Low CARS - will it shoot my chances at the top schools?

[Justapremed1]

Hello

I have an unbalanced MCAT score. 518 (132/125/130/131). CARS was always my weakest link, but I was hitting 127
-130 in FLs. A couple of hard passages derailed me in the actual test. How will it impact my chances at the top schools? Do they have a min CARS cutoff? I will post a WAMC for the 25-26 cycle, but have been very concerned about this, so decided to post the question. Thank you very much.

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[Moko]

Hello

I have an unbalanced MCAT score. 518 (132/125/130/131). CARS was always my weakest link, but I was hitting 127
-130 in FLs. A couple of hard passages derailed me in the actual test. How will it impact my chances at the top schools? Do they have a min CARS cutoff? I will post a WAMC for the 25-26 cycle, but have been very concerned about this, so decided to post the question. Thank you very much.

It's common for us to see CARS as being the lowest score. A CARS score of 125 is fine. I would not lose sleep over this. Just my thoughts.

 

[Goro]

Hello

I have an unbalanced MCAT score. 518 (132/125/130/131). CARS was always my weakest link, but I was hitting 127
-130 in FLs. A couple of hard passages derailed me in the actual test. How will it impact my chances at the top schools? Do they have a min CARS cutoff? I will post a WAMC for the 25-26 cycle, but have been very concerned about this, so decided to post the question. Thank you very much.

You're fine! CARS gets cut the most slack of the categories.

 

[wysdoc]

I have been wondering if there is a current worry on other social media about the CARS score.
People here have been asking about 124,125, and even 126 as too low

 

[Dee2daK]

@wysdoc If there is, I haven’t seen a lot of it. Many of those that I’ve seen worried about it have decent composite scores (515+) and its simply that the CARS score is several points lower than the other sections. As neurotic as we are, I think applicants with this circumstance start to use their google-fu and find confirmation bias about having a “low” CARS score being enough to threaten their application (usually from old websites that say “some schools filter for a CARS score higher than 124-125” but don’t give examples to back that vague statement..); this is especially in the context of an unbalanced score.

Basically I think it’s paranoia, poor-quality information, and confirmation bias.

 

[thegodofbio]

I also have the same question. I have a 519 (132/124/132/131). This is lower than the minimum 125 cutoff that many schools have. How will it affect me considering the rest of my application looks solid?

 

[warmsoup]

fwiw, I had a similar breakdown with a 126 CARS and was accepted to a T20 and had zero questions about it in all of my interviews

 

[LizzyM]

For the most part, you will be cut the most slack for CARS and, particularly if English is not your mother tongue.

 

[Justapremed1]

Thank you all, for your responses. Really appreciate it.

 

[ClashRoyaleKing]

123 here lololol

 

[Present-Row-4056]

Hello

I have an unbalanced MCAT score. 518 (132/125/130/131). CARS was always my weakest link, but I was hitting 127
-130 in FLs. A couple of hard passages derailed me in the actual test. How will it impact my chances at the top schools? Do they have a min CARS cutoff? I will post a WAMC for the 25-26 cycle, but have been very concerned about this, so decided to post the question. Thank you very much.

I had a 518 132/125/131/130 and got interviews at a couple top schools. Nobody ever brought it up.

 

[BrokenLlamas]

I had a less-than-stellar CARS score (though I'm FGLI, so YMMV). You can see the results of my app cycle in my signature (had a lot of success at the T20 level and only one T10 asked about it).

 

[thegodofbio]

How about Georgetown? If my app is service oriented, would a 124 CARS eliminate me from the Georgetown application pool? Does it help that I am low-income, immigrant and English is not my first language?

 

[lockon7]

I think some of the paranoia online about CARS comes from Canadian med schools. Many of them exclusively look at CARS scores. Honestly, there couldn't be a stupider way to process MCAT scores, but Canada I guess 😒