513 mcat retake

[deleted966164]

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Hello,

long story short, I am in a bit of a pickle here...

I got my MCAT score back recently. I got 513. As much as I am happy with that score there is one thing that bugs me, namely my CARS score.It's 124. Now, granted, I am not a native speaker. I moved to the US when I was 25 (so I am FOB). I am a non-trad. My C/P score of 132 (100 percentile) and B/B of 130 (96 percentile) compensate for it a little.

What's the consensus - will this be a 'no go' for schools?

Here is a little background:

- 3.5 years volunteering in a nursing home (calling bingo every Saturday)
- 2 years of ER volunteering
- 1 year of ER paid employment as a tech/unit assistant
- PhD in math (2 NSF grants, 20 papers)
- multiple years of teaching at college level

Please advise. Thank you!

 

[Seihai]

Hello,

long story short, I am in a bit of a pickle here...

I got my MCAT score back recently. I got 513. As much as I am happy with that score there is one thing that bugs me, namely my CARS score.It's 124. Now, granted, I am not a native speaker. I moved to the US when I was 25 (so I am FOB). I am a non-trad. My C/P score of 132 (100 percentile) and B/B of 130 (96 percentile) compensate for it a little.

What's the consensus - will this be a 'no go' for schools?

Here is a little background:

- 3.5 years volunteering in a nursing home (calling bingo every Saturday)
- 2 years of ER volunteering
- 1 year of ER paid employment as a tech/unit assistant
- PhD in math (2 NSF grants, 20 papers)
- multiple years of teaching at college level

Please advise. Thank you!

Many schools screen out people with sub-125s in any section, especially CARS, regardless of the rest of your application. Your other subsection scores don't really compensate for a bad CARS.

If you're interested, you're competitive for DO schools (which don't often screen CARS scores unless you get sub 122 or so).

 

[907914]

Many schools screen out people with sub-125s in any section, especially CARS, regardless of the rest of your application. Your other subsection scores don't really compensate for a bad CARS.

If you're interested, you're competitive for DO schools (which don't often screen CARS scores unless you get sub 122 or so).

For schools that screen, doesn’t that normally start at <124?

 

[907914]

Many schools screen out people with sub-125s in any section, especially CARS, regardless of the rest of your application. Your other subsection scores don't really compensate for a bad CARS.

If you're interested, you're competitive for DO schools (which don't often screen CARS scores unless you get sub 122 or so).

Given OP is non-native speaker, I think most schools will give leeway on the CARS.

 

[Seihai]

Given OP is non-native speaker, I think most schools will give leeway on the CARS.

Missed the fact that he's not a native speaker. Most schools I've seen that do "soft screens" will screen out applicants with sub-125s in any section, but will review them again to check for mitigating factors. Since he's not a native speaker, he should still be fairly competitive, though I'd still recommend that he apply broadly.

 

[mmchick]

How I would see it (not worth much as non-adcom even remotely), even if non-native speaker, I would still imagine a low CARS score is seen unfavorably.. as whether English is your first language or not, you have to be able to thoroughly understand advanced English enough to learn medical curriculum and read scientific literature. Not sure how much they’d make an exception if there’s a possible language barrier issue (to some extent). But anyway- would recommend DO to the least, as someone else mentioned the auto screening starts a lot lower. But there are also MD schools that don’t auto screen at 124. I would use MSAR and look at 10th percentile CARS scores as a guide

 

[Goro]

Hello,

long story short, I am in a bit of a pickle here...

I got my MCAT score back recently. I got 513. As much as I am happy with that score there is one thing that bugs me, namely my CARS score.It's 124. Now, granted, I am not a native speaker. I moved to the US when I was 25 (so I am FOB). I am a non-trad. My C/P score of 132 (100 percentile) and B/B of 130 (96 percentile) compensate for it a little.

What's the consensus - will this be a 'no go' for schools?

Here is a little background:

- 3.5 years volunteering in a nursing home (calling bingo every Saturday)
- 2 years of ER volunteering
- 1 year of ER paid employment as a tech/unit assistant
- PhD in math (2 NSF grants, 20 papers)
- multiple years of teaching at college level

Please advise. Thank you!

Do I have to reach through the electrons and smack you upside the head?