation/personal LOAs. So 15% are not all failing, in fact it seems the majority aren’t.

Hello, guys!

Long time lurker, here. I (M1) was wondering what some valid reasons to appeal to my school's promotion committee would be. I don't want to stick my neck out when I shouldn't have. If you would like to read about my situation, please continue to read (not required, haha).



For background information, I plan on sending in a 'formal' appeal tomorrow evening as I meet with my M1 Dean tomorrow afternoon to discuss what went wrong (in which he will most likely tell me I must repeat the year). I initially did not do well in my Reproductive/Endo block 2 months ago and ended up not passing by 3 points. I've come to terms with this completely and expected to repeat the Block over the summer as that's the normal course of action. I met with the Dean and was really determined to do well in the following Neuro block. At that time everything was conveniently beginning to fall apart, haha. I ended up getting pretty sick for the first 3 days of Neuro (I have record/receipt of this). I then, unfortunately, ended up getting into an accident on the highway that absolutely totaled my car and left me dealing with pains/lawyers/chiropractors/billing situations for the remainder of that week (also documented). On that Friday, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, administration and housing spun on the dime and were telling everyone to evacuate dorms immediately, so I ended up going back to my parents' home within a few hours of receiving the message. Throughout the following week, as a few of you might be able to relate to, I was kind of a mess -- not able to focus, running errands for my parents/siblings, etc. On Tuesday(?) of that week, I took a quiz that they extended for me as a result of my accident (although I was still definitely not prepared for it) and ended up failing miserably. Throughout the next 2 weeks, I spent most of my time worrying about my Mom (she was diagnosed with a form of leukemia late last semester and was prepping for her transplant). I also had to deal with renting a car, driving back to school, and moving out over the span of 2 days as a result of a sudden requirement for everyone to move out all their belongings from campus. This all happened about a week before the block final. This left me -- you guessed it -- about a week for me to get really serious for the Final exam. Boy, did I bomb that thing. Of course, we had our anatomy practical afterward that was combined with the following block's practical but that did nothing to save my grade (although I did pull out a B by the end of our last block). I was and am devastated as to how things turned out, but there's only room for me to move forward now. Anything here worthy of an appeal? If not, I'm fine sucking this up and licking my wounds somewhere else.

My mom is scheduled for her transplant on Sunday, and she'll be squatting in the hospital for 2-3 weeks. If you're religious, please pray for her!

OP this all sounds like a crappy year for you. Do what everyone above said. However, one thing and I’m sorry if I sound like a nitpicking a**, but stop using “haha” and “lol” in your posts. It’s pervasive, awkward and minimizes your situation.

 

[libertyyne]

I think it’s important to note, this percentage includes dual degrees, research years as well as remediation/personal LOAs. So 15% are not all failing, in fact it seems the majority aren’t.



OP this all sounds like a crappy year for you. Do what everyone above said. However, one thing and I’m sorry if I sound like a nitpicking a**, but stop using “haha” and “lol” in your posts. It’s pervasive, awkward and minimizes your situation.

the second paper breaks it down to LOA vs non LOA. LOA was on average 7% for all schools, this is not insignificant.

 

[altblue]

Hey, I'm so sorry to hear you've gone through everything you did - and I'm glad you're still here in med school, fighting for it. This comes from someone who had to deal with a lot in his gap year and in early M1... it is truly rough sometimes.

Echoing what others have said in wonderful detail, though, it might be for the best that you take some time off and heal. You've been dealing with obstacles that most haven't, and it's not fair, but now it's a matter of recovering and growing, so that you can more comfortably make it through the rest of med school. But regardless, I really do wish you well.

 

[Mass Effect]

I actually undersold the rates. The 4 year graduation rates is closer to 85%.

https://www.aamc.org/system/files/reports/1/graduationratesandattritionratesofu.s.medicalstudents.pdf

View attachment 306207

This one is a little older, but the gist remains the same. This places the 4 year grad rates closer to 80 than to 85. But it breaks down the LOA rate to around 7 percent.

https://www.aamc.org/system/files/reports/1/may2014aib-graduationratesandattritionfactorsforusmedschools.pdf

Osteopathic schools do not provide this information, but I would not be surprised if they had even lower 4 year graduation rates.

This doesn't mean that 20% are repeating a year. It means that 20% are taking longer to graduate. A lot of people do research or dual degrees as noted above. And LOAs are for a number of reasons. One of my classmates had a terrible time in pregnancy (landed in the ICU) and took time off to join the next class. When she joined the next class, it was starting with whatever block we did in February which was when she left, so she didn't actually repeat the year. She just took a LOA whereas I know people from other schools who took a LOA due to multiple failures and need to repeat the year. I suspect my classmate would be viewed more favorably than the ones with multiple failures.

As for DO schools, at least a few of them don't even offer the option of repeating the year. They just kick you out. We also had several people per class take a year to be an OMM TA or anatomy TA so all those people didn't graduate in 4 years either, but never repeated a year.

 

[libertyyne]

This doesn't mean that 20% are repeating a year. It means that 20% are taking longer to graduate. A lot of people do research or dual degrees as noted above. And LOAs are for a number of reasons. One of my classmates had a terrible time in pregnancy (landed in the ICU) and took time off to join the next class. When she joined the next class, it was starting with whatever block we did in February which was when she left, so she didn't actually repeat the year. She just took a LOA whereas I know people from other schools who took a LOA due to multiple failures and need to repeat the year. I suspect my classmate would be viewed more favorably than the ones with multiple failures.

As for DO schools, at least a few of them don't even offer the option of repeating the year. They just kick you out.

I doubt any loa will be looked upon favorably. The second source indicated a 7 % loa rate across all schools. The 5-20% range still seems reasonable under that light .

 

[Goro]

I actually undersold the rates. The 4 year graduation rates is closer to 85%.

https://www.aamc.org/system/files/reports/1/graduationratesandattritionratesofu.s.medicalstudents.pdf

View attachment 306207

This one is a little older, but the gist remains the same. This places the 4 year grad rates closer to 80 than to 85. But it breaks down the LOA rate to around 7 percent.

https://www.aamc.org/system/files/reports/1/may2014aib-graduationratesandattritionfactorsforusmedschools.pdf

Osteopathic schools do not provide this information, but I would not be surprised if they had even lower 4 year graduation rates.

But LOA doesn't necessarily mean people are repeating years. Women take a year off to have kids, people do research, people get sick. At my school, these last three vastly outweigh the former. Maybe 4-5% of kids have to repeat a year, usually due terrible Fall OMSI academics.