3.1 GPA, retake 516?

[Overthink]

Edit: Thanks!

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[eteshoe]

No there is no need to retake the MCAT

 

[kamakazi5]

Retaking can only hurt you. At best people will not care if you score higher and at worst will mark off for retaking with such a high score.

 

[Dr. Death]

Did you make basically this same thread under a different name yesterday?

 

[Cyberdyne 101]

You're overthinking this. Don't retake.

 

[Overthink]

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[Goro]

Retaking the MCAT would get you rejected at the wise gyngyn's school.

Don't do stupid. The GPAs are the issue. Your SMP GPA, while not stellar, should yield some love, somewhere.

Now I have seen previous threads like this, with clear indications from adcoms that retaking anything > 34-35 is pure foolishness and may likely count against me. I am an SMP student with a projected 3.56 SMP gpa at the end of my program. My current stats are: cGPA: 3.11 sGPA: 3.00 MCAT: 513 Retake: 516

I have already retaken the MCAT, as indicated above. This being the research year of my master's, I have little time or funds to engage in serious postbacc work. I will be taking ~12 credits postbacc to hopefully raise my cGPA and sGPA to 3.2 and 3.1, respectively.

My question is, after retaking important courses that I did poorly in previously (Orgo II, Cell Bio, Biochem) this year, will retaking the MCAT (only if the practice AAMC MCAT is +/- 1 point of 521) be useful for my application? The primary motivation is to do the best I can with the time/resources I have.

*commence unanimous announcements of craziness*

 

[Goro]

If you want to get into LizzyM's school, you had damn well better be getting higher than 3.56 in your SMP. A LOT higher!

The idea to retake is based on experiences of others in my program. I have a strong interest in research (3000+ research hours, book chapter, etc.) and would like to develop an application for a research-oriented school. I have no expectation of receiving attention from the US News top 30, but would rather attend a school with strong research opportunities. Those successful in entering those schools from my SMP all had 38+ MCATs, even if retakes. I remember @LizzyM indicating students retaking 34s to aim for research schools.

And nope, I am not familiar with another thread like mine. Sorry for any redundancy. I was hoping for advice taking into account my academic details.

 

[Overthink]

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