MDPHD chances?

[MobyStub]

MCAT 506 (123, 128, 129, 126)
GPA 3.6
2 first author publications (both in 10+ impact factor journals)
prestigious research fellowship after graduation (NSF)


I know the MCAT is low, mostly due to the physical sciences section, but do I have any chance? Or should I retake the exam until that section is decent?

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[Forever Geebs]

Both your GPA and MCAT are below average compared to matriculant scores of 3.79 and 515.4. It’s not impossible but important to know how you stack up. What other elements of your ECs can you share with us?


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[MobyStub]

Tutoring underprivileged hs students in biology, 2 years
Volunteering at two different hospitals, 300+ hours each
Shadowing a surgeon, 100+ hours
Translational research at a medical center, 4+ years
Half a dozen national conferences, and another few local ones as well
Very strong letters from recommenders

I'm also a minority, but I don't want to rely on that.

My question is, should I apply this year or study my ass off again for another year and apply next year. I want to apply early since many places have rolling admission, so retaking it later this summer I think would hurt my chances.

On the one hand, I've spent a lot of time already, both doing research and studying and I just want to be done with applying already. And people usually say scores indicate how well you perform when you're in the program, but I think I've demonstrated my independence and ability to work on and lead complex multidisciplinary projects in the lab. So Idk if another year of more studying is worth it. On the other hand, I don't like the scores and want to be the best candidate.

 

[Checklist]

Your research is more than adequate, but your stats, especially your MCAT score, are very low for MD-PhD. MD-PhD has much higher stat requirements than MD schools and only a few percent of students matriculating into MD-PhD programs had a 506 or lower (514.6 mean and SD of 5.9). See: https://www.aamc.org/download/321548/data/factstableb10.pdf

If MD-PhD is very important to you I think it may be worth taking a year to study hard for the MCAT and making sure you're ready to do really well (518+ ideally). You don't want to retake it more than once.

 

[MobyStub]

Thanks for the input.

I just find this so depressing. And irritating too. There are students in my lab with 4.0 gpa and high mcat, but these same people have contributed nothing to the research, not even a single group meeting presentation. They're not even there half the time when they say they will be, and when they are, they test irrelevant things, or do things in a half ass way (eg, one of them didn't purify a product completely and that ended up killing a bunch of mice when they gave it to a collaborator.) And yet these same people have an advantage over me because of an exam. I don't think it's fair. But it is what it is I guess.