MCAT score to shoot for?

[urangchoa]

---

Members do not see this ad.

I graduated in May from BS in Bio, my cGPA is 3.3 and sGPA is 3.27ish. I am in grad school doing masters for now. I have done some research since ugrad and might have some chance of publishing..within a year or so.. i have 100+ hospital volunteering and will shadow within a year. i know my gpa isnt so great and i'm not aiming for any super good school (my first choice is medical college of georgia....). how good should my mcat be?
If I improve a lot in gpa-wise from MS progem will it help me? and any suggestions?

Thanx!

 

[thebluehour]

Your GPA will not improve by completing a master's degree, unless it's of the SMP (special master's) variety. With your GPA, I would aim for 33+ on the MCAT.

Best of luck

 

[Catalystik]

While in grad school, you might consider taking some upper-level science classes not required for the masters to raise your BCPM GPA, as it would then be included in your undergrad composite GPAs, even though taken during your grad school years.

 

[Count Chocula]

With a 3.3 I'd shoot for at least a 32

 

[ChemEngSoonMD]

I graduated in May from BS in Bio, my cGPA is 3.3 and sGPA is 3.27ish. I am in grad school doing masters for now. I have done some research since ugrad and might have some chance of publishing..within a year or so.. i have 100+ hospital volunteering and will shadow within a year. i know my gpa isnt so great and i'm not aiming for any super good school (my first choice is medical college of georgia....). how good should my mcat be?
If I improve a lot in gpa-wise from MS progem will it help me? and any suggestions?

Thanx!

What to shoot for should always be as high as whatever your MCAT places on your priority list. Its not like if you get a certain MCAT you get in automatically. The higher the score, the better the probability. Even if you have a 80% probability, you still have 20% of denied.

What to shoot for depends on:

1. How long you want to study for
2. How many hours you want to study per day.
3. How innately smarter you are.
4. How much background knowledge you have.

Guess who knows those 4 attributes about yourself the best? I'll give you a hint, its not people on the internets.

 

[dingyibvs]

You have a standout GPA, not for good reasons, so you will need a standout MCAT, say 35+, to be competitive. However, generally speaking, a rather big deficiency in one area is not made up by a great aspect of your application, so you will also need to work your butt off to improve your EC's. 100 something hours of volunteering will not be enough, not even close. You will REALLY need to work hard this year, get 200+ more hours of volunteering, preferably with leadership-type positions and/or direct clinical experience.

If you do that with a ~32 MCAT, then you'll be competitive for the lower tier schools. If you can get a ~35 MCAT and make excellent grades in graduate school as well, you'll be competitive at all schools except the very top tier ones. There are many other factors to an application, of course, but GPA, MCAT, and EC's are the pillars of your resume.

All of what I said depends also on your other experiences. Since I don't have a lot of information on you, I'll just have to assume that you are average in all other aspects(i.e. adversities faced in college, that you're not an URM, you don't have amazing ECs that you didn't mention, you don't have rec letters from Nobel prize winners, etc. etc.)

 

[ILikeDrugs]

Your GPA shouldn't have to matter or be a predictor of your future MCAT score. Hopefully you saved all your tests that way you can go back and see what you didn't learn. Learn it now. Study like you want to get a 45.

 

[Bernoull]

I graduated in May from BS in Bio, my cGPA is 3.3 and sGPA is 3.27ish. I am in grad school doing masters for now. I have done some research since ugrad and might have some chance of publishing..within a year or so.. i have 100+ hospital volunteering and will shadow within a year. i know my gpa isnt so great and i'm not aiming for any super good school (my first choice is medical college of georgia....). how good should my mcat be?
If I improve a lot in gpa-wise from MS progem will it help me? and any suggestions?

Thanx!

Obviously higher scores are always better. What should you shoot for, well it depends on which schools u want to matriculate into. Check out MCG's avg and score ranges for matriculants. This will give u a realistic idea. Get the MSAR if u don't have it already.

 

[pharmacy85]

I have similar stats, except im getting my pharmD right now so ill be a doctor when i apply and i was told, with that gpa

aim for a 32+ at the least