Could I get some input about how this mistake might affect my chances for Med school?
Since at 19, way back when, I didn’t have it together enough to believe I could ever make it in Med school, I entered an accelerated RN program. After about a year and a half in the program I decided that while RN’s are a vital part of the health care team, that part was not for me. I left the program, but did not formally withdraw. Now, 20 something years later, I think I have it together and hope to apply in Fall '07. My transcript for that program looks really awesome except for that F for that last nursing section I was in.
While I am confident I can overcome this negative spot on my application, there are days I look at it and think "An F in Nursing? You dropped out of Nursing school and now you want to go to Med school? No way."
Any thoughts? Will adcoms be able to get past it?
I am no expert but I will chime in. If this was maybe 2 years ago, there may be some question but since this was 20 years ago, I think that adcoms may not really make a big deal about it. I would call the school you are interested and find out.
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While I am confident I can overcome this negative spot on my application, there are days I look at it and think “An F in Nursing? You dropped out of Nursing school and now you want to go to Med school? No way.”
Any thoughts? Will adcoms be able to get past it?
Will adcoms be able to get past it? Yes, almost certainly, although of course it depends on the rest of your application and the way you explain your youthful mistake. (I’d write something like this: “I was so impatient to change the direction of my education that I didn’t even observe the academic niceties. Now I realize that good decisions require more careful consideration and planning.” You might not put it that way at all, but I wanted to give an example of how to quickly dispense with this “youthful indiscretion.”)
But the question that pops out at me from what you’ve said is, are YOU able to get past it? It sounds like you are mistakenly judging your current 40-year-old self’s motivation against your 19-year-old self’s lack of foresight and motivation. Your aptitude for getting into and completing medical school has absolutely NOTHING, and I mean NOTHING, to do with dropping out of nursing school in the distant past. If you’d dropped out of bartending school at age 19 it would be equally irrelevant - no more, no less. You’re a different person now. You know what you want to do and how to get there. You’ll presumably have to address that old mistake at least briefly but it should be easy to put to rest.
Good luck!
Mary