Apply now, later, or not at all?

[jmatt2c]

Hello there!
My story is kind of long and complex, but I am curious on some feedback for this particular situation. Essentially, I started out my collegiate career in music at a school in California. My first semester was great, but my second semester was very bad (I received 2 D's and 3 WU's, which is an unauthorized withdrawal). That semester was difficult for me because my mother had passed away, and I was left to take care of many familial issues, including the sale of my childhood home. after that semester, I received nothing but A's and B's, and switched my major to Athletic Training.

From there, I decided to transfer to Penn State, switched my major to Biology, and have a competitive GPA (about a 3.8 after this semester). I will be receiving my degree from Penn State next year. I plan to take my MCATS this summer, and apply for the fall of next year. My questions are these:

Because of that one semester, will schools even open my file?

Is having everything in by June except my MCAT scores too late? (I know that schools probably won't look at my file until the see those scores, which wouldn't be until September. Is this still too late?)

Should I try for an MD program?

Should I explain in my personal statement why I did so poorly that semester? A lot of my other pre-med friends are telling me to not even mention it.

I have extracurriculars done, such as volunteer work at my local hospital, and being the Vice-President of the Pre-medicine club on my campus. Any insight into this situation would be very appreciated. Thank you for taking the time to read!

EDIT: I'm reposting this here because I posted under the wrong category before.
Also, My current Cumulative (Calculated from both schools) GPA: 3.53
My current Science GPA (Calculated form both schools): 3.78

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[Holmwood]

Because of that one semester, will schools even open my file?
Yes, so long as your GPA is fine and those Ds/Ws are not prerequisite courses for medical school. Make sure you account for all the courses you took at the various colleges in your GPA calculation, and not just the current one.

Is having everything in by June except my MCAT scores too late? (I know that schools probably won't look at my file until the see those scores, which wouldn't be until September. Is this still too late?)
Yes, having scores done by September and completing secondary by late September would be considered late. If you don't have superb MCAT score and Extracurriculars, you're doing yourself a huge disservice in applying late . . . especially since californian peeps have to fight for OOS seats.

Should I try for an MD program?
Yes, why not. So long as your MCAT/GPA checks out.

Should I explain in my personal statement why I did so poorly that semester? A lot of my other pre-med friends are telling me to not even mention it.
If your GPA is fine, then save your personal statement for something better. You'll have a spot in the secondary to explain any grade slips.


Edit:
-------------------------
Why don't you take the MCAT earlier? You'll still be fine if you took the June MCAT.

 

[jmatt2c]

Because of that one semester, will schools even open my file?
Yes, so long as your GPA is fine and those Ds/Ws are not prerequisite courses for medical school. Make sure you account for all the courses you took at the various colleges in your GPA calculation, and not just the current one.

Is having everything in by June except my MCAT scores too late? (I know that schools probably won't look at my file until the see those scores, which wouldn't be until September. Is this still too late?)
Yes, having scores done by September and completing secondary by late September would be considered late. If you don't have superb MCAT score and Extracurriculars, you're doing yourself a huge disservice in applying late . . . especially since californian peeps have to fight for OOS seats.

Should I try for an MD program?
Yes, why not. So long as your MCAT/GPA checks out.

Should I explain in my personal statement why I did so poorly that semester? A lot of my other pre-med friends are telling me to not even mention it.
If your GPA is fine, then save your personal statement for something better. You'll have a spot in the secondary to explain any grade slips.


Edit:
-------------------------
Why don't you take the MCAT earlier? You'll still be fine if you took the June MCAT.

Thanks so much for the reply! I would take the MCAT sooner, but I want to do the best that I can on it, so I don't want to rush it. Also, in case you haven't seen the up date my Cumulative GPA is 3.53 and science is 3.78. This isn't my final GPA, and will most likely be higher after next semester.

So you think I should wait until the next application cycle? Or should I take my chances for next fall? I wanted to avoid having to take a gap year, but I'm willing to do whatever it takes to get into Medical school haha.

 

[Holmwood]

Thanks so much for the reply! I would take the MCAT sooner, but I want to do the best that I can on it, so I don't want to rush it. Also, in case you haven't seen the up date my Cumulative GPA is 3.53 and science is 3.78. This isn't my final GPA, and will most likely be higher after next semester.

So you think I should wait until the next application cycle? Or should I take my chances for next fall? I wanted to avoid having to take a gap year, but I'm willing to do whatever it takes to get into Medical school haha.

It's up to you...
Realistically, even if you just started prepping now, you should be able to finish everything by the July test date. Content review and practice shouldn't take 3 months during the summer when you don't have to worry about classes. That 3 month schedule people post up is super lazy... like 1-2 chapters a day? I mowed through 6 books in two weeks, and spent the following 3 weeks doing one FL a day.

 

[resiroth]

It's up to you...
Realistically, even if you just started prepping now, you should be able to finish everything by the July test date. Content review and practice shouldn't take 3 months during the summer when you don't have to worry about classes. That 3 month schedule people post up is super lazy... like 1-2 chapters a day? I mowed through 6 books in two weeks, and spent the following 3 weeks doing one FL a day.

6 Berkeley review books in 2 weeks? That's pretty intense. EK you can get through 6 books in a week, but BR is pretty detailed. 6 weeks over the summer should be fine if you're willing to put in serious time, have to consider taking 10 practice tests and studying up/analyzing your mistakes.

FWIW I went from ~32 to ~42 in 3-4 weeks of practice tests, so don't be discouraged by your first one. Just take the time to analyze your mistakes, content review is less important than detailed analysis of your weaknesses imo.

 

[Holmwood]

6 Berkeley review books in 2 weeks? That's pretty intense. EK you can get through 6 books in a week, but BR is pretty detailed. 6 weeks over the summer should be fine if you're willing to put in serious time, have to consider taking 10 practice tests and studying up/analyzing your mistakes.

FWIW I went from ~32 to ~42 in 3-4 weeks of practice tests, so don't be discouraged by your first one. Just take the time to analyze your mistakes, content review is less important than detailed analysis of your weaknesses imo.

If you've already taken the classes, alot of those stuff can be skimmed. So no, it's not that intense if you're not taking the exhaustive approach.
The new mcat doesn't have very heavy calculations either, so the types of calculation problems TBR was known for is sort of limited in usefulness.

Whatever.

Just finish content review as quickly as you can and then take the 120 official guide questions from AAMC. If you are satisfied with your performance, then consider rescheduling to an earlier date while you spend the remainder of the time plugging in holes, honing passage reading skills, and reassessing your test taking skills with the new practice test.

 

[resiroth]

If you've already taken the classes, alot of those stuff can be skimmed. So no, it's not that intense if you're not taking the exhaustive approach.
The new mcat doesn't have very heavy calculations either, so the types of calculation problems TBR was known for is sort of limited in usefulness.

Whatever.

Just finish content review as quickly as you can and then take the 120 official guide questions from AAMC. If you are satisfied with your performance, then consider rescheduling to an earlier date while you spend the remainder of the time plugging in holes, honing passage reading skills, and reassessing your test taking skills with the new practice test.

Truth, I took the old MCAT so new one is all new territory for me (that I thankfully don't have to care about). TBR was more useful for learning to think about problems in a new way (physics in particular). Not that I struggled with physics, but at least on the old one there was more to the section than mental math! In this case OP needs a particularly impressive score to be competitive at a lot of medical schools imo, so he should just focus nailing it. Even if it takes 4 months, who really cares. If you don't get in one cycle that's a heck of a lot worse after spending 3 grand and a month studying for a test you might have to retake haha. Do it once, do it right imo.

We completely agree on prioritizing test review/filling in gaps over a ton of content review but it's not clear how solid his foundation in the pre-reqs are. Better safe than sorry.