Help please (MCAT Fail)

[LadyKatie]

I bombed my MCAT. For my practice exams, I was consistently scoring 518 and just got my score back today….. 509. I am gutted and do not know whether or not to even apply this upcoming cycle or not. As you will see below, the rest of my stats/extracurriculars are really good. I was really hoping to apply to top schools (my dream school was UCLA) and now I feel completely and utterly defeated. Please read below my other information and feel free to let me know what schools I should even apply to and if I should even apply or if I should succumb to my MCAT failure and postpone my application.

GPA: 3.99 (double science major – 2022 graduate)
MCAT: 509 (127/125/126/131)
White Female
Undergraduate Institution: Midwest State University
Clinical experience: Nursing assistant in a hospital for 1000 hrs
Research: 600 hrs (individual student-run research projects) + 3 poster presentations + 2 oral presentations
Shadowing: 40 hrs (only primary care)
Non-clinical volunteering: over 1000 hrs
Extracurriculars:

• Tutoring/TA: 1000 hrs
• Various jobs throughout college: 1500 hrs
• D2 Athlete (so many hrs)
• Leadership: at least 500 hrs
• Other clubs / orgs: 1000 hrs

(2022-2023) Gap Year: 1-year Clinical Research Internship at a hospital

Honestly, I feel completely lost. I have worked my a$$ off my entire undergrad to get to where I wanted and I feel like it has all been a complete waste. I really don’t know what to do anymore tbh…

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[Faha]

Where is your state of residence ? The GPA-MCAT grid shows you have a greater than 80% chance for a MD acceptance.

 

[voxveritatisetlucis]

The bad news? Yes, unfortunately the 509 will be an obstacle for top 20 schools unless you have some extraordinary EC (think Olympic athlete)

The good news? You will probably get into a solid mid or lower tier MD school

I would avoid retaking this cycle because another below average score would look far worse than just the one. Of course if you had a 101 fever or the flu, you might want to give it a shot when not sick

 

[wysdoc]

I bombed my MCAT. For my practice exams, I was consistently scoring 518 and just got my score back today….. 509. I am gutted and do not know whether or not to even apply this upcoming cycle or not. As you will see below, the rest of my stats/extracurriculars are really good. I was really hoping to apply to top schools (my dream school was UCLA) and now I feel completely and utterly defeated. Please read below my other information and feel free to let me know what schools I should even apply to and if I should even apply or if I should succumb to my MCAT failure and postpone my application.

GPA: 3.99 (double science major – 2022 graduate)
MCAT: 509 (127/125/126/131)
White Female
Undergraduate Institution: Midwest State University
Clinical experience: Nursing assistant in a hospital for 1000 hrs
Research: 600 hrs (individual student-run research projects) + 3 poster presentations + 2 oral presentations
Shadowing: 40 hrs (only primary care)
Non-clinical volunteering: over 1000 hrs
Extracurriculars:

• Tutoring/TA: 1000 hrs
• Various jobs throughout college: 1500 hrs
• D2 Athlete (so many hrs)
• Leadership: at least 500 hrs
• Other clubs / orgs: 1000 hrs

(2022-2023) Gap Year: 1-year Clinical Research Internship at a hospital

Honestly, I feel completely lost. I have worked my a$$ off my entire undergrad to get to where I wanted and I feel like it has all been a complete waste. I really don’t know what to do anymore tbh…

I’m sorry, but you are being way too melodramatic about this. A 509 is not “flunking”.
It merely changes your school list.

 

[voxveritatisetlucis]

Honestly, I feel completely lost. I have worked my a$$ off my entire undergrad to get to where I wanted and I feel like it has all been a complete waste. I really don’t know what to do anymore tbh…

Also there isn’t really much to be lost about. The question you need to ask yourself is, “do I really want to be a doctor and would I be okay with going to a mid tier or low tier MD school if that is the only available option?”

If the answer is yes, I can suggest a list of schools that might be a good fit

 

[candbgirl]

Even if you had scored 518 , there is absolutely no guarantee that you would be accepted by UCLA or any other top school. Sure you can go ahead and apply to UCLA but also apply to a very broad list of schools that meet your stats and interests. There is so much that goes into getting an interview much less an acceptance that you can’t count on anything. Each cycle less than 40% of all applicants are accepted to any med school and of that number about half are accepted to one school. That means that near 60% of applicants are outright rejected each cycle, including applicants with stellar applications.
So take a deep breath, calm down and decide if you want to be a doctor or do you only want to be a doctor who graduated from UCLA (etc). And remember there is no promise your score will go up 10 points on a retake.

 

[wysdoc]

@LadyKatie, take a few days to get over your disappointment, I get it. If you share your state of residence you can get help with a solid school list.

 

[deleted314957]

The bad news? Yes, unfortunately the 509 will be an obstacle for top 20 schools unless you have some extraordinary EC (think Olympic athlete)

The good news? You will probably get into a solid mid or lower tier MD school

I would avoid retaking this cycle because another below average score would look far worse than just the one. Of course if you had a 101 fever or the flu, you might want to give it a shot when not sick

I agree you will most likely get into a fine US med school. It helps to drop the nebulous mental concept of top, lower-top, upper middle, middle, ad nauseam. Trust me, they all teach essentially the same thing and make you a doctor( by degree). It is your residency and the following decades that will allow you to become a physician.

 

[LadyKatie]

My state of residence is Minnesota but I would really like to go somewhere outside of the midwest....

 

[chilly_md]

I suggest the following:

UMN (both schools)
UND (especially if you graduated from the Red River Valley area according to their site)
Loyola
Rush
Rosalind Franklin
Creighton
NYMC
Albany
Hackensack
Georgetown
George Washington
Jefferson
SLU
Nova MD
EVMS
VCU
Drexel
Temple
Vermont
Oakland
Wayne State
Tulane
MCW
TCU
Tufts
Wake
Quinnipiac
Penn State

This list has several schools outside the Midwest.

 

[Faha]

I suggest these schools with your stats:
Minnesota
Medical College Wisconsin
Loyola
Rush
Rosalind Franklin
Oakland Beaumont
Wayne State
St. Louis
Creighton
TCU-UNT
Tulane
NOVA MD
Wake Forest
Virginia Commonwealth
Eastern Virginia
Georgetown
George Washington
Drexel
Temple
Jefferson
Hackensack
New York Medical College
Albany
Vermont
Quinnipiac

 

[JAK2-STAT3]

Where is your state of residence ? The GPA-MCAT grid shows you have a greater than 80% chance for a MD acceptance.

Sorry to veer off topic, but which grid is this? A-23?

 

[Faha]

Sorry to veer off topic, but which grid is this? A-23?

A24-4 from 2013 to 2016.