Is it possible for someone with a 21 mcat to make it through med school?

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Many people getting scores this low are getting into med schools in the caribbeans and maybe some DO schools but practically speaking, can they get through med school and pass the step1? Maybe the low scores were due to poor study habits but regardless that is pretty low in my opinion anyhow. I'm not trying to be condescending or anything because I haven't even taken it myself. But if I were in that position I would definitely think twice about going to med school even if i was accepted
 
Despite what many pre-meds tend to think, the MCAT is not some intrinsic property that's surgically glued to someone's inner-being. A person w/ a 21 does not necessarily mean they can't become great docs. However, on the flip side, there is correlation. Not Causation, but definitely correlation.
 
no, they will not. people with mcat score of below 21.5 do not deserve to get into medical school, and should they do so, will fail every exam horrendously and help us pull the bell curve down.
 
bannie22 said:
no, they will not. people with mcat score of below 21.5 do not deserve to get into medical school, and should they do so, will fail every exam horrendously and help us pull the bell curve down.
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sorry you are wrong here....it is possible but nevertheless highly unlikely 😀
 
It's possible. MCAT tests reading comprehension as well as critical thinking. Medical school is all about memorizing a bulk load of material at the same time. If you can memorize, you can do fine.
 
J DUB said:
sorry you are wrong here....it is possible but nevertheless highly unlikely 😀
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yes. i rechecked the stats. it is actually 21.49 recently.

if u get mcat score of 21.5 u can still do well.
 
thesauce said:
They could do it if they worked hard enough. My ex-gf got an 18 and got through med school.
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I think that once you're in they will do alot to keep you in. If I understand right, due to the type of funding a med school receives, if there's an open seat (due to a dropout) then they are losing money. I'm sure they want to keep their attrition stats low also.
 
someone with a 21 could of course make it through medical school. I can think of 3 or 4 people off the top of my head that got low 20's on their first MCAT, and raised their MCAT score 7+ points the second time around.

One MCAT score does not tell you everything about your potential - it is an indicator of what you've done so far.
 
US med schools have extremely low attrition rates. If the adcom deems your academic background worthy of acceptance and you work hard once you're there, you'd be hard pressed to fail barring any sort of academic dishonesty or legal misconduct outside of the classroom. A variety of programs are in place to help students academically, and assuming you navigated the pre-clinical curriculum, you'd likely also pass Step 1.

The problem wouldn't be graduating, it would be convincing an adcom to let you in with a 21. There are many more applicants capable of succeeding in med sch than there are spots, and the overwhelming majority of them have an MCAT significantly better than 21.
 
wahoo2010 said:
It's possible. MCAT tests reading comprehension as well as critical thinking. Medical school is all about memorizing a bulk load of material at the same time. If you can memorize, you can do fine.
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Med school's actually pretty far from just memorizing...

And if you're good enough to memorize your way through med school, you should be able to memorize your way above a 21 on the MCAT
 
I think it depends on why the student got a 21. If there were mitigating factors at the time the MCAT was taken (illness, family issues, whatever) that have gone away or been made manageable by medical school then, assuming the student is generally smart/motivated/good at absorbing massive amounts of material/academically qualified, I don't think the MCAT score would be an omen of impending doom.
But then that begs the question of why the student didn't attempt MCAT again at a later date. What would make me suspicious of someone with a 21 is that in most circumstances, you sort of have to ask why they didn't try to improve their score.

If the MCAT were the sole predictor of how well a student would do in medical school, I'd imagine there would be fewer admissions requirements. I think it's probably a better indicator of ability than, say, the SAT is to college success (don't get me started on that one), but I doubt it's 100% accurate.
 
J DUB said:
just about anything is possible....🙂
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I agree with this. To say, without a doubt, that an individual with a low score of 21 is unable to succeed in med school is conjecture at best. The truth is, there are way too many other factors that need to be considered when determining the likelihood of this person's success. The bottom line is, there's no rule out there (that I know of) that prohibits individuals with a 21 MCAT score from succeeding in med school. 😉
 
Why not Retake the MCAT before applying? but actually have a good study plan in place
 
I don't think the standardized tests are an accurate predictor of the future academic performance. I know one student who bombed the standardized test yet is doing amazing in his classes and another student who aced the test and is quite struggling in his classes. It's all about the efforts you put into studying and your classes.

I also don't think the standardized test is really "standardized." For example, the score depends on what day you take the test. I know one student who took the test in March and May and got 12 and 9, respectively. So, you may have either bad or good testing day. I heard so many stories where many people never scored 30+ on the practice exams and yet achieve 30+ on the real exam. This also applies to those who never score below 30 on the practice exams and yet achieve below 30 on the real exam. Once again, I don't believe the standardized test proves how well you know the material and what kind of student you will be in the future.
 
I've always heard that if you can get an interview, then the ad coms thought you had the intellectual horsepower to survive in their program. I'm pretty sure that the last thing any med school wants is to have a student flunk out due to academic reasons.
 
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i think the original question in this thread needs to be changed to: "can someone with a 21 on the MCAT GET INTO med school"....and my answer would be.....no.....OR......you better have some serious ECs, a high GPA, and know people in high places
 
Is it impossible for someone with a 21 mcat to not make it through med school?
 
your MCAT correlates to your med school performance as much as your SAT score correlates to your undergraduate performance (ie little correlation)
 
Usernamed said:
I've always heard that if you can get an interview, then the ad coms thought you had the intellectual horsepower to survive in their program. I'm pretty sure that the last thing any med school wants is to have a student flunk out due to academic reasons.
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👍👍
 
J DUB said:
Just thought of this.....

there are PR med schools where the average is around 22-23.

And they seem to make it through just fine and place in decent residencies....

Simply, you cant judge a man by a number!! We are much more than that!! 👍
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I agree with your post but unfortunately this is the pre-med forum. Here, someone who scored a 21 on the MCAT would be advised to seek a career in toilet bowl cleaning.
 
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