Be honest...but not too honest

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Shejeboshease

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i have several things to mention.

1) although my overall score is 30Q with 3.57 gpa, my verbal score is 6 (i got 7 when i took it the first time). i was wondering if i could take some sort of english writing or literature class this fall to sort of make up for my verbal score.

i already graduated, so i'm not sure how I should go about taking these classes (should i just take them in a local univ. or community college?). Do you think this would do any good in terms of my application credentials.

2) I can't really do anything about my MCAT score, but i can still work on my gpa... should I take some upper level science classes this fall to sort of improve my gpa? does this new gpa go to my cumulative gpa from undergrad? or it would be categorized under grad school gpa?

3) i'm already working full-time in a research institution .. i also volunteer 4 hours per week in a local hospital but no one seems to really care about volunteering in hospital..which kinda makes sense.. there are some high school students who volunteer with me in the same position. is any of you doing any other type of community service/volunteering which is fun and useful?
thanks

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Take classes at a University; it will look bad if you go from a university to a CC, although if you started off at a CC before undergrad, that would have been OK.

Plus, you can do something about your MCAT score; you can retake it.

All undergrad courses count towards undergrad GPA, regardless of when you took it.
 
i have several things to mention.

1) although my overall score is 30Q with 3.57 gpa, my verbal score is 6 (i got 7 when i took it the first time). i was wondering if i could take some sort of english writing or literature class this fall to sort of make up for my verbal score.

i already graduated, so i'm not sure how I should go about taking these classes (should i just take them in a local univ. or community college?). Do you think this would do any good in terms of my application credentials.

2) I can't really do anything about my MCAT score, but i can still work on my gpa... should I take some upper level science classes this fall to sort of improve my gpa? does this new gpa go to my cumulative gpa from undergrad? or it would be categorized under grad school gpa?

3) i'm already working full-time in a research institution .. i also volunteer 4 hours per week in a local hospital but no one seems to really care about volunteering in hospital..which kinda makes sense.. there are some high school students who volunteer with me in the same position. is any of you doing any other type of community service/volunteering which is fun and useful?
thanks


I don't think taking an english class will have any bearing on how your verbal score is perceived. Nor does it make sense to take more science classes since it's likely your real hurdle is the MCAT, not the GPA. (As to whether additional classes would affect your GPA depends on whether they are undergrad level courses -- if so, then yes, they are "postbac" which gets figured into your cumulative GPA). In terms of application rehabilitation, it only makes sense to do things that directly address the problems in your applicaiton, and for you that is the low verbal score. The only remedy is to figure out how to do well on that section and then retake the MCAT at some point.
 
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Take classes at a University; it will look bad if you go from a university to a CC, although if you started off at a CC before undergrad, that would have been OK.

Plus, you can do something about your MCAT score; you can retake it.

All undergrad courses count towards undergrad GPA, regardless of when you took it.

i went to a top 15 undergrad, graduated last year...and this is my 3rd time taking the mcat...recent immigrant......VR is my nemesis..i hate it more than anything else in the whole world.
 
i went to a top 15 undergrad, graduated last year...and this is my 3rd time taking the mcat...recent immigrant......VR is my nemesis..i hate it more than anything else in the whole world.

Don't take it again until you are consistantly blowing away that section on practice tests. It may mean you have to miss a cycle, but everyone has their stumbling blocks somewhere along the line.
 
i went to a top 15 undergrad, graduated last year...and this is my 3rd time taking the mcat...recent immigrant......VR is my nemesis..i hate it more than anything else in the whole world.

Well then I definitely wouldn't go to a CC if I were you... looks weird.

Sucks about the verbal, but you'll have to read voluminous amounts of material in med school, so hopefully all the reading you'll do in order to attempt and raise your VR score will help you through med school eventually.
 
Well then I definitely wouldn't go to a CC if I were you... looks weird.

Sucks about the verbal, but you'll have to read voluminous amounts of material in med school, so hopefully all the reading you'll do in order to attempt and raise your VR score will help you through med school eventually.

i've done everything for verbal including TPR, kaplan,ekrackers everything...read wallstreet journal and all that too...i can't explain why my VR score didn't go up.

anyways, any suggestion that doesn't involve me taking the mcat again would be helpful. thanks
 
i've done everything for verbal including TPR, kaplan,ekrackers everything...read wallstreet journal and all that too...i can't explain why my VR score didn't go up.

anyways, any suggestion that doesn't involve me taking the mcat again would be helpful. thanks

A lot of schools won't look at you if any one of your sections is below a 7. Sorry, if you don't retake, it doesn't look very good. Maybe a DO school (big maybe) would look at your app. There's always the Caribbean.
 
Don't take it again until you are consistantly blowing away that section on practice tests. It may mean you have to miss a cycle, but everyone has their stumbling blocks somewhere along the line.
I agree with Law2Doc:) There is always room for improvement on the MCAT. Just keep practicing, and you will get it. Good luck:luck:
 
Buy the MSAR. It lists the range of MCAT scores that each school has accepted. Find the schools that have accepted students with a 6 in VR. Contact their admissions offices and ask the deans your question. Look into applying to DO schools.
 
anyways, any suggestion that doesn't involve me taking the mcat again would be helpful. thanks

Sadly, any suggestion that doesn't involve you retaking the MCAT is going to be low probability. Schools require the MCAT because they feel it is an important, cross school gauge, and tend to require each section to be decent. This is not even close to the last standardized test you will have to take along this road, so being able to show you can master and get through it is going to be pretty important. As a prior poster indicated, you can talk to schools that have taken chances on low verbal scorers in the past, and try and get a sense of whether you have a chance. But the MSAR won't give you a sense of what else those applicants brought to the table to merit special consideration, and it's always an extremely low probability play to try and become one of the exceptions to a general rule. 99.9% of the time you are going to have to be the rule.
 
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