Chances at CA med school with bad MCAT?

[deleted1060620]

I just got my score, 511 (128/125/128/130), which is 11.5 points lower than my average. I want to go to a CA med school (Keck), but do I even have a chance? I feel like I should retake, but would it be better to focus on something else?

Background:
CA private school for undergrad, graduating 2021 and taking gap year
GPA 4.0
Shadowing 300 hours, research 100 hours (publishing paper soon), undergraduate teaching assistant for a biology lab 45 hours)
President of medical associations and clubs at school, school student leadership 20 hours

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[penguinsfan71]

If you retake, you need to be confident that you're going to score several points higher. A similar score on a retake suggests poor judgement to adcoms.

 

[Goro]

I just got my score, 511 (128/125/128/130), which is 11.5 points lower than my average. I want to go to a CA med school (Keck), but do I even have a chance? I feel like I should retake, but would it be better to focus on something else?

Background:
CA private school for undergrad, graduating 2021 and taking gap year
GPA 4.0
Shadowing 300 hours, research 100 hours (publishing paper soon), undergraduate teaching assistant for a biology lab 45 hours)
President of medical associations and clubs at school, school student leadership 20 hours

You're fine for Touro-CA and Western.

Chances likely best at UCD and UCR IF you're from the Inland Empire. IF you have lots of service to others, UCSF may show you some love.

A 511 is a fine score and can't recommend a retake.

I suggest:
NYU-LI
Dartmouth (maybe)
Rochester
U ILL
Emory
U CO
Tufts
Pitt (maybe)
CUSM
Nova MD
U WI
U VM
Miami
George Washington
Georgetown
SLU
Albany
Rush
Rosy Franklin
NYMC
MCW
VCU
EVMS
Wayne State
Wake Forest
Netter
Jefferson
Temple
Drexel
Creighton
Tulane
Loyola
Uniformed Services University/Hebert (just be aware of the military service commitment)
Oakland-B
Seton Hall
TCU/UNT
All UCs (you have to try, right?)
Any DO program. I can't recommend Nova, Wm Carey, BCOM, ICOM and LUCOM, for different reasons. MSUCOM? Read up on Larry Nasser and you decide. LMU has an accreditation warning, which concerns me. CUHS is too new and appears to be too limited in rotations sites. UIW refuses to post their Boards scores, which is fishy.

 

[caterwaiter]

Your 4.0 GPA is probably going to give you some wiggle room around your MCAT at some schools. For Keck specifically, however, median MCAT for accepted in-state applicants was 517, with 10th-90th percentiles at 513-520 (per MSAR).

If your goal is to get into *any* CA med school, you're probably ok, assuming you do some sort of volunteering over your gap year and write about your experiences well.

I wouldn't plan a retake unless/until you know for sure what happened on test day that resulted in such a significant drop. I also wouldn't retake for the sake of trying to get into a single school.

 

[viralhiker]

I don’t have much to add on your admissions chances, but I must ask where are these research labs that get you publications after less than 3 weeks of full-time research??

 

[EdgeTrimmer]

I just got my score, 511 (128/125/128/130), which is 11.5 points lower than my average. I want to go to a CA med school (Keck), but do I even have a chance? I feel like I should retake, but would it be better to focus on something else?

Background:
CA private school for undergrad, graduating 2021 and taking gap year
GPA 4.0
Shadowing 300 hours, research 100 hours (publishing paper soon), undergraduate teaching assistant for a biology lab 45 hours)
President of medical associations and clubs at school, school student leadership 20 hours

If you are not applying this cycle you can retake with some more prep/practice. Did your score drop in all sections or only some?

 

[EdgeTrimmer]

I don’t have much to add on your admissions chances, but I must ask where are these research labs that get you publications after less than 3 weeks of full-time research??

Why not? Depending on your role, conducting specific tests, crunching numbers etc... It's more doable with clinical research than bench research.