Worried about being screen out of applications

[BioChemMDPhD]

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[frosted2]

You have a good GPA. If anything, I think they would question your judgement.

Hopefully some adcoms can chime in and give you some more helpful advice/wisdom.

 

[BioChemMDPhD]

You have a good GPA. If anything, I think they would question your judgement.

Hopefully some adcoms can chime in and give you some more helpful advice/wisdom.

Thanks for the kind words! Unfortunately at the time I was not very interested in medical school or school in general, I just went to make my parents happy and I did not want to take a leave since I was using my scholarship money to help my parents and I financially. I was also under the impression that my university would remove the R's from my transcript since I had a valid reason per university guidelines. This is of course totally on me and not a day goes by where I don't regret my idiocy.

 

[DelayedGratification]

You won't get screened out of anywhere with a 3.5. However, i think MD-PhD is a whole different story

 

[BioChemMDPhD]

You won't get screened out of anywhere with a 3.5. However, i think MD-PhD is a whole different story

Thanks for the response! I realize that it is low, however before my spree of R's, my GPA was a 3.1. That is why I am doing extra after graduation. I also have thousands of hours in research.

 

[Goro]

A little bit of background.

I am going to graduate this semester. It took me 6 years to earn my BA in biology, but it wasn't all classes during that time, I went to school for like 2 years full-time, some bad stuff happened to my family. I had to work full-time during the next 4 and a 1/2. During that time I just ended up withdrawing every semester, I thought I could go back full-time, but it was just too hard to work two or three jobs 50 - 60 hours a week and go to school full-time.

My problem was I thought that I could do an all or nothing approach. Unfortunately, I couldn't. One thing I could do was research, and I ended up doing almost 5 years of research. 2 and a half in one lab, and 3 years in another. I am also still doing research. I have many posters that were at national conferences, and a couple of publications.

So I slowly weaned back into school. I ended up getting As for the next year and a half. I am set to graduate with a 3.54 cGPA, and 3.62 sGPA. I ended up taking all almost all 400/500 level classes my last year. Unfortunately during the time I was withdrawing, I ended up with 50 withdrawals...yeah I know. I can explain them in my essay, hopefully.

I am naturally worried that I will be auto rejected due to this. I am going to do a MA in biology at my college next year so I can increase the number of classes I took, and am currently studying for the MCAT. I hope to apply to MD-PhD programs. I am also considering post bacc programs.

Thank you,

It's a common pre-med delusion that med schools want you to finish your UG in four years. If you're going to get screened out, it's because your have a bad app, or a poor list of target schools.

 

[xffan624]

A little bit of background.

I am going to graduate this semester. It took me 6 years to earn my BA in biology, but it wasn't all classes during that time, I went to school for like 2 years full-time, some bad stuff happened to my family. I had to work full-time during the next 4 and a 1/2. During that time I just ended up withdrawing every semester, I thought I could go back full-time, but it was just too hard to work two or three jobs 50 - 60 hours a week and go to school full-time.

My problem was I thought that I could do an all or nothing approach. Unfortunately, I couldn't. One thing I could do was research, and I ended up doing almost 5 years of research. 2 and a half in one lab, and 3 years in another. I am also still doing research. I have many posters that were at national conferences, and a couple of publications.

So I slowly weaned back into school. I ended up getting As for the next year and a half. I am set to graduate with a 3.54 cGPA, and 3.62 sGPA. I ended up taking all almost all 400/500 level classes my last year. Unfortunately during the time I was withdrawing, I ended up with 50 withdrawals...yeah I know. I can explain them in my essay, hopefully.

I am naturally worried that I will be auto rejected due to this. I am going to do a MA in biology at my college next year so I can increase the number of classes I took, and am currently studying for the MCAT. I hope to apply to MD-PhD programs. I am also considering post bacc programs.

Thank you,

So if I understand your post correctly, you're stating that you signed up for classes every semester and then preceded to withdraw from these classes every semester when you quickly realized you were overwhelmed. And you did this fifty (50) times? I don't know, if I was reading that as an ADCOM, I'd raise my eyebrows at that. One or two semesters ok, but to add up to a total of 50 withdraws just seems like you didn't really learn from the one or two times this happened. Maybe I read your post wrong, but you definitely need to come up with a better explanation than what you have posted.

 

[Forever Geebs]

So if I understand your post correctly, you're stating that you signed up for classes every semester and then preceded to withdraw from these classes every semester when you quickly realized you were overwhelmed. And you did this fifty (50) times? I don't know, I was reading that as an ADCOM, I'd raise my eyebrows at that. One or two semesters ok, but to add up to a total of 50 withdraws just seems like you didn't really learn from the one or two times this happened. Maybe I read your post wrong, but you definitely need to come up with a better explanation that what you have posted.

Yeah, the whole "50 W's" thing really has me scratching my head, too.

 

[DokterMom]

If I were evaluating your application, I would ask why you attempted full-time student + full-time work a second time after discovering once that it didn't work. Or were there more attempts than that, even?

Also, using your scholarship money to support your family feels kind of unethical if not illegal. If that's your explanation, I'd suggest you prepare for the possible "misuse of funds" perception.

 

[BioChemMDPhD]

So if I understand your post correctly, you're stating that you signed up for classes every semester and then preceded to withdraw from these classes every semester when you quickly realized you were overwhelmed. And you did this fifty (50) times? I don't know, if I was reading that as an ADCOM, I'd raise my eyebrows at that. One or two semesters ok, but to add up to a total of 50 withdraws just seems like you didn't really learn from the one or two times this happened. Maybe I read your post wrong, but you definitely need to come up with a better explanation than what you have posted.

Yeah, the whole "50 W's" thing really has me scratching my head, too.

If I were evaluating your application, I would ask why you attempted full-time student + full-time work a second time after discovering once that it didn't work. Or were there more attempts than that, even?

Also, using your scholarship money to support your family feels kind of unethical if not illegal. If that's your explanation, I'd suggest you prepare for the possible "misuse of funds" perception.

Thanks for the response! I did not learn my lesson, and I deeply regret that, there is no changing the past and no point in harping over it. My explanation is obviously more detailed, but I do not feel comfortable sharing that online...

There was no misuse of funds, as it was given for "personal expenses" related to cost of living and such. I asked my financial aid adviser what it was for and she said that it can be used for anything, I have this in writing. It only required me to be signed up for 3 credits per semester, which I used as research for credit.

 

[Forever Geebs]

You don't have to disclose your exact reasons, but in any case, be prepared to address it if brought up during interviews. I've never heard of 50 W's but I'm not an adcom member either. Your GPA is in good shape, so study for the MCAT and score well, and in the meantime, focus on improving other areas of your application such as clinical volunteering, non-clinical volunteering, shadowing, research, etc.

Best of luck to you.

 

[BioChemMDPhD]

You don't have to disclose your exact reasons, but in any case, be prepared to address it if brought up during interviews. I've never heard of 50 W's but I'm not an adcom member either. Your GPA is in good shape, so study for the MCAT and score well, and in the meantime, focus on improving other areas of your application such as clinical volunteering, non-clinical volunteering, shadowing, research, etc.

Best of luck to you.

Thank you for the hard dose of medicine. Yes, it became very easy for me to just say "its just four R's, not a big deal, I can explain that." And over time that did add up, and it honestly makes me physically sick to my stomach that I was such an idiot and that freaking lazy.

I hate blaming other things for the mistakes, but **** happens to everyone and sometimes it happens worse to other people, you always have to count your blessings. I believed that since something bad happened to me, I could just moap around all day with a "woe is me, I have to work, I can't possibly work full-time and go to school!" When in reality a lot of people have it a hell of a lot worse, and they don't make excuses. It takes a cold hard reality check to really wake you up. That is what happened to me, I met with my research adviser and he just laughed in my face when I told him I wanted to do an MD-PhD. That really made me change my ways, thankfully it did, hopefully not too late.

I can sit around all day and cry about how dumb I was, or I can begin to look toward the future and work my ass off to get there. I will keep applying, even if it takes forever. I am not looking to race against a clock, thankfully time is on my side.