PA Applicant to MD Applicant

[Waldcayut]

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[AttemptingScholar]

Welcome to SDN! The University of Kentucky has an average matriculant science GPA of 3.71, all-other of 3.82, and overall 3.75. The average matriculant MCAT was a 31, which can be roughly converted to between 509 and 512.

Your PA shadowing will not help you. You need physician shadowing, but 150 hours is overkill. Maybe like 50 hours? Right now, your EC priority is volunteering. It doesn't necessarily have to be in a hospital--soup kitchens, working with kids, picking up trash, whatever. A lot. Transfer those 100 hours I took off shadowing to volunteering, at least.

Good luck!

 

[kubyx]

The idea of aiming for a particular score is a little silly IMO, but I see it all of the time on here. The reality of the MCAT is that the average person probably has a realistic 'cap' to their score in what they will achieve in ~3 months of studying. After that, it's probably diminishing returns on your score vs. studying. So, study for a few months and then get the best score that you can conceivably earn. That's really all you can do short of buying a 100 practice tests and studying for a year to try and blow it out of the water.

My only advice would be to not take it until you're consistently scoring at a minimum level you've identified as critical to your app. I wish I had done a few more practice tests because I was scoring at ~514-515 on my last two practice tests and then scored several points below on the real thing - I wish I had cemented that score with a little extra effort.

 

[AttemptingScholar]

Thanks guys, another thing I'm slightly concerned about is acquiring letters of rec. UK doesn't have a pre-med committee to my knowledge so no need to get a committee letter but that means I need to get 3 letters from profs, which seems a little difficult considering I'll have been out 2 years by the time Im asking for a letter. I did have my Community Nutrition prof (also my undergrad advisor) write me a letter for PA school, I doubt she would care to write one for med school, so that would cover non-science. Of course I could also buddy up with whatever prof I get for physics this spring from my local community college, so that would be one science prof. But that does leave me one science prof short, should I crapshoot email science profs from undergrad, hoping they'll remember me?

Consider a paid service like Interfolio. Your professors write the letters now, Interfolio saves them for however many years and sends them to AMCAS when you're ready. Very popular for premeds.