How much more competitive did my MCAT retake make me?

[GoPenguinsGo]

cGPA and also sGPA are about 3.36. Two years ago on Aug 31, 2018 I got a 503 (128/123/125/127) and was very disappointed.

HOWEVER, I just got my score back from my 7/7 retake and got a 516 (128/128/132/128). As an Ohio resident, did this make me more competitive at MD schools like Wright State and Toledo? I hit the median MCAT for accepted instate students for UC and OSU but those are some high GPA's they got going for them.

EDIT: Actually my cGPA and sGPA are about 3.41, apologies

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[Faha]

What are your ECs ? Any physician shadowing hours or clinical volunteering or employment with patient contact ?

 

[GoPenguinsGo]

What are your ECs ? Any physician shadowing hours or clinical volunteering or employment with patient contact ?

Yes but that's not really the focus of the post. I was specifically asking about the academic aptitude qualifications portion of the application

 

[Don21juan]

Yes but that's not really the focus of the post. I was specifically asking about the academic aptitude qualifications portion of the application

sheesh man it definitely does matter to the focus of the post. OBVIOUSLY a score increase like that is a huge will make huge difference in your perceived "academic aptitude" ... if you have insufficient ECs as a base for your application the mcat score increase is irrelevant

 

[GreenDuck12]

OP your whole application is important for contextualizing your score increase and the strength of your application. An applicant with a 503 and low shadowing or clinical experience is DOA. That same applicant with a 516 is also likely to be DOA because of how important clinical experience and shadowing is to the process. However, to your question, high MCAT low gpa applicants typically come across as capable but lazy. Additionally, a big increase in MCAT score makes one wonder what happened on the first test - nerves, lack of preparation, etc, which may reinforce that perception. You’ve definitely increased your odds of an acceptance by raising your MCAT score but you likely need to apply broadly to MD and DO programs and make sure your application helps admissions committees view you as a serious and dedicated student.

 

[GoPenguinsGo]

OP your whole application is important for contextualizing your score increase and the strength of your application. An applicant with a 503 and low shadowing or clinical experience is DOA. That same applicant with a 516 is also likely to be DOA because of how important clinical experience and shadowing is to the process. However, to your question, high MCAT low gpa applicants typically come across as capable but lazy. Additionally, a big increase in MCAT score makes one wonder what happened on the first test - nerves, lack of preparation, etc, which may reinforce that perception. You’ve definitely increased your odds of an acceptance by raising your MCAT score but you likely need to apply broadly to MD and DO programs and make sure your application helps admissions committees view you as a serious and dedicated student.

Alrighty fair enough. I have 100 hours of clinical hours (and about 10 more as each week passes) of volunteering and 100 hours of physician shadowing in Internal Medicine, Pediatrics, Surgery, Neonatology, and Cardiology. I have 1 year of pharmacological research at a College of Medicine where I am working on the binding capabilities of our monoclonal antibody that is in Phase 1 of FDA human trials. I will also be doing my master's thesis on this topic this year with ELISA and animal model studies as well.

I have student leadership position as a Supplemental Instruction leader for General Chemistry, Organic Chemistry I and Organic Chemistry II and this coming year will be mentoring graduate students here at my college in my program.

 

[GoPenguinsGo]

sheesh man it definitely does matter to the focus of the post. OBVIOUSLY a score increase like that is a huge will make huge difference in your perceived "academic aptitude" ... if you have insufficient ECs as a base for your application the mcat score increase is irrelevant

Alrighty fair enough. I have 100 hours of clinical hours (and about 10 more as each week passes) of volunteering and 100 hours of physician shadowing in Internal Medicine, Pediatrics, Surgery, Neonatology, and Cardiology. I have 1 year of pharmacological research at a College of Medicine where I am working on the binding capabilities of our monoclonal antibody that is in Phase 1 of FDA human trials. I will also be doing my master's thesis on this topic this year with ELISA and animal model studies as well.

I have student leadership position as a Supplemental Instruction leader for General Chemistry, Organic Chemistry I and Organic Chemistry II and this coming year will be mentoring graduate students here at my college in my program.

 

[Shotapp]

What about non-clinical volunteering?

 

[GoPenguinsGo]

What about non-clinical volunteering?

Working on that one as I'm typing this. I was supposed to be at a soup kitchen this past April but COVID put a stop to that.

 

[Faha]

You have decent ECs. The GPA-MCAT grid shows your chances for a MD acceptance increased from ~20% to ~60% so that is very significant. I suggest applying to these schools with your stats:
Toledo
Wright State
NEOMED
Ohio State (reach)
Cincinnati (reach)
West Virginia
Oakland Beaumont
Western Michigan
Medical College Wisconsin
Rosalind Franklin
TCU-UNT
NOVA MD
George Washington
Penn State
Drexel
Temple
Jefferson
Seton Hall
Albany
New York Medical College
Vermont
Quinnipiac
Also apply to several DO schools and I suggest these:
OU-HCOM
MU-COM
DMU-COM
ATSU-KCOM
KCU-COM
AZCOM
LECOM (all schools)
UNECOM
PCOM
CUSOM
VCOM (all schools except Monroe)
UP-KYCOM
WVSOM

 

[GoPenguinsGo]

You have decent ECs. The GPA-MCAT grid shows your chances for a MD acceptance increased from ~20% to ~60% so that is very significant. I suggest applying to these schools with your stats:
Toledo
Wright State
NEOMED
Ohio State (reach)
Cincinnati (reach)
West Virginia
Oakland Beaumont
Western Michigan
Medical College Wisconsin
Rosalind Franklin
TCU-UNT
NOVA MD
George Washington
Penn State
Drexel
Temple
Jefferson
Seton Hall
Albany
New York Medical College
Vermont
Quinnipiac
Also apply to several DO schools and I suggest these:
OU-HCOM
MU-COM
DMU-COM
ATSU-KCOM
KCU-COM
AZCOM
LECOM (all schools)
UNECOM
PCOM
CUSOM
VCOM (all schools except Monroe)
UP-KYCOM
WVSOM

Thanks for the help!

 

[Don21juan]

Alrighty fair enough. I have 100 hours of clinical hours (and about 10 more as each week passes) of volunteering and 100 hours of physician shadowing in Internal Medicine, Pediatrics, Surgery, Neonatology, and Cardiology. I have 1 year of pharmacological research at a College of Medicine where I am working on the binding capabilities of our monoclonal antibody that is in Phase 1 of FDA human trials. I will also be doing my master's thesis on this topic this year with ELISA and animal model studies as well.

I have student leadership position as a Supplemental Instruction leader for General Chemistry, Organic Chemistry I and Organic Chemistry II and this coming year will be mentoring graduate students here at my college in my program.

Sounds like ur straight tbh