As many of you had expressed that going through med school is hard work and much harder than MCAT prep or getiing an A from bio class, for example. Now I have heard a S of a friend’s friend was dropping out of a med school and his parents were furious because he had never told them his difficulties. So, when the reality set in, his parents kicked him out of the house. Of course, I am sure it is just temporary.
This is only one example, I am sure there are more, mostly kept to themselves and had not discussed openly in CC.
What I really want to find out is where can I find the med school graduation rate. Is there a chart out there? How easy a med school student can be flunked out?
You have to either decide that medicine is not for you, or have some pretty serious personal problems to be dropping out. The support for struggling students is deep and wide.
I found this paper on medical school graduation rates overall. It doesn’t break down by individual school. Still, if it is a US MD school, I would imagine that the person didn’t reach out for help. https://www.aamc.org/download/102346/data/aibvol7no2.pdf
Although this paper was written in 2007, the data points are now 20 years old. The ramifications of increased number of schools/seats is not factored in yet.
Drop out vs. flunk out are very different. The flunk out rate has to be minuscule (i.e 1-2% max and even that feels high). At my school if someone is really struggling academically they usually just drop them back to redo a year. You’d have to fail again then to probably even be considered for dismissal.
Voluntary withdrawal due to either change of heart or some other extenuating circumstance - while rare (of my class of 140 I think this applies to 3 or 4 people) is much more common than actual flunking out. It usually happens during/ right after 1st year. I imagine dropping out later than that is extremely rare.
It is an exceptional situation when medical student is actually dropping off. Med. school will support and will provide any help and all kind of assistance to keep the students. I am actually surprized as it is a first time that I hear about dropping from the Med. School.
There was someone on SDN that just dropped out and did a YouTube video about it. She was an overachiever, got to medical school and hated all of it. The only other person that I knew that dropped out of medical school was a kid that went to a Caribbean school and washed out. Over half his class was forced out by the time that it came time to be allowed to take the Step 1 exam.
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Now I have heard a S of a friend’s friend was dropping out of a med school and his parents were furious because he had never told them his difficulties. So, when the reality set in, his parents kicked him out of the house. Of course, I am sure it is just temporary.
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Wow…who would do that? I know that I would be very confused/upset/etc, but a loving parent has to know that a person doesn’t make such a decision on a whim.
But there's little evidence to suggest his posturing as a "black" applicant helped him get into these schools. First, there is no point of comparison: Chokal-Ingam never applied to medical schools as an Indian-American.
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Ultimately, he told CNN he applied at 22 medical schools and interviewed at 11. He was wait-listed at four schools and got into only one.
Chokal-Ingam eventually attended Saint Louis University Medical School, dropping out after two years.
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If he got 11 interviews with THAT GPA, then surely his supposed URM status is what gave him the big nudge. There are many med schools that are desperate for male AA students…desperate.
I have a close friend who quit right before the end of his first year. He thought he was doing poorly and decided it just wasn’t for him. His parents were furious. Within a few months he regretted his choice. His parents went with him to talk to the dean. Turns out he was doing just fine, and the school actually readmitted him, but he had to retake his entire first year.
That sounds odd! With 11 interviews he should be getting more acceptance. Perhaps the interviewer did not take his “JOJO” name as evidence of URM or AA status