Am I screwed?

[adifjaisd4530539]

Hey SDN gurus

1.5 year ago I took the MCAT and got a 514. I know it is a pretty good score but I felt like I underachieved and let myself down as I only studied for a limited amount of time. Thus, I more courses and studied again. My practice test courses were much higher and I felt confident heading into the test. However, during my test day there were quite a bit of unusual circumstances and I underperformed and got only a two point improvement and a 516. I was aiming and rather confident I could have gotten a 518+ so this was definitely a letdown. I never looked at this forum until a few days ago and I wish I did earlier. I never knew that it is damaging and potentially lethal to retake the MCAT like I just did.

I would really appreciate if you guys could honestly let me know if my MD chances have been ruined and if there is a glimmer of hope what schools I should bother applying to. I know that @Faha, @Goro, and @gyngyn seem to be the verified experts here looking at past posts so I would really appreciate it if you guys could chime in if possible.

MCAT: 1st attempt= 514, 2nd attempt= 516
GPA: 3.88
Clinical: 400+ hours of quality experience
Volunteering: 800+ hours of various volunteering organizations
Shadowing: 150 hours total with three specialties
Leadership: Executive Board for 3 organization
State: CA
Race: Caucasian

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[gyngyn]

You are fine for plenty of places (and there is nothing to be done about it now). It's not lethal in your case, just goofy.
Where's your list?

 

[adifjaisd4530539]

You are fine for plenty of places (and there is nothing to be done about it now). It's not lethal in your case, just goofy.
Where's your list?

Hey @gyngyn

Thanks for responding!

So far my preliminary list is:

All UC's
USC
Einstein
Jefferson
Tulane
George Washington
Georgetown
Albany
New York Medical College
Duke
Miami
Tufts
Hofstra

That is what I have so far but I am not sure if I am aiming too high or low. Also, I have heard that some schools will look down upon me for my second attempt so should I am for more low tier schools and just take all of the California schools off of my list?

 

[Faha]

You could a few more schools such as:
Boston University
Vermont
Rochester
Pittsburgh
Case Western
Virginia Commonwealth
Western Michigan
St Louis
Kaiser
California University

 

[Goro]

Hey SDN gurus

1.5 year ago I took the MCAT and got a 514. I know it is a pretty good score but I felt like I underachieved and let myself down as I only studied for a limited amount of time. Thus, I more courses and studied again. My practice test courses were much higher and I felt confident heading into the test. However, during my test day there were quite a bit of unusual circumstances and I underperformed and got only a two point improvement and a 516. I was aiming and rather confident I could have gotten a 518+ so this was definitely a letdown. I never looked at this forum until a few days ago and I wish I did earlier. I never knew that it is damaging and potentially lethal to retake the MCAT like I just did.

I would really appreciate if you guys could honestly let me know if my MD chances have been ruined and if there is a glimmer of hope what schools I should bother applying to. I know that @Faha, @Goro, and @gyngyn seem to be the verified experts here looking at past posts so I would really appreciate it if you guys could chime in if possible.

MCAT: 1st attempt= 514, 2nd attempt= 516
GPA: 3.88
Clinical: 400+ hours of quality experience
Volunteering: 800+ hours of various volunteering organizations
Shadowing: 150 hours total with three specialties
Leadership: Executive Board for 3 organization
State: CA
Race: Caucasian

You'll be fine, but we Faculty are leery of people with the mindset of : I know it is a pretty good score but I felt like I underachieved

We don't like perfectionists. They try to learn everything and end up learning nothing, and then are in our offices bitching about how their 94 should actually be a 95. Usually trying to apply some math that actually warps space-time.