R
rstev
How Much will an outstanding MCAT help a Less than great application (GPA, etal.)
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- Joined
- Jan 27, 2000
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It will improve your application by exactly 22.2%. Seriously though, I don't think anyone on this board is going to be able to help you determine how much it is going to improve your application. It certainly won't hurt it, and you have nothing to lose (except application costs) in trying to apply. In the meantime, try to improve the other weaker parts, whatever they may be. Best of luck with all.
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- Sep 27, 2000
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I found the best way to offset low scores was to bombard admissions committees with ludicrous amounts of volunteer work. Basically when the time came for my interview, and the admissions committee had 4 pages of medical experience sitting in front of them, the 2.63 gpa and straight 7's on the MCAT didn't seem to matter. However...I was on numerous international humanitarian activities with organizations like the World Health Organization, the Peace Core, etc. etc. Basically, if you don't like the academics of it all, but love actual medicine and helping people for real...then do this sort of work. These people who say "Geez, thats an awful lot of work just to get in..." well, they shouldn't be in med-school anyway. I'll tell you what, I've seen more people's lives just ruined because they chose medicine for a comfortable living and instead found that the glamor of E.R. was soon replaced with the reality of being around sick, unhappy, sometimes dying people, and that the Mercedes they drive really isn't the compensation they figured it would be when the hospital is ringing them at 4:15am to attend to some drunken/o.d.'ed junkie who's been shot in a drug deal gone bad. Seriously, I see it way too much, you people all worried about grades and getting in...when you don't have the slightest clue of what you're actually GETTING IN TO! If you're uninterested in medicine now, and just interested in the grades to get in, what kind of doctor are you really ever going to be? You'll turn it on to get a reward, such as getting in or passing boards, but you're going to realize in 4 years that this was the most expensive (approximately $180000+interest) ego trip you've ever taken. Do work...find out you love it or hate it. Trust me...you'll never thank yourself enough. If you find its everything you wanted, then great, you'll get in, stop worrying. If you find out it sucks, then it only cost you a few years and some volunteered time, which doesn't accrue at 8%. Good Luck.
- Joined
- Jun 19, 2000
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"you people all worried about grades and getting in...when you don't have the
slightest clue of what you're actually GETTING IN TO! If you're uninterested in medicine
now, and just interested in the grades to get in, what kind of doctor are you really ever
going to be? You'll turn it on to get a reward, such as getting in or passing boards, but
you're going to realize in 4 years that this was the most expensive (approximately
$180000+interest) ego trip you've ever taken."
I love it when I am included in such generalizations! How about the rest of "you people?" Get off the soap box!! The volunteer work doesn't necessarily make anyone a saint; therefore, it doesn't give you the right to judge any of the rest of our motives.
slightest clue of what you're actually GETTING IN TO! If you're uninterested in medicine
now, and just interested in the grades to get in, what kind of doctor are you really ever
going to be? You'll turn it on to get a reward, such as getting in or passing boards, but
you're going to realize in 4 years that this was the most expensive (approximately
$180000+interest) ego trip you've ever taken."
I love it when I am included in such generalizations! How about the rest of "you people?" Get off the soap box!! The volunteer work doesn't necessarily make anyone a saint; therefore, it doesn't give you the right to judge any of the rest of our motives.
- Joined
- Jul 9, 2000
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- 435
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Sherm,
First of all do not attack other people's
desire to aspire to do well academically,
when it is obviously clear you have not done
well. Instead of being in denial and
projecting your anger onto a universal foe,
i.e. anyone in the medical application
process. Why not do some introspection?
Your grades and MCAT scores are sufficiently
sub par. The fact that you are associated
with health organizations to hide your
academic defeciencies seems to illustrate
a lack of conscious thought and a real
lack of reality. To gain admittance into
school it is necessary to gain information
in an academic setting. Good grades
demonstrates a desire to work hard and to
sacrifice time for a goal.
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tb
First of all do not attack other people's
desire to aspire to do well academically,
when it is obviously clear you have not done
well. Instead of being in denial and
projecting your anger onto a universal foe,
i.e. anyone in the medical application
process. Why not do some introspection?
Your grades and MCAT scores are sufficiently
sub par. The fact that you are associated
with health organizations to hide your
academic defeciencies seems to illustrate
a lack of conscious thought and a real
lack of reality. To gain admittance into
school it is necessary to gain information
in an academic setting. Good grades
demonstrates a desire to work hard and to
sacrifice time for a goal.
------------------
tb
- Joined
- Sep 27, 2000
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- 15
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- 0
OK, I may have been a little misinterpreted...academics ARE important...however...I think that most people would agree that the reason its so difficult to get into medical school is not because there are just SO MANY altruistic and academically GIFTED individuals out there that schools need some way to sort them out. Hmmm...True academics are important...should you be rewarded for hard work in the classroom? Sure...I guess. Does it mean that every straight A student in undergrad deserves to be a doctor? Hell NO!! I'm merely stating that the commitment JOEMEDSTUDENT makes is going to be a very costly involved one...you know...one that deserves a little more thought than the usual..."Do DO's make as much $$$ as MD's????" posts. Those people may succeed at gaining initials, but they are gonna pay with the misery that usually accompanies doctors at some point in their education/career.
- Joined
- Jul 9, 2000
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- 435
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- 1
Point well taken.
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tb
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tb
