My Year Off...

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g5chand

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I am a fourth year senior who will be graduating in April with a Biomedical Sciences degree, Chemistry minor, Honors College, 3.71GPA, 3.61Science, great LORs and ECs. However, I got a lousy 24O (7PS, 7VR, 10BS) on my MCAT. I have been receiving lots of denials and I am trying to prepare my next year... I am totally happy with DO or MD.

Any suggestions on what to do for my year off besides retake the MCAT?

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First, make sure to rock your classes the rest of the year...every little bit of GPA helps.
Study hard for the MCAT. Since you've already taken it once, you should probably consider an MCAT prep course. I do think the MCAT is low enough that it's going to keep you out of a lot of interviews @MD schools, but on the bright side if you could even bring up each of those lower sections by 2 points or so, that would help a lot. I went from 9 to 15 on the physical sciences portion after taking a prep course (very atypical but it's not impossible and I'm certainly not a physics genius!).

You probably need to get some sort of medically-related job next year. You might be able to get a research job in someone's lab...a lot of times they try to get you to promise to stay for 2 or more years though, as it takes time to train someone. If you do go for a research job, try to work for an MD and/or in a lab at a medical school if it's at all possible. Otherwise you can try to get a medically-related job, but that can be hard without specific certifications (i.e. you're not an LPN, a paramedic, etc.). Definitely keep up with medically-related volunteer work - you don't have to volunteer at 5 different hospitals and go crazy, but you just need to show commitment and interest. I don't know if this is even an option any more, but there used to be something called the Americorps that people could join and get a volunteer stipend and work on various volunteer projects...not sure if they would take someone for only 1 year but you could look in to it.
 
First, make sure to rock your classes the rest of the year...every little bit of GPA helps.
Study hard for the MCAT. Since you've already taken it once, you should probably consider an MCAT prep course. I do think the MCAT is low enough that it's going to keep you out of a lot of interviews @MD schools, but on the bright side if you could even bring up each of those lower sections by 2 points or so, that would help a lot. I went from 9 to 15 on the physical sciences portion after taking a prep course (very atypical but it's not impossible and I'm certainly not a physics genius!).

You probably need to get some sort of medically-related job next year. You might be able to get a research job in someone's lab...a lot of times they try to get you to promise to stay for 2 or more years though, as it takes time to train someone. If you do go for a research job, try to work for an MD and/or in a lab at a medical school if it's at all possible. Otherwise you can try to get a medically-related job, but that can be hard without specific certifications (i.e. you're not an LPN, a paramedic, etc.). Definitely keep up with medically-related volunteer work - you don't have to volunteer at 5 different hospitals and go crazy, but you just need to show commitment and interest. I don't know if this is even an option any more, but there used to be something called the Americorps that people could join and get a volunteer stipend and work on various volunteer projects...not sure if they would take someone for only 1 year but you could look in to it.

Wow, that's a ton of good information that I needed. Thanks a lot.
 
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just focus on the MCAT any EC u most likely could do wont offset a bad MCAT score
 
apply very broadly....the lower the score, the more apps you should do. you'll never know who will accept you. although your score is on the low side, people have gotten that golden acceptance letter with it. keep your chin up and good luck on the mcat!
 
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