3.9 GPA, 3.8 sGPA, 511 MCAT (retake)

[lonely ghost]

Cell biology/biochemistry major.

Took the old MCAT and got a deflating 28 (10/8/10); retook the new MCAT and got an unbalanced 511 (128/128/125!!/130) -- not sure if that's a good enough improvement :\ but i'm really not keen on the idea of retaking/the possibility of scoring lower outweighs the benefits of another retake imo.

Taking a gap year to strengthen my ECs/apply early (since I retook the MCAT in August and didn't have the chance to do any applications beforehand). Wondering how I stand at the moment though?

- Research since sophomore year ~15-20 hours/week and ~40 hours/week past summer
- Should have second author on publication before applying
- 120 hours clinical volunteering in ICU (hoping to bump that up to 250+ during gap year)
- TA experience in 2 classes before applying

- Planning to do shadowing + paid laboratory work during my gap year

CA resident and top choice would be UCSD but lol I know that's a long shot. Honestly, any UC would be the dream, but not sure if that's possible. If anyone wants to suggest schools, that'd be great. Definitely planning on applying early next year to ~15 schools with Touro and Western for DO and prob a couple of other DO backups. Any advice/suggestions at all would be great; thanks!

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[studentdocftw]

This is a tricky situation, as your overall score is better, but could be attributed to the new section (130) that nobody knows how to interpret. A 125 on the B/BC section for a cell biology/biochemistry major is a bit disconcerting though seeing as that section SHOULD be your bread and butter. A 511 is still a solid score ~ 31.5 on old MCAT. Advice on this one should probably be left for an ADCOM, @Goro

 

[Lawpy]

A 125 in B/B corresponds roughly to a 9 on the old exam. Not good, but definitely not prohibitive. Don't retake.

 

[lonely ghost]

Yeah, don't know what happened on the B/B section tbqh especially since I scored a 10 on the previous exam. Was definitely expecting at least that again upon retake + extra studying (would have been nice if it was a 128 too lol). I was actually more concerned about the physics/chem because I spent too much time freaking over the first half and ran out of time. Mostly retook to boost up that verbal score (8) but ended up dropping the biology score... double edged sword...

 

[Goro]

I suggest the following:

U VM

Miami

St. Louis

Albany

Albert Einstein (if that paper is in print by app time)

Rochester

Rush

Rosy Franklin

BU

Hofstra

NYMC

VCU

EVMS

Wake Forest

Jefferson

Temple

Drexel

Creighton

George Washington

Emory (if that paper is in print by app time)

Tulane

Loyola

Any new MD school. Skip Central MI and the three new FL schools. I can't recommend CNU.

UCD

UCI

UCR (IF you're from the Inland Empire)

Any DO program

Cell biology/biochemistry major.

Took the old MCAT and got a deflating 28 (10/8/10); retook the new MCAT and got an unbalanced 511 (128/128/125!!/130) -- not sure if that's a good enough improvement :\ but i'm really not keen on the idea of retaking/the possibility of scoring lower outweighs the benefits of another retake imo.

Taking a gap year to strengthen my ECs/apply early (since I retook the MCAT in August and didn't have the chance to do any applications beforehand). Wondering how I stand at the moment though?

- Research since sophomore year ~15-20 hours/week and ~40 hours/week past summer
- Should have second author on publication before applying
- 120 hours clinical volunteering in ICU (hoping to bump that up to 250+ during gap year)
- TA experience in 2 classes before applying

- Planning to do shadowing + paid laboratory work during my gap year

CA resident and top choice would be UCSD but lol I know that's a long shot. Honestly, any UC would be the dream, but not sure if that's possible. If anyone wants to suggest schools, that'd be great. Definitely planning on applying early next year to ~15 schools with Touro and Western for DO and prob a couple of other DO backups. Any advice/suggestions at all would be great; thanks!

 

[lonely ghost]

A 125 in B/B corresponds roughly to a 9 on the old exam. Not good, but definitely not prohibitive. Don't retake.

I suggest the following:

U VM

Miami

St. Louis

Albany

Albert Einstein (if that paper is in print by app time)

Rochester

Rush

Rosy Franklin

BU

Hofstra

NYMC

VCU

EVMS

Wake Forest

Jefferson

Temple

Drexel

Creighton

George Washington

Emory (if that paper is in print by app time)

Tulane

Loyola

Any new MD school. Skip Central MI and the three new FL schools. I can't recommend CNU.

UCD

UCI

UCR (IF you're from the Inland Empire)

Any DO program

Thanks for the advice everyone, and thanks goro for the list of schools. I was semi-seriously considering a retake, but taking everything into consideration including time, money, effort etc, and if a 125 on the bio section isn't prohibitive and if I have a shot at UCD and UCI w/o a retake, then yeah I think I'll just give it a go with my current score. Plus, a third retake looks bad right? Unless you have significantly improve your score, I'm guessing, to~95th percentile or something which I would prob have to invest in a course to do...

But yeah thank you for the input everyone! I really appreciate it!