Does a leave of absence affect application?

[ceelbe]

I’m probably only going to be applying to the MDCM program in a few years as I’m currently finishing my bachelors degree and then have to do my prereqs, but during this bachelor degree I took a year leave of absence because I had a baby. Does anyone know if this year off would affect my ability to apply? Otherwise all my semesters were/will be full time.

I saw on the website it says “minimum of 60 consecutive graded credits complete at the time of application” but no clue if my situation would be an exception (I don’t have 60 consecutive technically due to the LOA) 

I already emailed to ask but figured I’d see if anyone else here knew already. Thank you!!

[Bambi]

I would think you would be fine, but truthfully, I have no experience with this.

[ceelbe]

11 minutes ago, Bambi said:

I would think you would be fine, but truthfully, I have no experience with this.

Thanks for your reply :)

I’ll post the answer I get from admissions once they reply, for anyone who is curious lol

[ceelbe]

For anyone curious about the answer to this question, they told me that I should apply with a letter of extenuating circumstances to explain the gap in my studies. (https://www.mcgill.ca/medadmissions/applying/requirements/elements/extenuating-circumstances)

Does anyone know if this really hurts my chances? Do they actually look at applications with these letters the same as those without, or do they tend to not really help? 

[Elgar]

8 hours ago, RN_to_MD said:

For anyone curious about the answer to this question, they told me that I should apply with a letter of extenuating circumstances to explain the gap in my studies. (https://www.mcgill.ca/medadmissions/applying/requirements/elements/extenuating-circumstances)

Does anyone know if this really hurts my chances? Do they actually look at applications with these letters the same as those without, or do they tend to not really help? 

I think in a case like yours you should be fine, it's more than a valide reason.

So I didn't write a letter of extenuating circumstances, but I wrote an additional note in the workbook (you have the option I think on the last page) to explain why I did 7 sessions in cegep - I did my first DEC in the normal 4 sessions, and few years later, after graduating I went back to cegep to do pre-requesites in science, and the shortest way to do it was in 3 semesters. They never bothered me with it.