124 CARS

[Premedkiddo]

Hey pals. Just got my first MCAT score back... got a 128/124/129/129 overall 510.

Should I retake it because of the 124 on cars? I’m afraid of the rumored 125 cutoff but I also don’t want to do worse the second time because I’ve heard that can also look bad. I feel like I’m in a bit of a pickle...

I think the rest of my application is okay though idk? My gpa is a 3.97 but I’m not in a crazy amount of extracurriculars. My volunteer work includes tutoring, volunteering at a hospital, and teaching dance classes but that’s probably only 150 hours. I’m just starting to work as a senior care giver and, I don’t know if this counts for anything, but I’m EMT and rescue scuba certified haha (took some scuba classes in college for fun). I’m taking a gap year to work as an emt or scribe and then I plan on applying 2020-2021. In terms of research I did one semester freshman year and never went back until recently. Just started working on a qualitative research project I started with a few friends when we were studying healthcare abroad. We plan on taking our findings to a conference.

So... do I retake?? Also based on the above other than my mcat score, do I even have a shot at getting into any MD schools? I’m looking to get into a school in Illinois, Indiana, or Colorado but I’m totally open to applying other places if anyone has any suggestions!

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Cornfed101]

You can contact the schools to see if they do a hard cutoff. You can also look at the MSAR and see the acceptance/matriculant data for each subsection. For university of Colorado it looks like the 10th percentile for matriculants for CARS is 124, so obviously not a hard 125 cutoff.

The EMT and scuba certifications are maybe interesting talking points in an interview, but not much. The senior care giver is great experience. Anything that causes you to go outside of your comfort zone and serve people different than you is always great.

Research is important if you want to go to a research focused school, but most of those would be out of reach given your MCAT anyway. If you want to do more research, great. If not, it’s not a big deal.

Find out what schools you specifically want to apply to and email them about a hard cutoff. If you find that a lot of them have a hard cutoff then it might be worth retaking. Keep in mind that your score might go down so there is some risk associated with that. Good luck!

 

[Blueprint Med School]

Do you think you can do better on a retake? Do you think you have enough time to study, and if you were to retake it, would that mean you would have to push back your application plans? These are all questions you should consider before retaking. With your GPA, you're definitely still competitive for MD schools, but I would definitely contact medical schools to see if they have hard cutoffs.

As for your extracurriculars, they definitely seem to be on the weaker side right now. You've got a solid amount of volunteer hours but your research is lacking. This might matter more or less depending on if the schools you're applying to have a research focus, but at this point it might be too late. Planning to be an EMT or scribe during your gap year sounds like a great idea, but you need to actually be able to talk about them, because thousands of premeds have been an EMT or scribed. During your gap year, try and think about how these experiences make you unique. Think about what you will take out of them that others did not.

Kevin W, MCAT Tutor
Med School Tutors

 

[Premedkiddo]

Thanks for the feedback! This has been truly been very helpful. I really appreciate it!