Can I Get Into Medical School if I Dropped Out of College?

Session 115

Our caller today dropped out of college during her first semester. Now, she’s finishing her degree and wants to know how to share her story with medical schools.

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[00:36] Question of the Day

Q: “I’m in a little bit of a unique situation in the very first semester of my freshman year. I had to withdraw from university two and a half weeks into the semester. So I missed the withdrawal/drop deadline by a few days where I would have not shown up as a W, but it’s fine. No big deal.

I had to leave due to my mom got really sick. And basically, it’s only been me and her growing up. And I’ve helped her financially. So not only did she get sick, but she couldn’t really keep up with the finances that we needed for her to sustain a living.

And so, I had to come home and help her with her health, but also help with the house. And I had to take that semester off. So I started the following semester at a very similar college, not the same one, but they’re both four-year private Catholic institutions. And that will be finishing a week from now.

I’m very worried that these ad coms are going to see my application, and they’re gonna say, Wait, the student has like five withdrawals right off the bat. What’s going on here?”

[02:15] What Really Matters

First off, that’s not an issue. Whether you had health issues or your mom had health issues, even just homesickness, and you just weren’t ready, or financial issues – there are a million reasons why a student would withdraw a whole semester.

The question is what happened next? And it sounds like for you, whenever you started school back, you’re obviously on the path to graduate. So I’m assuming things have been steady and consistent since you started back. And that’s your story. The withdrawals at the beginning don’t mean anything in the grand scheme of things.

'There are a million and one reasons a student would start college and withdraw immediately and withdraw from all of their classes.'Click To Tweet

Again, a whole semester of withdrawing could mean a million things. And smart people who are reviewing your applications have seen all of those a million things. At the end of the day, it just doesn’t matter.

What matters is the big picture. What happened since you’ve gone back? Again, a smart person looking at an application would see that something happened there. But you’ve got to be able to explain what happened before and what happened after.

Maybe there’s even a bigger explanation just in terms of what someone would read into it because you changed schools. Somebody might think the school wasn’t a good fit. They don’t even have to know about your mom. So they’d probably think this school obviously wasn’t a fit, she withdrew, she started another school. And she has done well – and that’s assuming and hopefully, you’ve done well.

[04:36] Where to Explain This on Your Application

If you don’t need to explain it at all in your application, there’s really not a spot for it. The only place potentially where there’s a spot would be in your secondary essays. There is oftentimes a question if you’ve had any interruptions in your schooling since you started college, and there’s an opportunity there.

Now the question potentially comes down to – is there any benefit in you mentioning it somewhere to show your resilience and determination, and what you’ve had to go through helping your family?

Maybe it comes up in a disadvantaged essay because you’ve had to take care of your mom and the family financially through this time. So there may be an opportunity there for a disadvantaged essay.

The student mentioned she wanted to do this in the disadvantaged essay. But she’s not sure if this is appropriate. And this is actually every student’s fear. But it’s not a pity statement. You’re only telling what you’ve gone through and that’s why you think it puts you out at a disadvantage. That’s all it is.

There’s definitely an opportunity in terms of your activity list, mentioning what you’re doing. And in the description, you briefly talk about the reason you were doing those things in terms of needing to support your family during this time.

[06:49] Concern over GPA

Q: “My freshman year, I had a 3.59 science GPA. My junior year, it was a 3.78 science GPA. My senior year was a 4.0. However, in my sophomore year, my science GPA took a toll at 2.75. No C’s. It’s funny how you could avoid getting C’s, but it still could be really low. But no C’s or C+. B minuses caused that? So my cumulative science GPA should end up, with the way it’s looking, at a 3.58 Science GPA by the end of it all.

A: 3.58 is a good GPA. You have this dip sophomore year and then you bounced back. And the bounce back tells a bigger story than that final number. And the final numbers are not even bad, to begin with. A 3.58 is a solid GPA. It’s not amazing. But who cares? You are much more than that GPA number.

'The story behind your GPA is much more important than that final number.'Click To Tweet

Schools really harp on holistic admissions. They look at the big picture. Stop worrying about the minutiae in the details and worry about your total application.

Obviously, the MCAT is a big factor. So make sure you treat the MCAT with respect and do well there. Make sure you’re getting the clinical experiences and the shadowing experiences so that you have a solid foundation on why you are wanting to go into medicine. So you can put that in a personal statement and throughout your application. Make it resonate that this is what you want to do, and then crush it in your interviews.

[11:07] Connecting Culture with the App

Q: “I am Colombian and Latina. And so much of my story is rooted in my culture. And so much of the reason why I want to be a physician goes back to my culture, to my ethnicity, and the way I was raised within that ethnicity and that culture. But I also don’t want it to seem like overkill on my application. I don’t want to be screaming in anybody’s face that I’m Latina. Do you have any advice on how to have a good balance?”

It really depends on how you communicate what the culture and how that culture is driving you to want to be a physician. You just have to be careful because a lot of times, students will focus on that. And it really doesn’t make sense as to how x led to y.

So make sure there’s a solid connection between what you think you’re talking about in terms of culture and wanting to have culture as a big part of what you’re doing. Really connect with why you want to be a physician.