Should I or should I not? About mentioning illness in the SOP...
I've seen people say you should explain "bad semesters" in the SOP, then some say just not to worry about it. Now I'm not sure what's best to do.
The semesters in question were in my second/third years, and they were back-to-back. One semester just looks bad, then the immediate next semester is all Ws because I had to drop out completely...so it was a whole year of surgeries, then complications I didn't see coming...then more surgeries, on top of two chronic pain disorders (I had to drop out that one semester because the surgery that semester left me unable to walk and sit for a month and a half).
I look at pages that say what to do/not to do in the SOP, but they say two different things about this. I did ask the head of the pathology dept. at the school I'm trying to get into (or, I should say, the school I want to get into and attend, if at all possible) and he said to explain it, IF it affected my grades (which it definitely did).
PS I didn't seek him out to ask anything. I was talking to my old bioethics prof. and mentioned that I wanted to get a PhD in pathology, and he just happened to be friends with the head of the pathology dept. at said school. He set up a "meeting" for us just to chat. :)
The semesters in question were in my second/third years, and they were back-to-back. One semester just looks bad, then the immediate next semester is all Ws because I had to drop out completely...so it was a whole year of surgeries, then complications I didn't see coming...then more surgeries, on top of two chronic pain disorders (I had to drop out that one semester because the surgery that semester left me unable to walk and sit for a month and a half).
I look at pages that say what to do/not to do in the SOP, but they say two different things about this. I did ask the head of the pathology dept. at the school I'm trying to get into (or, I should say, the school I want to get into and attend, if at all possible) and he said to explain it, IF it affected my grades (which it definitely did).
PS I didn't seek him out to ask anything. I was talking to my old bioethics prof. and mentioned that I wanted to get a PhD in pathology, and he just happened to be friends with the head of the pathology dept. at said school. He set up a "meeting" for us just to chat. :)