I need some advice

[SirJohansef]

Hello,

I am new to the forums so I apologize if this is posted in the wrong section. I am a 4th year Biology student at the University of California, Riverside. cGPA - 3.58 sGPA - 3.35. I registered for mcat May 24, but fell behind in my studies because of school and now I have to cram. Not sure if I'll do so great if I take it this coming May. If I want to apply for this year's cycle would it be too late to apply if I took the July 6th mcat? I think I could get a better score if I took it in July because I am done with my upper div biology classes and am not taking any difficult classes this quarter. Also, what do you think my chances are if I can get a 30+ on my mcat with my scores?

EC
3 months volunteering at hospital 3 hours a week
VP of Programming of FBLA-PBL
Treasurer of Best Buddies
3 months research in colonization at Joshua Tree Park
Tutor for high school students
Android Developer

Thank you everyone for your time and consideration. This forum is truly a great resource.

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[Catalystik]

Hello,

I am new to the forums so I apologize if this is posted in the wrong section. I am a 4th year Biology student at the University of California, Riverside. cGPA - 3.58 sGPA - 3.35. I registered for mcat May 24, but fell behind in my studies because of school and now I have to cram. Not sure if I'll do so great if I take it this coming May. If I want to apply for this year's cycle would it be too late to apply if I took the July 6th mcat? I think I could get a better score if I took it in July because I am done with my upper div biology classes and am not taking any difficult classes this quarter. Also, what do you think my chances are if I can get a 30+ on my mcat with my scores?

EC
3 months volunteering at hospital 3 hours a week
VP of Programming of FBLA-PBL
Treasurer of Best Buddies
3 months research in colonization at Joshua Tree Park
Tutor for high school students
Android Developer

Thank you everyone for your time and consideration. This forum is truly a great resource.

What is bringing your sGPA down?
What grades have you gotten in upper-level Bio classes and Biochem?
How long have you tutored and been involved with Best Buddies?
Any other clinical experience? Any physician shadowing? Did you just decide to go into medicine?
Have you met with your school's premed advisor to discuss your career goals?

 

[SirJohansef]

C's in Ochem and in Neuroscience and B's here and there brought my sGPA down. I've tutored since last summer and been involved with best buddies since last spring. My upper div bio GPA is 3.41. A in biochemistry. I do not have any physician shadowing. I understand that it is an area that I substantially lack in but will it hurt me that much? If so, should I take a year off and just do physician shadowing and work on my postbacc raising my sGPA? Thank you for your help.

Also, I will meet with a health career advisor today to see what other options I have.

 

[Catalystik]

I think your application would benefit greatly by waiting a year. You could take more time to study for the MCAT with less pressure. You could do additional coursework, getting straight As, to raise your BCPM GPA. And while you could quickly add some shadowing (about 50 hours is the average), where you need to put your attention EC-wise is additional clinical volunteering. The average applicant has 1.5 years, and you'd fall far short of that. Your tutoring and mentoring, if you continued them or something similar over another year would appear in a better light. If there were any way to get in more research time, that would be helpful too.

Being an applicant from California is tough as there are far too many excellent applicants for far too few seats, leaving many to rely on acceptances from out of state schools. Therefore, you'd want your application to be the best it can be before you send it out.

Many applicants improve their odds of acceptance by including DO med schools on their list (there are two in California) as they are more lenient about stats. They have similar expectations for ECs as MD schools though, so applying only to DO schools at this time would also be iffy. Still, you might want to start researching this option if you aren't familiar with it.