can i hide my old transcripts or will the new schools find out?

[949]

i am curious if the new schools in socal will know i graduated from another school locally here?
especially if i put on the application that i never graduated from another school.

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[ShyRem]

This gets asked every year.

Don't hide it. If they find out (and it's EASY to find out - trust me), they can withdraw your matriculation and black ball you from ever getting into school. Yes, they can do so even after you have paid 4 years of tuition, aced all your courses, and are one month from graduation.

 

[949]

My story:
I received my B.S. in M.I.S.
During the time I did it, I was very immature and didn't look towards the future. On top of that I didn't know how to study and I had no technique. My goal was just to get my degree and go to work. While in the work force, I felt that I could do more than this. One of my skill sets I learned, I could figure out solutions to problems and fix them. What was more important, I cared about the problems and took action every time. Its been a while in the work force and I have matured. I feel that not only did I mature mentally but I found my place. I finally found my personal studying techique (long story).

My GPA was in the 2.0 range when I graduated with my BS. I am now currently at another community college redoing everything from the beginning. I still have a ways to go. My current GPA is now 4.0 at this new school. I have A's in every class I take, including sceince and math classes that I had never tried before. I actually enjoy school this time. I have also been asked by professors to tutor their students, something that would never have come across my mind in a million years.

What do you think will happen if I try to apply to a med school and show them my previous records?
My fear will be that they will deny me because of my previous grades and not bother with my new accomplishments. This is why I am asking if I can just avoid my old transcripts being shown.

A counselor at my community college says I am wasting my time redoing classes because the med schools will only look at the previous grades.

 

[gman33]

If your old gpa is in the 2.0 range, it's virtually impossible to bring it up to the 3.5 range you need for med school.

For DO schools, they allow for grade replacement.
Retake a class and they only look at the new grade.
If you have some D's and F's, retake those classes and your cum GPA will shoot up fast.
If you got all C's and D's, it will take a lot longer, because there are more classes you would need to retake.

A SMP is another option. Search the forums if you don't know what that is.

 

[cabinbuilder]

LIke I have said many times before. Unless that counselor you spoke with has gone through medical school themselves (trust me they haven't) that person has no clue of what they are saying to you.

Almost nobody has a perfect record, mine included.

1) You have to report all classes/grades from all schools

2) You have graduated so all classes you take now are new, Retake the core pre-med requirements, do great and show an improvement (you already have done that)

3) Apply to DO school and see what happens. You cannot sit and speculate or obsess about whether you will/will not get in until you apply.

 

[949]

If your old gpa is in the 2.0 range, it's virtually impossible to bring it up to the 3.5 range you need for med school.

For DO schools, they allow for grade replacement.
Retake a class and they only look at the new grade.
If you have some D's and F's, retake those classes and your cum GPA will shoot up fast.
If you got all C's and D's, it will take a lot longer, because there are more classes you would need to retake.

A SMP is another option. Search the forums if you don't know what that is.

as far as i know from talking to a counselor at yet another college, after receiving a diploma those grades can no longer be changed or updated. so i can not retake those classes.

 

[gman33]

as far as i know from talking to a counselor at yet another college, after receiving a diploma those grades can no longer be changed or updated. so i can not retake those classes.

Your transcript for that school won't be changed, but that's not what matters. When you apply to med school (MD, DO) your cum gpa is calculated according to the rules of that body.

MD schools count everything equally, DO schools allow you to retake classes and only count the new grade.

Look at the application site for DO schools for more specifics.

 

[949]

DO schools are new to me.

I did some searches on DO schools. Why do some people on the board look at DO schools as a lower level compared to MD schools?

 

[EagerToBeMD]

What did you do after you got your BS?

I graduated college with a 2.7 GPA and worked for a few years, then went back to school and got another degree. All my courses post-BS degree were counted as post-bacc which has its own column on the application. My GPA in post-bacc courses was a 3.9, but overall GPA was still only a 3.0. However, because of my GPA in post-bacc and my science GPA (since I hadn't taken any science in undergrad) and my decent MCAT score (30+), I managed to get in. Despite misconceptions, if you're a non-traditional, you can still get in if you prove that you've turned things around. Med schools will be understanding of youthful indiscretions if time has passed and you've proven you're a different person now. But be warned, this means you should be aiming for a 4.0 from here on out, at least 60 credits, and a good MCAT!

 

[cabinbuilder]

DO schools are new to me.

I did some searches on DO schools. Why do some people on the board look at DO schools as a lower level compared to MD schools?

Because they are stupid and continuing the stigma.

 

[Isoprop]

Here's a list of my grades when I didn't really take school seriously:
C B- C C C A B+ B+ B+ B- B B B+ A B C A- B+ A- A- A- A- B B B A- B+ A- B- B- B- A A A A- B+ B C+ B B B C B D B C- F C- D A B- A+ B D- A C-

Then here are my grades after returning back to school with new focus:
A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A- A A A A- A A A A A

I have acceptances to both MD and DO schools.

Tell your counselor to suck it.

 

[gman33]

Unfortunately, DO schools and DO's have historically been looked down upon by MD's and the MD establishment for years. Many students thinking of medicine have never heard of them, don't know about them, thus never considered them. there are lots of threads on the SDN boards discussing them, but I will just mention 3 points, some of which have already been brought up.

1) DO application mechanics allow grade replacement of equivalent courses. This does not change your existing transcripts but when your GPA is calculated for the online application, only the last grade will be counted.

2) Be cautious of jumping to Caribbean or other off-shore MD schools. A few are very good and have excellent placement records. Many more are just above money mills leaving students with a worthless degree

3) Ironically, likely because of the influx of older/non-traditional student especially with the growth of post-bacc programs, and the perception by many students that only near perfect GPA and high MCAT will get you into medical school, on an applicant to seat ratio, it is more competitive to get into DO school than MD school (Okay everyone calm down). Didn't say it was harder, I said more competitive. It appears that many older/non-trads entering the applicant pool are considering DO school in addition to or in place of MD school. This has been discussed at AACOM , AAMC and other meetings. The trend is only a few years old and has only been looked at recently.

What data do you have to support this statement?
There are many MD schools that get 10-15,000 applications for 150-200 spots. It doesn't get much more competitive than that.

 

[ozzi22]

i am curious if the new schools in socal will know i graduated from another school locally here?
especially if i put on the application that i never graduated from another school.

hide it, you will be fine

 

[949]

Here's a list of my grades when I didn't really take school seriously:
C B- C C C A B+ B+ B+ B- B B B+ A B C A- B+ A- A- A- A- B B B A- B+ A- B- B- B- A A A A- B+ B C+ B B B C B D B C- F C- D A B- A+ B D- A C-

Then here are my grades after returning back to school with new focus:
A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A- A A A A- A A A A A

I have acceptances to both MD and DO schools.

Tell your counselor to suck it.

your first set of scores actually is better than mine. i did the bare minimum to graduate.

 

[DrMidlife]

Hey, we're all here on the internet? Which is a thing that admissions offices can use too. That internet thing has stores of info, such as NSLDS and other clearinghouses, that have made it easy for admissions to look up your record. And yes, they're looking at facebook and twitter while they're at it.

Have a look at the massive low GPA thread in the postbac forum, for in depth discussion of how to attack a low GPA comeback. If you can do two things:
1. Get a boatload of A's in new coursework (boatload: multiple years full time mostly science)
2. Not give up
...then yeah, you can probably get into med school.

"Can" is not the same as "should" and it would be in your best interest to make peace with another career. Really. The time and effort and cost of doing years of GPA redemption before you do years of medical training should be utterly discouraging. For every 100 people who ask how to come back from a 2.x GPA, we only ever see one or two post about their success. Yes, everybody thinks they're going to be that one or two, that they're going to break 40 on the MCAT, that they can start pulling straight A's by simply wanting to. Just be as adult as you can possibly be about whether you're thinking straight and making good choices.

Best of luck to you.

 

[darklabel]

This gets asked every year.

Don't hide it. If they find out (and it's EASY to find out - trust me), they can withdraw your matriculation and black ball you from ever getting into school. Yes, they can do so even after you have paid 4 years of tuition, aced all your courses, and are one month from graduation.

Just to add to this, even if you're an attending, they can (and most likely will) revoke your degree and license to practice.

Its not worth it op, you'll have to live in fear for the rest of your life and simple background checks WILL show up where you attended. I'm not saying other students haven't "fallen through the cracks" but seriously, just redeem yourself and get straight A's here on out.