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I believe my boyfriend got into school with a 33 and had a 6 in verbal, but his GPA was sky high.
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.
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.
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.
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
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 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 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.