502 MCAT, 3.51 GPA, URM - share experiences

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PuroCuauchi26

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Non-traditional, Latino applicant
California resident
Applied only to MD schools
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you will not get into UCSF, UCSD, or UCLA, the applicant pool is just too competative. UCLA takes less than 180 people out of nearly ten thousand, unless you had a 4.0 and cured cancer your 502 likely will not cut it.

Nevertheless, it was smart applying to 29 schools. Did you apply to any DO schools? by chance you may garner an acceptance considering your other circumstances.

good luck to ya
 
TheBiologist said:
you will not get into UCSF, UCSD, or UCLA, the applicant pool is just too competative. UCLA takes less than 180 people out of nearly ten thousand, unless you had a 4.0 and cured cancer your 502 likely will not cut it.

Nevertheless, it was smart applying to 29 schools. Did you apply to any DO schools? by chance you may garner an acceptance considering your other circumstances.

good luck to ya
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I guess we shall see at the end of cycle
 
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PuroCuauchi26 said:
Hi everyone,

I just got back my MCAT score and it is a 502. This is my 2nd retake and I am applying to MD schools this cycle. I did not apply to DO schools.

I was expecting a higher score because I felt I prepared and studied very well. In fact, I even felt some of the sections on the MCAT were easy. *Sigh* So I am very disappointed in myself. Nonetheless, I 'm going to pull through this application cycle and hope for the best, although I know my chances are slim.

Here are a few of my details:

- California resident
- from a rural, under-resourced community
- SES disadvantaged, URM (latino), first-generation student
- Berkeley grad, Biology major
- did a post-bacc program in CA
- overall GPA: 3.5
- science GPA: 3.4

first MCAT: 499


new MCAT: 502
- 125, 123, 125, 129

I'm honestly disappointed that I was only able to improve by 3 points.
I ran out of time on the Biology section so I went down 2 points. This sucks because biology is usually my strongest section.

I applied to a total of 29 schools.
Considering my state schools that screen applications....
So far, I have gotten secondaries from:
UCLA PRIME, UCLA Charles Drew, UC Riverside, UC Davis

I am very thankful to have gotten their secondaries considering my low MCAT score.
I am still waiting to hear back from UC San Diego, UCSF, and UC Irvine.

Since I just received my MCAT score, I have not heard back from many schools regarding rejections or interviews. I've only gotten rejected by USC already (even before my updated MCAT score came out).


Other than my weak MCAT score, I feel other aspects of my application are very strong, including my EC's, research, community service, medical missions abroad. I am very passionate about becoming a doctor and serving underserved communities. I hope my passion can shine through to the adcom through my primary and secondary applications.


I created this thread to find others who are going through or who have experienced a similar situation.. It would be great to be able to learn from each other during this cycle and to provide each other with support, as much as SDN allows us to anyway. haha.

If anyone else has similar stats to mine, feel free to share your current application experiences.

(P.S- I'm not asking for what my chances are because I know that adcom decides that)

Thank you
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Hello,

I have similar stats to yours. I struggled a lot as an undergrad and I didn't get competitive grades. So I took a year off and then I enrolled in a master's program. While in my master's program, I studied for the MCAT and I got a 502. My GPA now is very high but I was still very afraid to apply with such low undergraduate GPA.

I applied to about 25 schools. Half of those schools were DOs.

Cleveland Clinic Lerner College has reviewed my application and they put me on hold for future review. AZCOM (DO school) send me a similar message. At this point, I was devasted. The DO schools are my backups and I had just been waitlisted for my backup school before I was even interviewed! But about a week ago Charles/Drew UCLA send me an invitation to interview!!

I know how important amazing MCAT scores are and high grades and I know that many people will automatically assume that because you have a "low" MCAT score you have no chance of getting into a good MD school. But the truth is that you never know that is going to happen until you try. You can try and spend a lot of money and then get rejected. But what if you try and you get accepted to your dream school.

I have friends with amazing scores and they have yet to receive invitations to interview. I also know people that got interviewed to UCLA with a 3.2 and 27 MCAT score.

Unfortunately, I can not say you are going to get into UCLA. All I'm saying is that it is too early to say that you are not.
 
Does anyone know if the Masters of science in Biomedical Sciences program at Charles Drew is good? Do people that do that usually get into Charles Drew?

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Kojo90 said:
Does anyone know if the Masters of science in Biomedical Sciences program at Charles Drew is good? Do people that do that usually get into Charles Drew?

Sent from my MHA-L29 using SDN mobile
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You really need your own thread.
 
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TheBiologist said:
you will not get into UCSF, UCSD, or UCLA, the applicant pool is just too competative. UCLA takes less than 180 people out of nearly ten thousand, unless you had a 4.0 and cured cancer your 502 likely will not cut it.

Nevertheless, it was smart applying to 29 schools. Did you apply to any DO schools? by chance you may garner an acceptance considering your other circumstances.

good luck to ya
Click to expand...
but hey, to OP, you may have gotten into UCLA given their new MCAT 😀
 
TheBiologist said:
but hey, to OP, you may have gotten into UCLA given their new MCAT 😀
Click to expand...

Haha despite my concerns, I thankfully got a total of 10 interviews:
5 of them were at UC's
5 of them were out of state, including the University of Rochester

Since I got into a UC medical school (super grateful!), I cancelled all 5 of my out of state interviews

So, I've learned, there is hope after all
 
PuroCuauchi26 said:
Haha despite my concerns, I thankfully got a total of 10 interviews:
5 of them were at UC's
5 of them were out of state, including the University of Rochester

Since I got into a UC medical school (super grateful!), I cancelled all 5 of my out of state interviews

So, I've learned, there is hope after all
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you got 5 II at UC's? that's incredible
 
PuroCuauchi26 said:
Yes, I heard first from UCLA David Geffen, then UCLA/Charles Drew, UC Davis, UC San Diego, and UC Riverside🙂

I also got the conditional acceptance program for UC Irvine
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Could I privately message you? I am about the exact situation and could really use advice? Thank you 🙂
 
With a 502 and 3.5 you got five UC schools II? HOW? What else was on your app?
 
Kingsmen2018 said:
With a 502 and 3.5 you got five UC schools II? HOW? What else was on your app?
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He is Mexican and Spanish is his first language. And I'd be willing to bet he also had some service to the local Mexican community. These types of applicants are highly sought after...especially in California.
 
Kingsmen2018 said:
With a 502 and 3.5 you got five UC schools II? HOW? What else was on your app?
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Mexican Americans are the CA residents most likely to be contributing the largest proportion of their income to the medical education of students who have no intention of serving them.
There are so few applicants with both language skills and validated commitment to service, that when we find one, we all want to recruit them.
 
gyngyn said:
Mexican Americans are the CA residents most likely to be contributing the largest proportion of their income to the medical education of students who have no intention of serving them.
There are so few applicants with both language skills and validated commitment to service, that when we find one, we all want to recruit them.
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Interesting! Im kinda new to SDN so based on your language ur an ADCOM? Very cool. Can I message you something about Language proficiency and applications? Thanks
 
Kingsmen2018 said:
Interesting! Im kinda new to SDN so based on your language ur an ADCOM? Very cool. Can I message you something about Language proficiency and applications? Thanks
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I prefer to respond in the forum as I am an admissions officer.
 
gyngyn said:
I prefer to respond in the forum as I am an admissions officer.
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Okay, so as an admissions officer do you only care about a student who is 100% fluent in another language? Does partial fluency help an app as well? Such as "Good","fair" or "basic"
 
Kingsmen2018 said:
Okay, so as an admissions officer do you only care about a student who is 100% fluent in another language? Does partial fluency help an app as well? Such as "Good","fair" or "basic"
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All languages are valuable.
Any fluency in a language spoken by those in need is value added as a physician.
 
I'm confused how @PuroCuauchi26 received an interview from UCLA Geffen then an interview from UCLA Charles-Drew, if I'm not mistaken, it's not possible. If you apply to UCLA Charles-Drew they have to either interview you or pass off your application to Geffen. Sounds like BS to me
 
jcorpsmanMD said:
I'm confused how @PuroCuauchi26 received an interview from UCLA Geffen then an interview from UCLA Charles-Drew, if I'm not mistaken, it's not possible. If you apply to UCLA Charles-Drew they have to either interview you or pass off your application to Geffen. Sounds like BS to me
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You can apply to both actually. Charles Drew is going to be a different application than UCLA even though they are through the same SOM. Charles Drew is another University.

Sent from my MHA-L29 using SDN mobile
 
jcorpsmanMD said:
I'm confused how @PuroCuauchi26 received an interview from UCLA Geffen then an interview from UCLA Charles-Drew, if I'm not mistaken, it's not possible. If you apply to UCLA Charles-Drew they have to either interview you or pass off your application to Geffen. Sounds like BS to me
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CRD is another (private) university. The medical students graduate from a program (subset) at UCLA's medical school.
Drew is not a separate medical school.
 
jcorpsmanMD said:
I'm confused how @PuroCuauchi26 received an interview from UCLA Geffen then an interview from UCLA Charles-Drew, if I'm not mistaken, it's not possible. If you apply to UCLA Charles-Drew they have to either interview you or pass off your application to Geffen. Sounds like BS to me
Click to expand...

Sounds like you're thinking of UCLA PRIME.
 
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