EDIT… Thanks for replies…
I would not mention it. I had a low graduate school GPA because I quit graduate school halfway through without withdrawing from courses. I never mentioned it nor was it ever asked about at interviews. I received interviews and an acceptance at my first-choice of medical schools. Your undergraduate GPA is great and you'll be commended for it.
Thank you, your experience is helpful and gives me some hope.
I would echo MPP’s advice. They will see it on the transcripts & there is no sense in calling additional attention to it. Believe me, medical schools will not consider a DC curriculum sufficiently rigorous to measure your capacity to succeed in medical school - they feel the same way about respiratory & nursing school as well.
However, I think far more germaine to your situation, you will need to be able to articulate why you became disenchanted w/ chiropractics and decided to go to medical school. You will have to do this w/o appearing to denigrate chiropractics or the school & its faculty. I would also avoud opening the can of worms about the alleged ethical issues. As med school interviewers like to ask ethical delimma questions, they may just key on that situation and “explore” how you responded &/or question why you did not respond in some other fashion – you might be just stepping into a flaming bag of dog doo-doo.
I agree with the wise ones who answered before me. Don't mention it. No reason to.
I wanted to let you know that I applied in Texas, and lots of my prereqs were over 10 years old. The schools did NOT have a time limit on how old coursework could be. So, unless it's changed since 2001, you shouldn't need to retake. A quick call to TMDSAS will give you a definitive answer. Baylor didn't have a limit either.
Dave,
That's a VERY good point. Adcoms do use alot of people's personal statements as the basis of the interview, I really wouldn't want to get into all that.
Thanks for listening, DcK
In your post you put several things that can be spun positively. Rather than say “chiro can’t do this or that”, and talk negatively about the chiropractic profession, you can say, “while as a chiro I could do this, I would like to ALSO be able to do this and this, etc…,” rather than dwelling on what chiros lack, give a nod to what they can do, but then take off on all the other ways you’d like to help your patients- I think that would be an excellent way both to explain your career change. And it’s okay to mention that as a chiro you felt limited. You can do that without being negative. I think most of us career-changers had to explain why we were leaving careers without appearing negative toward the career we were leaving. I think I used words to the effect that I didn’t consider becoming a doctor changing careers, but changing my focus. Or something to that effect.
I think one of the things the adcoms will appreciate is that you aren’t changing on a whim. You have a well thought out reason for changing, it seems to me, and I think they like that.
Thanks EpiDoc, your right and that was very helpful.
Definitely spin this such that you emphasize the positive ways in which you can affect changes for your patients, but flatly state that you want to be able to deliver comprehensive, full-bore medical care.
Also, just as an aside, it would appear that many DO schools love DCs or DCs in process. In my tenure at KCOM, I know of a few DCs and even more ex-DC students. Also, there was a generous spattering of PT/OT folks.