Any interviews with a 6V 27 MCAT?

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Lexipi

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You'll probably get screened at most MD schools with that verbal score. DO schools, I'm not entirely sure, but my guess is you'll get a few looks. I know it sucks, but you might need to look into a retake.
 
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OP, are you by any chance ESL or URM?
 
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If I were to retake any time soon, I do not think I would be able to improve on my verbal and as for the sciences, they might even go down considering I have not been studying and will not have time to re-study any time soon :(
 
If you don't think you'll improve, don't retake it. You will get some forgiveness for being ESL, but you may not make it past some screens. If you're going to apply this cycle with this score, definitely apply broadly and perhaps to some DO schools.
 
If you don't think you'll improve, don't retake it. You will get some forgiveness for being ESL, but you may not make it past some screens. If you're going to apply this cycle with this score, definitely apply broadly and perhaps to some DO schools.

I would hope there would be no leniency for ESL for a Mexican-American applicant. There are plenty of first gen Asian immigrants with a much steeper language learning curve due to grammatical differences in the languages who don't get special treatment.

The URM thing is a different issue and will help OP.
 
OP scored well on the sciences and I think the 6 is buffered by the ESL/URM status. And judging from OP's extracurriculars, I believe that he/she still has a good chance at US MD schools
 
I would hope there would be no leniency for ESL for a Mexican-American applicant. There are plenty of first gen Asian immigrants with a much steeper language learning curve due to grammatical differences in the languages who don't get special treatment.

The URM thing is a different issue and will help OP.

How do you know that?
 
I would hope there would be no leniency for ESL for a Mexican-American applicant. There are plenty of first gen Asian immigrants with a much steeper language learning curve due to grammatical differences in the languages who don't get special treatment.

The URM thing is a different issue and will help OP.

Except there is more of a Spanish speaking population than Asian-language speaking populations in this country. Spanish is are second most spoken language and thus it makes sense to show some leniency for Spanish speakers, and it does happen if they are exceptional in other areas, but I think this is true for any language, not just Spanish. While we also have large Asian populations, there are many different Asian languages and Asians are overrepresented in medicine. I would think OP will get some leniency from states like CA, AZ, Texas, New York, New Jersey, Florida, maybe schools in Boston.
 
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What does that have to do with your bolded statement?


brace yourselves


pre-emptive in b4

Haha, no flame war here. My point is hopefully non-inflammatory: if we're going to be lenient on ESL people wrt MCAT scores, we should be more lenient on first gen Asians than first gen Hispanics due to language-learning difficulties. I don't think the data reflects this is happening based on acceptance rates for these groups, but I suppose I have to agree with you that I don't know for sure that this isn't happening. URMs are recruited for other reasons and that's ok.
 
Haha, no flame war here. My point is hopefully non-inflammatory: if we're going to be lenient on ESL people wrt MCAT scores, we should be more lenient on first gen Asians than first gen Hispanics due to language-learning difficulties. I don't think the data reflects this is happening based on acceptance rates for these groups, but I suppose I have to agree with you that I don't know for sure that this isn't happening. URMs are recruited for other reasons and that's ok.

I don't know how you can justify these differences because Spanish also has different grammar than English (English is both Germanic and Romantic), but I agree they should be more lenient on both. They could replace some of the high stat people in both demographics with ESL people from the same demographic. The hard thing with Asians is there is more than 1 language. The sheer volume of Spanish speakers in this country necessitates Spanish speaking healthcare workers and sometimes translators just aren't efficient. You definitely need the same for any foreign language, but English and Spanish are the most common languages here. Regardless, I think they look favorably on anybody who is multilingual, especially if the school in that region has a population with a common language.
 
Do you guys know of any specific schools where I might have a better chance? OOS ?

It also doesn't help that I'm a CA resident... I'm also feeling so discouraged since I am really interested in the PRIME programs in CA; their mission statements truly embody the kind of physician I want to be. But due to my MCAT, I feel like they are out if my reach now.
 
Do you guys know of any specific schools where I might have a better chance? OOS ?

It also doesn't help that I'm a CA resident... I'm also feeling so discouraged since I am really interested in the PRIME programs in CA; their mission statements truly embody the kind of physician I want to be. But due to my MCAT, I feel like they are out if my reach now.

Maybe Charles Drew University/UCLA, but they have few spots and similar stats as UCLA. They have a strong community leadership mission. They seek people who will be leaders in the community. Like I said you could get lucky with a state school. UMDNJ interviews very few OOS people, but they interviewed me primarily because I spoke Spanish. Rochester University started my interview in Spanish to see if I actually spoke it. I had low GPA and I still got interviewed. You may have to apply to a ton of schools though because you never know who will like you. Schools in regions with Spanish speakers will be interested, like I said, CA, AZ, NM, TX, NY, NJ, FL, Boston and other cities with Spanish speakers
 
Maybe Charles Drew University/UCLA, but they have few spots and similar stats as UCLA. They have a strong community leadership mission. They seek people who will be leaders in the community. Like I said you could get lucky with a state school. UMDNJ interviews very few OOS people, but they interviewed me primarily because I spoke Spanish. Rochester University started my interview in Spanish to see if I actually spoke it. I had low GPA and I still got interviewed. You may have to apply to a ton of schools though because you never know who will like you. Schools in regions with Spanish speakers will be interested, like I said, CA, AZ, NM, TX, NY, NJ, FL, Boston and other cities with Spanish speakers

Thanks Arbor Vitae for your input :)
I will definitely look into schools in these states first .
 
I think you have a chance OP. We need more hispanic physicians. Sure you will get screened out at many places (avoid state schools you are not a a resident of), but you definitely have a shot. There is no need to be 'lenient' with Asian ESL speakers because we have a very large over-representation of them in medical schools to begin with. Some of my state schools only have N=2 hispanic students in a class of 200. OP, do some research and apply to schools that accept a lot of hispanic students. Good luck to you!
 
I know someone who matches you're situation pretty much exactly. Like you may be a shadow of her past in space-time ;). She ended up not getting in the first cycle but received a phone call when the second cycle started asking if she would do a SMP to (guaranteed) med school path starting pretty much right then and there. She had to take classes for a year and started med school the following year. This is a mid-tier MD school. She did know people fairly well at that school though...
 
I can definitely agree that we need more Hispanic doctors... As a research assistant in the ER, I actually spent most of my time translating for patients(a huge majority are Spanish speaking only) and every single one has always been grateful when they meet someone who not only knows their language but their culture. Living in a rural agriculture community, many of the people here work as farm workers, picking fruit under 90+ degree weather for minimum wage. They don't have access to health insurance so when they do end up in the hospital, their condition is usually urgent. Many of them are even afraid of getting admitted into the hospital because they are afraid to miss work and get replaced ( and can't pay huge hospital bills) ... I know this because I like to converse with these patients but also because my parents are farm workers themselves and they have also experienced this.


I really think I can make a difference as a Hispanic female doctor.. It just breaks my heart that a 6 in verbal can keep me from matriculating...

I hope you get in!! One thing I would do is start making connections now with various diversity offices at schools you are interested in. They can give you insight into your chances and help you out and might even be a part of the adcom. Make the rest of your application shine by writing well in your personal essay and activities on the amcas. Numbers are not everything but you also need to show your passion and strengths so you aren't overlooked.
 
I know someone who matches you're situation pretty much exactly. Like you may be a shadow of her past in space-time ;). She ended up not getting in the first cycle but received a phone call when the second cycle started asking if she would do a SMP to (guaranteed) med school path starting pretty much right then and there. She had to take classes for a year and started med school the following year. This is a mid-tier MD school. She did know people fairly well at that school though...

Would you mind sharing what med school that was?
 
I hope you get in!! One thing I would do is start making connections now with various diversity offices at schools you are interested in. They can give you insight into your chances and help you out and might even be a part of the adcom. Make the rest of your application shine by writing well in your personal essay and activities on the amcas. Numbers are not everything but you also need to show your passion and strengths so you aren't overlooked.

I took your advice about making phone calls to some diversity offices for CA schools. :) I concluded that I will definitely proceed and apply this cycle.
 
My ex-boyfriend got into UF his first application cycle last year with a 3.5 and a 25 mcat. He's not an URM either. He did have a NIH internship, so that probably helped his sub-par stats.
 
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