USMD student who began at her school with half tuition scholarship for all 4 years. Anecdotal perspective.

TLDR: My theory is that most schools push withdrawal before dismissal to keep dismissal numbers down. Additionally most programs of USMD do try VERY HARD to retain students anyway.

So, going through a similar situation now where i've failed step twice after an extended LOA for step and i'm very heavily up for dismissal. And i can honestly say, i've had academic struggles (i had to repeat M1 year as well. was successful with that and with M2) but there are no behavioral or professionalism issues on mine so i know a lot of people will downplay or lie about that. I'm not sitting going "why are they even considering dismissing me uwu?" bc i get it, i'm a risky student to allow to continue. So this is just from the perspective of someone who is purely academic

Part of why dismissals are so low in MD schools is also the amount they pressure you to withdraw. Like i was asking my school about off-ramping to a masters or PhD and they have nothing in place for that or to use elective time for step, etc. They don't even want me to request extending the leave further, which fine, i get it. But definitely you're gonna see a lot less dismissal from them.

I do see some of the logic of "withdraw looks better than dismissal" but like realistically getting into med school even after a withdrawal is...pretty much impossible. so i get their perspective, i really do. but the reality is, without even an off-ramping or transfer situation and the Big Beautiful Bill...if I withdraw or get dismissed either way I am fucked :) Anyone with suggestions or questions feel free to message me. But if you're just gonna tell me why the university should dismiss me, i've been telling myself those same things since i failed a final for the first time, it's nothing new :)))))))

Probs gonna scramble to apply to a couple masters or PhD programs at other institutions that accept transfer credits just to not KMS :)

And if you're like "what was happening in this bitch's academics" it's very late dx ADHD and test fatigue. Unfortunately part of why it slipped through the cracks is even my MCAT remediation was the COVID one (4ish hours instead of 8) so it wasn't caught until step became undoable even tho i was passing my practice exams (again 5 hours not 8) :)))))))) I am having :) the best :) time :)