How does MCAT affect admission if your section score is below the school's avg?

[Perkins]

I took the MCAT recently and got a 36S. However my verbal was not great. I scored: 14 PS, 10 VR, 12 BS. My parents keep hinting me to re-take because my VR is not at/above 11 (most of the schools I want to apply to have an average VR score of 11).

Is it worth it to re-take? I don't really want to study for it again, yet I feel nervous about being below the average VR score for m favorite schools.

I really don't want to be annoying-- but I was wondering if this score is going to disadvantage me for applying to top research schools like Columbia, Stanford, Harvard, and UCSF? I really like the programs offered at these schools (especially Stanford) and would be willing to retake the MCAT if the current score is going to keep me out.

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[music2doc]

Retaking a 36 is generally unwise. Your score is excellent. Being 1 pt below on VR probably won't hold you back. Regardless, you shouldn't be shooting for just those "top" schools. Keep in mind that where you stand now every school's a "reach"! The goal is to become a physician, not to attend some "prestigious" research school.

 

[flatearth22]

OP, if you get rejected from any of your schools it certainly won't be because of your MCAT score. It will be because of things like your EC's, essays, LOR's, and interviews etc. Maybe if you had scored a 7 on Verbal then a retake might be in order but a 10 is a fine score (right at the median for accepted students in 2010). In fact, retaking a 36 might make you look worse in the eyes of adcoms as a person who is obsessed with MCAT scores. Instead of studying for another MCAT go do some more research and get published, go to Haiti and change babies' diapers, go teach some immigrants how to speak English, etc.

Congrats on a great score...now focus on making other parts of your application the best they can possibly be.

 

[bigdumbdope]

I took the MCAT recently and got a 36S. However my verbal was not great. I scored: 14 PS, 10 VR, 12 BS. My parents keep hinting me to re-take because my VR is not at/above 11 (most of the schools I want to apply to have an average VR score of 11).

Is it worth it to re-take? I don't really want to study for it again, yet I feel nervous about being below the average VR score for m favorite schools.

I really don't want to be annoying-- but I was wondering if this score is going to disadvantage me for applying to top research schools like Columbia, Stanford, Harvard, and UCSF? I really like the programs offered at these schools (especially Stanford) and would be willing to retake the MCAT if the current score is going to keep me out.

You big dumb dope. Your score is in the upper 90s percentile of all test takers, you dope. Your scores are all 10 and above. Stop being so dumb and dopey and get some common sense, dummy. I'm not even joking when I say that your post inspired me to create an account just to post how big of a dumb dope you are. Jesus.

 

[Mornhavon]

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[sector9]

You big dumb dope. Your score is in the upper 90s percentile of all test takers, you dope. Your scores are all 10 and above. Stop being so dumb and dopey and get some common sense, dummy. I'm not even joking when I say that your post inspired me to create an account just to post how big of a dumb dope you are. Jesus.

Wow, quite the first post. And SN. You joined just to do this? Wow

 

[flatearth22]

Wow, quite the first post. And SN. You joined just to do this? Wow

More people need to make troll posts like OP in order to get SDN's 1000s of lurkers to register and chew them out.

 

[ozzi22]

You big dumb dope. Your score is in the upper 90s percentile of all test takers, you dope. Your scores are all 10 and above. Stop being so dumb and dopey and get some common sense, dummy. I'm not even joking when I say that your post inspired me to create an account just to post how big of a dumb dope you are. Jesus.

 

[WeAreNotRobots]

I took the MCAT recently and got a 36S. However my verbal was not great. I scored: 14 PS, 10 VR, 12 BS. My parents keep hinting me to re-take because my VR is not at/above 11 (most of the schools I want to apply to have an average VR score of 11).

Is it worth it to re-take? I don't really want to study for it again, yet I feel nervous about being below the average VR score for m favorite schools.

I really don't want to be annoying-- but I was wondering if this score is going to disadvantage me for applying to top research schools like Columbia, Stanford, Harvard, and UCSF? I really like the programs offered at these schools (especially Stanford) and would be willing to retake the MCAT if the current score is going to keep me out.

Don't worry, you won't get into any of those schools anyway if all you do is listen to stuff your parents tell you to do...

 

[Person0715]

I took the MCAT recently and got a 36S. However my verbal was not great. I scored: 14 PS, 10 VR, 12 BS. My parents keep hinting me to re-take because my VR is not at/above 11 (most of the schools I want to apply to have an average VR score of 11).

Is it worth it to re-take? I don't really want to study for it again, yet I feel nervous about being below the average VR score for m favorite schools.

I really don't want to be annoying-- but I was wondering if this score is going to disadvantage me for applying to top research schools like Columbia, Stanford, Harvard, and UCSF? I really like the programs offered at these schools (especially Stanford) and would be willing to retake the MCAT if the current score is going to keep me out.

Great score, but man up a bit. You will be applying to med school, not your parents.

 

[Ignatius M.D.]

I took the MCAT recently and got a 36S. However my verbal was not great. I scored: 14 PS, 10 VR, 12 BS. My parents keep hinting me to re-take because my VR is not at/above 11 (most of the schools I want to apply to have an average VR score of 11).

Is it worth it to re-take? I don't really want to study for it again, yet I feel nervous about being below the average VR score for m favorite schools.

I really don't want to be annoying-- but I was wondering if this score is going to disadvantage me for applying to top research schools like Columbia, Stanford, Harvard, and UCSF? I really like the programs offered at these schools (especially Stanford) and would be willing to retake the MCAT if the current score is going to keep me out.

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[blizzah]

I thought you needed 15 in all sections to be competitive???

 

[Geekchick921]

OP, come on now...

 

[theseeker4]

I thought you needed 15 in all sections to be competitive???

That is only for mid-tier schools, for the top schools you need to earn extra credit on your MCAT

 

[spartan564]

OP's question wasnt unreasonable. A 9 in VR is considered retake worthy if you are shooting for the top schools, but with a 10 I think you are fine. You are only one point below the median, and your PS is above median and BS probably at the median. As others said, dont worry about it now and just focus on the rest of your app. Think about it from an adcoms point of view, if you they like everything else about you enough to accept you, they wont reject you because your verbal was just one point too low

 

[HH Holmes]

I thought you needed 15 in all sections to be competitive???

Don't forget a 4.0 GPA, 100x10^15 hours of shadowing, 15 publications and LORs from Jesus, Big Foot and Hippocrates.

 

[flatearth22]

Don't forget a 4.0 GPA, 100x10^15 hours of shadowing, 15 publications and LORs from Jesus, Big Foot and Hippocrates.

Hey don't put Hippocrates in the same line as those fictional characters!

 

[NickNaylor]

Hey don't put Hippocrates in the same line as those fictional characters!

Pretty sure Jesus was a real person. Whether you deify him or not is another matter.

I'm not even trying to troll.

 

[HH Holmes]

Pretty sure Jesus was a real person. Whether you deify him or not is another matter.

I'm not even trying to troll.

I'm the least religious person you will ever meet (but I still respect people who believe) and I agree. I also don't know what deify means so I'm going to go look it up.

 

[Kekeirda]

You know what average means don't you? You F** gunner! You don't need to be above average to get in somewhere. Half of the applicants are below average.

 

[Whatyousay]

You know what average means don't you? You F** gunner! You don't need to be above average to get in somewhere. Half of the applicants are below average.

This is why more schools are moving towards statistics as a pre-req.

 

[theseeker4]

You know what average means don't you? You F** gunner! You don't need to be above average to get in somewhere. Half of the applicants are below average.

Yeah, like the posting in another thread saying "The average GPA is 2.6, so everyone at this school gets a 2.6 GPA."

 

[cge0]

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