Being dependent on a letter of extenuating circumstances

[DestroRed]

Hello everyone,

 

I am currently doing my M.Sc. (finishing this Fall) and right now, I am thinking if I have chances to enter med or dentistry in Fall 2023 (if I should start a second undergrad or simply do a PhD).

I finished my undergrad with a GPA of 3.47 according to McGill scale. However, during my first year of my B.Sc., a traumatic incident happened in my life (family member attempted suicide during the end of my first Fall semester and sadly losing that person to suicide in February during my second semester in Winter) which led me to having horrible grades due to trauma and other problems. However, if I exclude this first year, my gpa would have been to 3.80 (winter 2020 excluded, even if I wanted it to be part the gpa calculation). 
 

One question is am I still competitive if I provide a letter of EC with a letter of my family doctor or my hopes are more than officially dead even with one ?

If I complete a letter of EC, would I have better chance to get invited in interviews (my CV is relatively good with tons of volunteering hours, working for Optometrist without borders, having part-time jobs since high school, working in hospitals and clinics around the world (Japan and Algeria where I taught English medical terms), working in research and publications in progress, tutor at UdeM for one course and also playing sports semi-professionally) ?

 

I am currently thinking of starting a second undergrad if not at the age of 24 (probably a cumulative Bachelor’s degree in UdeM in 60c by taking a certificate in Management and a major in Biology with half of the major being transfer credits to respect the 45/60 new credits).

 

Thank you very much for your time !

[Bambi]

A letter of extenuating circumstances may well work, but don't count on it happening and having a Plan B is the way to go.

As you realize, undergrad GPA is King, therefore, studying for a PhD won't accomplish your goal. If I were you, I would go for a second undergrad degree and apply to med school with extenuating circumstances. In my opinion, this is the best way to cover all bases.

[Ninjastar]

2 hours ago, Bambi said:

A letter of extenuating circumstances may well work, but don't count on it happening and having a Plan B is the way to go.

As you realize, undergrad GPA is King, therefore, studying for a PhD won't accomplish your goal. If I were you, I would go for a second undergrad degree and apply to med school with extenuating circumstances. In my opinion, this is the best way to cover all bases.

I second the second undergrad over a PhD, as the undergrad GPA is what counts for the majority of the 70% pre-interview score.

[DestroRed]

Thank you for both of your responses, I will look into starting a second undergrad just in case if anything happens (probably Certificate in Management + Major in Biology, except if you have any other recommendation for a 60 credits B.Sc. (I completed a Bachelor in Biological Sciences at UdeM in 2020, so I can transfer up to 30 credits normally !)).

Question, have you heard successful stories of people with similar cases with low GPA using EXTC ? (I just don't want to eliminate totally my hopes for applying in Dentistry or Med').

Also, to support my EXTC, I decided to retake some classes during Summer (after my 4th semester of my B.Sc.) of some classes that were affected by my situation during my first year and I got an A on all of them (I know McGill takes the best grade out of the 2 if you ever redo a class, but I was not able to redo a full year of class completely). Should I mention that as well in my EXTC to mention that my first year did not represent my real academic performance or just keeping it at saying what happened + providing a proof that I was seeing a psychologist because of that for a few months during that period in order to avoid being in a similar state in the future in case something similar happens again.

[Ninjastar]

2 hours ago, DestroRed said:

Thank you for both of your responses, I will look into starting a second undergrad just in case if anything happens (probably Certificate in Management + Major in Biology, except if you have any other recommendation for a 60 credits B.Sc. (I completed a Bachelor in Biological Sciences at UdeM in 2020, so I can transfer up to 30 credits normally !)).

Question, have you heard successful stories of people with similar cases with low GPA using EXTC ? (I just don't want to eliminate totally my hopes for applying in Dentistry or Med').

Also, to support my EXTC, I decided to retake some classes during Summer (after my 4th semester of my B.Sc.) of some classes that were affected by my situation during my first year and I got an A on all of them (I know McGill takes the best grade out of the 2 if you ever redo a class, but I was not able to redo a full year of class completely). Should I mention that as well in my EXTC to mention that my first year did not represent my real academic performance or just keeping it at saying what happened + providing a proof that I was seeing a psychologist because of that for a few months during that period in order to avoid being in a similar state in the future in case something similar happens again.

You're welcome. My recommendation would be to go for something you know you can perform well in, while also enjoying it (because life is too short).

I have not heard of any. As a next step, you may consider what you hope the outcome of your EXTC would be: to drop your first year grades? In that case, I recommend looking through the invited-for-interview posts on here and McGill's admissions statistics to see how your adjusted GPA would compare. Alternatively, are you looking for emphasis to be placed on your CASPer score ("Based on the academic evaluation or CASPer test approximately 4 to 6 times the number of candidates are moved forward to the CV review...", https://www.mcgill.ca/medadmissions/prospective/selection-process)? In that case, how confident are you for the CASPer? You could apply this year with the EXCT and see what happens, while also working on your second degree. Food for thought.

I can't speak on how to approach the letter, but I do recommend reaching out to the admissions team to ask for more clarity on what kind of documentation you would need. There are also some resources around the internet that offer some guidance on how to approach these EXTC letters.

 

[Bambi]

The Executive Summary in the Letter is that this year did not represent your academic capabilities that were adversely affected by the family tragedy that affected you, which is confirmed by the psychologist! I would be happy to review your draft of such Letter.

Read through this thread:

 

[HoopDreams]

16 hours ago, DestroRed said:

Thank you for both of your responses, I will look into starting a second undergrad just in case if anything happens (probably Certificate in Management + Major in Biology, except if you have any other recommendation for a 60 credits B.Sc. (I completed a Bachelor in Biological Sciences at UdeM in 2020, so I can transfer up to 30 credits normally !)).

Question, have you heard successful stories of people with similar cases with low GPA using EXTC ? (I just don't want to eliminate totally my hopes for applying in Dentistry or Med').

Also, to support my EXTC, I decided to retake some classes during Summer (after my 4th semester of my B.Sc.) of some classes that were affected by my situation during my first year and I got an A on all of them (I know McGill takes the best grade out of the 2 if you ever redo a class, but I was not able to redo a full year of class completely). Should I mention that as well in my EXTC to mention that my first year did not represent my real academic performance or just keeping it at saying what happened + providing a proof that I was seeing a psychologist because of that for a few months during that period in order to avoid being in a similar state in the future in case something similar happens again.

Based on McGill's website, extenuating circumustances can be considered depending on :

1. The credibility of the circumstances, including supporting official or objective documentation provided;
2. The time-frame of the circumstances (defined start and end dates);
3. The connection between the described circumstances and the applicant’s academic performance (specific courses which were affected).

Regardless of the circumstances, the program needs to have enough data to make sure you can handle the workload in medicine.
I believe they could help you justify a short-term issue : one grade or one semester or one year with lower grades.
If you had a 3.9 GPA and that suddenly dropped to 3.0 for one year, then yes it would be reasonable to use such a letter.
If your average was 3.4 GPA during the 4 years of your undergraduate studies with improvements towards the end of it, I would not count on it
I believe seeing a psychologist is not enough ; you would need a medical evaluation linking a diagnosis to your direct performance.

In my opinion, you loose nothing trying but I would get ready for a second undergraduate degree.
If you already have a B. Sc., doing another bachelor's could be done in 2 years.
I would recommend looking into Exercice Science at Concordia.

Feel free to message.

Best of luck!

[Anonymous666]

Don’t lose hope! I would recommend you to apply next cycle and see how McGill will rank you. I am in the same situation as you and I can understand the challenge and the pain you went through. For sure we all know that a GPA in 3.4x is not competitive. However, I would like to let you know that a few years ago, there was a candidate who was on waiting list for interview with a GPA of 3.4x (you can find this post in this forum). So don’t give up, you have an amazing CV! Just do your best for Casper and write an excellent EC! Good luck for your future application! 

[DestroRed]

Hello !

Small late update, I didn’t go in and was ranked early 700s (I passed the pre-screen). I had a 4th Quartile Casper, however after looking back at my CV, I knew my CV was bad (few spelling mistakes, didn’t show how each experience were important and almost didn’t relate any experiences to any CanMEDS competencies. Basically it was almost a corporate CV). 
 

Now, I just finished my M.Sc. and knowing that it could boost my Academic context, do you think that my ECs got accepted with that rank ? Also, I am working on polishing my CV to make it not a mess like last cycle, so hope it can make me competitive enough to get an invite with my current stats. I also enrolled this semester in a second undergrad (Business undergrad at HEC), but I really hate it even though it’s easy. I have no motivation to come to class and also discovered that they can’t transfer 30 credits from my B.Sc. (might have to do this undergrad in 3 years instead), so I am thinking of quitting it if my stats are now competitive enough and simply work on MCAT to apply instead in the US or to start another undergrad in the Winter semester.

 

Thank you all for your feedbacks, truly appreciated and if you have more to share with these infos, please let me know!

[DestroRed]

Hello !

 

New update for those that were in the same scenario as me, I got accepted in DMD at McGill for Fall 2024! So they took into consideration my EC!

 

So yeah, even if your original GPA is subpar, an EC can always help to show your true academic potential if something happened in your life that may affected certain grades. A full year worth of GPA was removed and I was able to get in DMD thanks to that!

Never give up!

[user_79836492163]

On 5/20/2022 at 7:27 PM, DestroRed said:

Thank you for both of your responses, I will look into starting a second undergrad just in case if anything happens (probably Certificate in Management + Major in Biology, except if you have any other recommendation for a 60 credits B.Sc. (I completed a Bachelor in Biological Sciences at UdeM in 2020, so I can transfer up to 30 credits normally !)).

Question, have you heard successful stories of people with similar cases with low GPA using EXTC ? (I just don't want to eliminate totally my hopes for applying in Dentistry or Med').

Also, to support my EXTC, I decided to retake some classes during Summer (after my 4th semester of my B.Sc.) of some classes that were affected by my situation during my first year and I got an A on all of them (I know McGill takes the best grade out of the 2 if you ever redo a class, but I was not able to redo a full year of class completely). Should I mention that as well in my EXTC to mention that my first year did not represent my real academic performance or just keeping it at saying what happened + providing a proof that I was seeing a psychologist because of that for a few months during that period in order to avoid being in a similar state in the future in case something similar happens again.

Ignore my other reply if you saw it lol, I didn't see the new post saying you got in but congrats!