Need a bit of guidance.

[Oscarmike]

I'm planning on applying to medicine for the term beginning Fall 2011, and have undergone a sort of "situation" in the past two years of my life. I need some advice on where to proceed from here. I'll start with the story.

 

Coming out of high school I achieved a 4.0 GPA in first year at the U of A (taking most pre-reqs this year except for physics, 6 A's and 4 A+'s). I wrote the MCAT in the summer following and scored a 37T overall.

 

Going into 2nd year, I applied for medicine only in both Alberta schools for the term starting fall 2008. I scored a 4.0 in the first semester (only 4 grades, the 5th course was a full year physiology course). During that Christmas break I went through a real tragedy involving myself and someone very close to me, who didn't survive it, while on vacation. Phyiscally and mentally, I was broken. I mourned my loss and blamed myself for the entire thing, but I thought I could keep going. I got both interviews and tanked them. I wasn't prepared and I wasn't focused. That semester my GPA dropped to a 2.6. After that semester I decided to seek professional help.

 

I went through two psychologists and one psychiatrist, and antidepressant medications. I took the first semester off because I was afraid of hurting my GPA. I thought I was ready to go back for the winter semester, but my GPA only went back up to a 3.0. I was still a wreck and couldn't concentrate.

 

I again kept seeing professional help, and found solace in my 3rd psychologist, who genuinely found ways for me to cope with my issues. I decided to take another fall semester off and came back for this semester, winter 2010. This semester I'm taking six courses so it counts as a full year when applying as a 4 year student. I began volunteering (since I had no volunteer experience on my first application, just leadership and athletic achievements). I am fully determined to achieve excellence this semester and next year during my application process.

 

However, I'm very concerned as to how badly my 2nd and 3rd years are going to affect my consideration for admission.

 

I'm asking for guidance on how to proceed on applications across the country, since I can't find some of the information I'm looking for. I'll give an example of how I'm proceeding for my U of A application after talking to an advisor:

 

-Applying as a four year student

-My 3rd year was not > or = to 18 credits, so it does not count towards my adjusted GPA in my application

-The lowest annual GPA will be dropped (2nd year)

-Writing a letter of request to their Special Considerations Committee as to what exactly happened and to exclude my 2nd year when considering me for interview (as my 2nd year will still be reviewed when considering me for interview, since my final year of consideration will not be completed yet)

 

Result: IF IF IF their committee accepts my request, everything else should go smoothly. However, my request might be looked at and they may believe that I am not able to cope with the stresses and loss associated with medicine as a career, after seeing the impact one event had on me.

 

So my questions are:

-How do I proceed from this point in applying/what steps should I take to ensure interviews?

-Which schools accept letters of request for special consideration and have a committee devoted to those considerations?

-Which schools will drop the lowest annual GPA from the adjusted GPA

-Which schools have such strict admissions policies that I will have no chance with?

-In your professional opinions, will a special considerations committee see this as a negative personal trait, since one event took me so long to recover from, or will they see it as ability to overcome the first personal tragedy to affect me (and it was as personal as it can get)?

 

I apologize in advance for this wall of text that I have subjected you to, and I greatly thank and appreciate the members of this community who take the time to read the entire situation and answer the questions.

[mizz.lee]

Medical schools don't expect you to be a robot. I have a bit of a blemish on my transcript as well, due to illness, and I chose to take a year off to deal with my situation rather than damage my chances more than I already had. I've applied to Toronto and Mac, and was able to send a letter explaining the situation to U of T admissions. They told me that situations like mine (and, I'm sure, yours as well) were the reason they solicited letters from students for academic consideration. They know that sometimes undergrad doesn't go perfectly for reasons beyond our control, and they want to give everyone a fair chance at admission.

 

 

Or so they say. I assume they dropped the grades from my bad year, we'll see what they think about the year off (and subsequent reduced course load the following year...eep).