Here's the good stuff:
-By the time of my application to med school, I will have (hopefully) earned my PhD in Materials Science and Engineering/Biomaterials with a research emphasis in neurophysiology, biophysical characterization of brain tissue, and brain injury. I have not decided yet if I want to do a postdoc or go right to med school from the PhD.
-I currently have one first author manuscript published in a peer-reviewed journal and currently have another in the pipeline and close to completion (which may also result in a patent); my advisor requires that I have at least tree first author published papers to graduate with the PhD so I am confident that I will have at least three first author papers and a couple as a supporting author. I also have a couple of poster presentations at national conferences.
- My cumulative undergraduate GPA is 3.64 with a HUGE upward trend; my undergraduate science GPA is around 3.45. I have previously finished all the coursework for the PhD and my GPA sits around a 3.85.
- I am a member of several honors societies, including Tau Beta Pi.
- I have 8+ years of clinical experience working as an EMT (and firefighter) and I worked EMS full time while doing my undergrad.
AND....here's the bad stuff:
- My first MCAT score was a 23R
I don't want to make excuses for my poor test performance but I definitely should have cancelled the score.
- And this is why I should have cancelled it...without going into detail, I have a super super rare (one of like less than ten males in the world to have been diagnosed) chronic pain condition that affects my kidney. Basically, when it flares up, the pain is comparable to having a constant "kidney stone-like" pain for weeks at a time. I have had several long (2+ week) hospitalizations at New York Presbyterian (where my nephrologist is a professor) and seeing the daily hustle and bustle of a large university hospital intrigued me and encouraged my desire to go to medical school. Anyways, on my MCAT test day, my pain was under control with the daily long-term pain management regiment that my physicians had me on (mainly methadone) and I was relatively clear headed (if that is possible with methadone). So I sit down at the computer and the first section is writing; I do the two writing samples and go out to the bathroom. Well using the bathroom somehow caused an exasterbation of my renal pain to the point that I was doubled over. In an effort to continue the exam, I took the regiment of "breakthrough pain" medication that my doctors had prescribed. This medication caused my mental clarity to quickly fade; nonetheless, I continued with the exam for the next two hours. When I was done, I should have cancelled the score but I didn't because I wasn't quite firing on all cyclinders.
- I now have been able to ween myself off of all the medication (believe me, not easy with methadone) and my doctor has put me on a different (mostly non-narcotic) pain management regiment and I now have my mental clarity fully back and am considering retaking the MCAT.
My question is....
Would I be able to get into a state medical school (I'm from NJ so say UMDNJ) with my poor MCAT score in an otherwise decent application?
If I retook the MCAT and was able to increase my score say 10 points, would I be able to get into some of the more competitive schools (Columbia, Georgetown, NYU, etc.)?
-By the time of my application to med school, I will have (hopefully) earned my PhD in Materials Science and Engineering/Biomaterials with a research emphasis in neurophysiology, biophysical characterization of brain tissue, and brain injury. I have not decided yet if I want to do a postdoc or go right to med school from the PhD.
-I currently have one first author manuscript published in a peer-reviewed journal and currently have another in the pipeline and close to completion (which may also result in a patent); my advisor requires that I have at least tree first author published papers to graduate with the PhD so I am confident that I will have at least three first author papers and a couple as a supporting author. I also have a couple of poster presentations at national conferences.
- My cumulative undergraduate GPA is 3.64 with a HUGE upward trend; my undergraduate science GPA is around 3.45. I have previously finished all the coursework for the PhD and my GPA sits around a 3.85.
- I am a member of several honors societies, including Tau Beta Pi.
- I have 8+ years of clinical experience working as an EMT (and firefighter) and I worked EMS full time while doing my undergrad.
AND....here's the bad stuff:
- My first MCAT score was a 23R
I don't want to make excuses for my poor test performance but I definitely should have cancelled the score.- And this is why I should have cancelled it...without going into detail, I have a super super rare (one of like less than ten males in the world to have been diagnosed) chronic pain condition that affects my kidney. Basically, when it flares up, the pain is comparable to having a constant "kidney stone-like" pain for weeks at a time. I have had several long (2+ week) hospitalizations at New York Presbyterian (where my nephrologist is a professor) and seeing the daily hustle and bustle of a large university hospital intrigued me and encouraged my desire to go to medical school. Anyways, on my MCAT test day, my pain was under control with the daily long-term pain management regiment that my physicians had me on (mainly methadone) and I was relatively clear headed (if that is possible with methadone). So I sit down at the computer and the first section is writing; I do the two writing samples and go out to the bathroom. Well using the bathroom somehow caused an exasterbation of my renal pain to the point that I was doubled over. In an effort to continue the exam, I took the regiment of "breakthrough pain" medication that my doctors had prescribed. This medication caused my mental clarity to quickly fade; nonetheless, I continued with the exam for the next two hours. When I was done, I should have cancelled the score but I didn't because I wasn't quite firing on all cyclinders.
- I now have been able to ween myself off of all the medication (believe me, not easy with methadone) and my doctor has put me on a different (mostly non-narcotic) pain management regiment and I now have my mental clarity fully back and am considering retaking the MCAT.
My question is....
Would I be able to get into a state medical school (I'm from NJ so say UMDNJ) with my poor MCAT score in an otherwise decent application?
If I retook the MCAT and was able to increase my score say 10 points, would I be able to get into some of the more competitive schools (Columbia, Georgetown, NYU, etc.)?
