Help Please! Just received scores.

[Ischemia88]

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Hi Everyone,

I am new to this forum, and I just received my MCAT scores on June 17. A bit of background on myself: Bio Engineering, 3.95 cum GPA, volunteering (150 hours), shadowing (150 hours), leadership roles, research (1 publication), and non-medically related volunteering (100 hours). I also have 2 jobs (part time)-1 as a tutor for my school, the other as a mentor for engineers. My MCAT breakdown is: 14PS/7VR/13BS/Q. Do I stand a chance, or should I wait a year and restudy hardcore for the verbal? I feel like I can have a repeat performance (to some degree) in the sciences, but to be honest I feel as if a bit of luck was involved with the PS. I have called a few schools about this so-called "screening" process, and they have all told me that they mainly focus on the overall score rather than emphasizing any particular subscore, but I am not sure if they are simply told to say this. Thank you all for your help!

 

[jr doctor in sd]

Forgive my ignorance on the matter, because I dont know TONS about this. But I will tell you what I do know which is this: Me and my roomie are currently both applying simultaneously. So far, he has 6 rejections. 3 of the schools emailed him saying it had to do with his mcat but his overall was a 29 (he got a 7 VR). He didnt get screened in at ANY of the UCs. The schools that rejected him, by the way, were by no means top tier. So I dont know if it was just due to the 7 or due to total score.

Your overall is beastly. Id say even if you could get verbal to an 8 itd help your chances but like you said its hard to get a 14/13 again in the other two.

Best of luck, bro! 👍

 

[Ischemia88]

Thanks jr doctor. I really appreciate the input. I definitely understand your friend's frustration. It's unfortunate that people like your roommate get rejected with overall good scores just because of a poor performance on one section. Personally, I feel like verbal is a crapshoot anyway-everyone that I know who received 11+ on it has told me that it was primarily due to lucky guesses. Best of luck to you both!

 

[Ischemia88]

Bump.

 

[Ischemia88]

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[Catalystik]

You can see from looking through the MSAR which schools have a 7 as their bottom tenth percentile for VS. There are not many of them that take OOS applicants. It's possible that due to the overall strength of the rest of your application some schools with a bottom tenth percentile of 8 would consider you, even though their bottom 1-9 percentile are probably generally reserved for applicants with special situations.

You might consider applying on a limited basis to schools that might give you a chance (to include the three new schools that don't yet have a history), if you feel you'd be happy with an acceptance from those institutions. If you aren't getting attention from theose schools by December, your plan could be to retake the MCAT in January through May of 2011.

Alternatively, if you feel the score was a fluke, you could retake as soon as a date is available, and add more schools after the score comes back if you get a higher VS.

 

[Ischemia88]

Thanks catalystik. What about schools like the university of florida, boston university, and new york university? I am a florida resident. Also, when I called nyu, someone in the admissions office told me that they mainly focus on the overall score. Do you think they are not allowed to discuss the intricacies of the screening process, or do you think that there is actually some truth to this statement? Basically, I want to know if I am just wasting my time/money applying if they are just going to ignore the rest of my app b/c of a low VR score.

 

[Catalystik]

Some schools are up-front on their web page about absolute minimums. For many the screening process remains opaque, possibly because it changes from year to year or it varies depending on the type of class they are trying to build. Also, Secondary fees are a major fund raiser for a lot of schools that don't initially screen. I don't think they'd want to compromise their cash flow by seeming to have hard and fast rules.

You might peruse MDApps and see if you can find evidence of those with lower VS being aceepted for a given school. Or even ask in school specific forums, in case someone there can answer your question, if the school's website isn't helpful.

FSU has a bottom tenth percentile for VS of 7. I think I recall someone getting into UCF last year with a 7, though I don't recall any special circumstance. Florida International is a reasonable possibility; though the MSAR says 8 this year, it was a 7 the year before.

 

[hegemon219]

I think you will definitely get in somewhere with a 34. Great GPA plus good overall tends to mean you will be looked at/interviewed.

 

[Snarkalark]

i got the exact same science scores, but a 9 in verbal so i've been having less extreme, but similar worries. do schools really look at applicants by means of lowest common denominators like that? i feel like outstanding scores in the other sections should have an impact and overshadow a low verbal score.

 

[ruiner]

At least one of the FL schools will bring you in. Even an 8 would look better but you have a 34 overall and a 3.95. Or are you the type of person that is only going to stay in state if you get into U of F? BTW, is English your first language?

 

[Ischemia88]

At least one of the FL schools will bring you in. Even an 8 would look better but you have a 34 overall and a 3.95. Or are you the type of person that is only going to stay in state if you get into U of F? BTW, is English your first language?

To be honest, the school that I prefer to go to if I stay in state is UF. And yes, english is my first language believe it or not lol. This VR score came as a bit of a shock to me.