I scored one point lower on my MCAT, now what?

[Otatop]

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I just got my 5/31 score back and it was quite devastating. I went from a 510 -> 509 even though I was scoring on average 515s on my 3 AAMC practice FLs. So now I'm wondering if I should continue applying this cycle or foregoing it to retake it again.

Some other information about me:
I am a reapplicant from California (and also Asian American)
Undergrad sGPA: 3.66, cGPA: 3.75

ECs from last year:
- 200 hours research with no publications
- 200 hours clinical volunteering
- 100 hours shadowing
- 150 hours nonclinical volunteering
- 300+ hours of leadership in cultural student orgs

New ECs from this past gap year:
- 200 new hours of teaching at a tutoring center
- 1000 new hours from working as a medical assistant at urgent care
- started my own podcast (~10 hours so far)

My current school list if I were to continue applying this cycle:
- California Northstate
- Keck (USC)
- UC Davis
- George Washington
- Georgetown
- Emory
- Loyola-Stritch
- Tulane
- Tufts
- North Carolina
- Cooper Rowan
- UBuffalo
- New York Medical College
- Rochester
- SUNY Downstate
- SUNY Upstate
- Hofstra
- Drexel
- Geisinger Commonwealth
- Jefferson-Kimmel
- Penn State
- Temple-Katz
- Viriginia Commonwealth
- University of Washington

I guess I just want to know if I would be okay to apply this cycle, and whether or not these schools need further adjustments if I do. Thanks a lot!

 

[Lucca]

Just continue applying. It’s not a positive, certainly, but both of your scores are within the confidence interval of one another so they are effectively the same score. And it’s a decent score, at that. From the school’s perspective you’ll look like someone who likes to take risks to improve themselves and is at the very least a consistent test taker.

Do not retake the mcat again. Improving 3 points is not a very big deal at the 510 range. A third retake after getting the same score twice will really force people to question your judgement.

 

[Goro]

I just got my 5/31 score back and it was quite devastating. I went from a 510 -> 509 even though I was scoring on average 515s on my 3 AAMC practice FLs. So now I'm wondering if I should continue applying this cycle or foregoing it to retake it again.

Some other information about me:
I am a reapplicant from California (and also Asian American)
Undergrad sGPA: 3.66, cGPA: 3.75

ECs from last year:
- 200 hours research with no publications
- 200 hours clinical volunteering
- 100 hours shadowing
- 150 hours nonclinical volunteering
- 300+ hours of leadership in cultural student orgs

New ECs from this past gap year:
- 200 new hours of teaching at a tutoring center
- 1000 new hours from working as a medical assistant at urgent care
- started my own podcast (~10 hours so far)

My current school list if I were to continue applying this cycle:
- California Northstate
- Keck (USC)
- UC Davis
- George Washington
- Georgetown
- Emory
- Loyola-Stritch
- Tulane
- Tufts
- North Carolina
- Cooper Rowan
- UBuffalo
- New York Medical College
- Rochester
- SUNY Downstate
- SUNY Upstate
- Hofstra
- Drexel
- Geisinger Commonwealth
- Jefferson-Kimmel
- Penn State
- Temple-Katz
- Viriginia Commonwealth
- University of Washington

I guess I just want to know if I would be okay to apply this cycle, and whether or not these schools need further adjustments if I do. Thanks a lot!

UNC would be a donation, as would U WA, Rowan, Geisinger, the SUNys and Keck.

I can't recommend another MCAT retake, ans you've likely plateaued.

Here is a more realistic list.
U Toledo
U VM
Miami
Tufts
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
Nova MD
CUSM
Kaiser
TCU/UNT
UCD
UCI
Any DO program. I can't recommend Touro-NY, Nova, Wm Carey, LUCOM, for different reasons. MSUCOM? Read up on Larry Nasser and you decide. LMU has an accreditation warning, which concerns me.
Start list with both Westerns, BCOM, Touro-CA, TUNCOM, AZCOM, PacNW

 

[gyngyn]

Are you aware that Northstate has chosen to deny its students access to federal loans?
California is not a WWAMI state.
Are you a re-applicant at any of these schools? Any interviews?

 

[Faha]

In addition to the MD schools @Goro recommended you should apply to at least 6 DO schools.

 

[Otatop]

UNC would be a donation, as would U WA, Rowan, Geisinger, the SUNys and Keck.

I can't recommend another MCAT retake, ans you've likely plateaued.

Here is a more realistic list.
U Toledo
U VM
Miami
Tufts
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
Nova MD
CUSM
Kaiser
TCU/UNT
UCD
UCI
Any DO program. I can't recommend Touro-NY, Nova, Wm Carey, LUCOM, for different reasons. MSUCOM? Read up on Larry Nasser and you decide. LMU has an accreditation warning, which concerns me.
Start list with both Westerns, BCOM, Touro-CA, TUNCOM, AZCOM, PacNW

The SLU medians for both the GPA and MCAT are really high... would that be more of a reach?

 

[Goro]

The SLU medians for both the GPA and MCAT are really high... would that be more of a reach?

They like service, and their 10th %ile are lower...it's not all about the media at SLU/Jefferson class schools