Will undergraduate transcripts be my downfall?

[via123]

Hello! Will try to keep this short. 

I had a horrible first undergraduate experience - finished with a 3.01 GPA because my mom got sick at the beginning of it and died of the sickness at the end of it. This was many years ago. Finished a second undergraduate degree at a different school with a 3.96 GPA many years later, and got into medical school (at the same school as my first undergrad). 

I just found out that the medical transcripts I'll be submitting next year for CARMS will include both my first undergraduate degree, and my medical school degree, since I completed them at the same school and all the grades show together. Now I'm freaking out that for schools who don't request undergraduate transcripts, they'll only see the one transcript (the horrible with the medical school) and not the redemption transcript, and that I'll be at a huge disadvantage because every program will inadvertently see my 3.01 GPA. 

Has anyone been in a similar situation? I've asked for a meeting with the academic councillor - but I'm wondering if anyone has had success in requesting their medical transcripts to be sent as a standalone? 

TIA

[dragoncat]

To be honest, you got into medical school and will most likely finish with good academic standing. Any program that chooses not to rank you because of some low gpa in your undergrad life is making a stupid decision. If your medical scholl didnt care, why should a residency program care?

And even if they do care, is that a program you want to match to? Think about how harsh they would be on their residents, sounds exhausting imo. 

Carms is stressful but dont overthink and make it more so! You will be just fine. They recieve hundred if not thousands of transcripts, I promise you they are not sitting there judging people on undergraduate grades. As long as you did fine in medical school, they are happy with that. 

[user56743]

I was equally as anxious as you going into CaRMS this year knowing my undergraduate marks were terrible. I had mentally prepared myself for the worst, but ultimately ended up getting interviews to every school I applied to that said they considered undergraduate marks. Don’t sweat it - it’s a relatively insignificant part of your application in the grand scheme of things  Who you are and what you did to get here matter way more. You got yourself through medical school and that’s really what matters from an academic standpoint. If you’re really worried about it, I do think you make a solid case for requesting your medical school transcript be standalone and seeing if you can submit your second undergraduate marks instead.

[Edict]

7 hours ago, via123 said:

Hello! Will try to keep this short. 

I had a horrible first undergraduate experience - finished with a 3.01 GPA because my mom got sick at the beginning of it and died of the sickness at the end of it. This was many years ago. Finished a second undergraduate degree at a different school with a 3.96 GPA many years later, and got into medical school (at the same school as my first undergrad). 

I just found out that the medical transcripts I'll be submitting next year for CARMS will include both my first undergraduate degree, and my medical school degree, since I completed them at the same school and all the grades show together. Now I'm freaking out that for schools who don't request undergraduate transcripts, they'll only see the one transcript (the horrible with the medical school) and not the redemption transcript, and that I'll be at a huge disadvantage because every program will inadvertently see my 3.01 GPA. 

Has anyone been in a similar situation? I've asked for a meeting with the academic councillor - but I'm wondering if anyone has had success in requesting their medical transcripts to be sent as a standalone? 

TIA

Just do it, i've done the file review, its not likely to be commented on, but if it is, its not good. Ask to see if they can send your 2nd undergraduate transcript or none at all. 

This is CaRMS, do whatever you can, you do not want to regret not doing as much as you can. 

[Mimish]

I am 95% sure that if you ask your university to only send in your med school transcript, they will only send the med school transcript.

Imagine you are applying for a job. You have a first degree in Russian literature and a second degree in mechanical engineering. If those two degrees were fused, your employer would go through 20 pages of transcript. It is not logical.

And if ever it is not possible, most programs will just discard the part they are not interested in. Many of them write they do not consider supplementary documentation on the CaRMS website.

Assuming they do comment on it, tell the truth. Tell them your mom, your support, your most sincere well-wisher and friend, got sick and died. Tell them you knew the most important thing for your mom was for you to graduate school and, as my own mom says, have your bread between your own fingers. Therefore, you dragged and pulled yourself through your first undergrad in her honor. It was not perfect, it was not as beautiful as it could be, but you persevered because you knew she would never have wanted, in any form, for any reason, to be the reason you did not move forward. Many of the people on the committee will have children and will know that desire a parent has to just see his or her child autonomous, independent and able to fend for him or herself in this world. And more often than not, this is intimately linked with having some form of qualifications, university, college or other.

I don't think it is any more wrong to pull through thick and thin to get a degree in trying times of pain and loss than it is to take some time off to grieve and come back after to resume. And if ever they do view all of that in a negative light, then it is honestly on them. I would rather not match in a program of choice than have to put up 2-5 years with people who have such inability to imagine walking a mile in someone else's shoes. I would only hope they would never have to go through what you went through.

As well, and most importantly, I am truly sorry for your loss, your mom has raised an amazing person who perseveres in difficult times, someone who fights and never gives up.

[via123]

Thank you all, you've really made me feel a lot better. Especially @Mimish, who so eloquently described exactly the situation I was in at the time. My mother was a single mom, and would not under any circumstance let me pause my degree for fear that I wouldn't complete it and as a result be unable to fend for myself after she passed. Your words mean a lot, thank you!