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Episode 5: Retaking and dropping classes? Learn when and how to objectively assess your undergraduate academic record to determine what, if anything, you can do to have the best medical school application possible!
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In this episode:

ANNOUNCEMENTS

YOUR PATTERN OF GRADES

COMMON PROBLEMS

COMMON SOLUTIONS

DROPPING & REPEATING CLASSES TO SAVE THE GPA

CHANGING MAJORS

LISTENER Q & A’S

QUICK TIP: When to assess your academic record!

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ANNOUNCEMENTS:

1. I’m now on the Admissions Committee of my alma mater.

2. Over 1,000 listeners and growing!

3. The FREE email series has been revised, so sign up with your new,
professional-sounding email address and archive the content.

4. The CD of the Month Club is exciting and fun. I’m enjoying the private,
one-on-one PreMed consulting and application advising and am surprised with the
collection of the MindMap materials. Visit www.MedicalMastery.com/lectureseries to learn more.

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YOUR PATTERN OF GRADES

I have received a substantial percentage of listener questions about their
academic record. It makes sense that I spend most of my academic advising doing
counseling on that very subject – people with 4.0 GPA’s don’t have that to worry
about. They have other problems that need equal attention so let’s not be
jealous. From here on, we will discuss the subject of PreMed GPA and your
medical school application in the context of your overall application. The
Perfect GPA is your GPA that is nestled within a succinct description
(application) that tells your story.

The goal of the Perfect Application and GPA is really to say in one sentence
exactly who your are and what you want in life (and a career). If you can do
that, they you only have to tweak a few details in your application to let that
shine through. The numbers only substantiate who you say you are! Well, I’m
going to help you do just that…

There are patterns to everything, and human behavior is no different. Let’s
start by a series of questions that you should write down as brainstorming ideas
for your personal essay and prepared statements for the interview:

1. When did you decide to pursue a career in medicine?

2. What is the overall pattern of your college grades? (spiraling up, solid
throughout, unpredictable)

3. What excites you? (In general and in specific terms – don’t just mention
career aspirations – use hobbies, interests, etc.)

4. Do you like a fast-paced life or slower, country-style?

5. Where do you want to work when your training is complete?

6. Can you put all of these answers together into one sentence that summarizes
you and where you are going in your life? If so, put it in writing.

Once you have done this objective assessment of your academic record, you are
beginning to get insight into how the admissions committee sees your
application. There are almost infinite patters of grades and reasons for them.
Is there a drop in your grades for a period of time? Did you take time off from
school? Do your grades suddenly get better at a point in time? I hope so,
because you can explain it as you weave together the overall medical school
application.

I was fortunate to have a string of 2 years of straight A’s while in the Army,
beginning right as I decided to pursue medicine. See if there’s a point in time
that you can point to that matches up with major event or decision in your life.
If so, use that subtly in your personal essay. Don’t exaggerate it, but it is
important and often overlooked. See, the admissions committee looks for this
trend, but not everyone knows to explain it. This takes out guesswork and makes
you more transparent – all good things that support you being the genuine
article.

COMMON PROBLEMS

1. Bad grades, failed classes (especially prerequisites)

2. Fear of retaking classes and the appearance of a cover-up

3. Transferring between schools

4. Doing poorly in a series of courses (such as PreMed prerequisites or courses
in your chosen major)

COMMON SOLUTIONS

1. Repeating classes – In general, you only want to do this to get a better
grasp of the material – not to just improve the GPA. The admissions committees
see the scores for both attempts. It can and is often done by your competitors
but applications with more than 2-3 cover-up attempts are flagged. We want the
application to be an accurate reflection of your undergraduate work and attempts
to inflate GPA’s make us do the 2 seconds of extra, unnecessary thinking to
required to estimate the original GPA. So if there’s a principle here, don’t
make the admissions committee’s job more difficult!

2. Dropping classes – This is actually more acceptable than repeating because we
have no way of knowing how you were doing in the class when you dropped out (or
why you did it). Again, if a pattern develops and there are 5 or more drops
(especially to below full time) it stands out. So consider yourself as having
about 3 safe DROP PASSES if you need them. Be prepared to explain why you
dropped the classes when on your interview. And definitely drop with the
registrar’s office before the deadline. Many a heartache have happened because
of this oversight – the result is an F.

A good number of questions I have received about these issues are from freshman.
Let me just say that college and PreMed life is different than high school and
requires an adjustment period. So, if you get into college and have some bad
grades early on, don’t sweat it. Many people do. Just overcome your obstacles
and as you approach your junior year, objectively assess your strengths and
weaknesses. It may not (and usually isn’t) as bad as you think.

3. Changing majors – An increasing number of people have been getting interested
in medicine later in life. Age and career choices are not barriers to entry. The
only argument against advanced age is the number of practice years you may serve
weighed against the greater good of giving your coveted seat to someone who can
devote 20+ more years to helping mankind. A valid argument. But if you’re sure
you want to do this, don’t let that stop you. People get in over the age of 40
ever year, and occasionally beyond that.

Changing major may indicate indecision, which is expected among young people
(<33). So, don’t worry about how that will look either. Some people that write
me are worried about every little decision they make and live in fear. STOP!
Live your life and shape your application accordingly, not the other way around.
If you want to study basket weaving – go for it. Many an impoverished community
has been economically blessed by learning to sell its wares. The better question
is, what are you already doing to make the world a better place? If you can
clearly communicate that, many other details won’t matter. So, don’t lose site
of the big picture.

One last piece of advice on switching is program-hopping. There is a general
shortage of seats in many technical and medical training programs. With the
exponential population growth curve and the United States grossly failing in its
public education system, an awareness has been fostered among many graduate
program directors to try to conserve resources. They want people trained in a
given field to stay in it for their entire career. If you spend 4 years in a
nursing program, and then switch to PreMed you wasted a seat in their nursing
program. They had to refuse an applicant to allow you in, which would otherwise
be working in the field. State supported schools feel this crunch the most and
it is part of their mission statement and therefore their doctrine for
admission.

Some people can get away with program-hopping, but it is frowned upon. You just
have to be that much more determined and clearly state why you did it. For
example, say that you want to combine medical technology with pathology to
engineer better point of care tests.

4. Transferring schools – No problem, just have a reason for doing it and be
prepared to discuss it during the interview.

LISTENER Q & A’S: Thank you for submitting your questions on the 1-minute survey at
MedicalMastery.com!

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QUICK TIP:

If you’re early in your undergraduate education (more than 1.5 years from your
application), don’t worry about a bad grade yet. Focus your effort on doing the
best you can in the classes you’re taking. It may be that you can survive one to
three bad grades if you ace everything else, or that you have a long string of
bad grades by the time you’re done and there’s no use in repeating just one or
two. Closer to application time you can better evaluate the efficacy of
repeating a class. Keep in mind that the admissions committees see all attempts
at courses.

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