3.7cGPA, 3.8sGPA, 28 MCAT

[jlo12b]

Im in my junior year planning to apply this cycle. I feel my MCAT score (8PS,9VR,11BS) is holding me back and I am having trouble deciding if I should try to apply this cycle or take a gap year and retake MCAT.

My EC are decent at best. I have 100 clinical hours, should have 200 by the time I graduate. These hours are through my schools EMR organization. Im very active in my sports club holding a vice president and now president position. I will hopefully be doing research starting this summer under faculty. My community service hours are lacking however I plan on beefing that up over summer.

I am a florida resident. Looking for some advice on what to do. Thanks all!

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[kawaiipupae]

I think you should take a gap year. It seems like you have a lot of activities planned for the summer and it'd be a lot less stressful to explore these opportunities fully through a gap year and be able to talk about them extensively in your essays and interviews. You don't want to be rushing your first application.

 

[Faha]

Work on increasing your GPA during your senior year which will help compensate for your MCAT of 28. A gap year would be a good idea. Apply to all the Florida schools, including the 2 DO schools, as well as at least 10 OOS private lower tier MD schools.

 

[chewy2008]

I agree with taking an extra year to develop your research and extracurricular activities, maybe even retake the MCAT (new version) if time allows. It's never a good idea to rush...if you don't get accepted this coming cycle because of your quite weak application, you will be a re-applicant in the next cycle, which some schools still stigmatize. Good luck!

 

[NYCdude]

A 28 makes an M.D. acceptance difficult but not impossible. I'd advise applying to 10-15 well fitting M.D. schools and a bunch of D.O. schools as backup.

Your stats are very competitive for D.O. One of my friends had your exact same stats and got accepted to both Touro-NY and NYCOM, both great D.O. programs.