Please Help..Need Advice!

[hawaiinchick]

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Hey ya'll

Any comments/suggestions would be appreciated.

I am currently applying to osteopathic schools for the third year in a row. I have a 27 MCAT and a 3.12 undergrad gpa and a 2.86 science undergrad gpa. Last year I did a masters biomedical sciences program and unfortunately did not do too much better (2.96 gpa). i received a 27 mcat score in my second attempt. since my gpa is on the lower side, i thought of retaking the mcat in july to try to bring it to a 30+ to help offset my lower gpa. unfortunately i voided that exam (3rd attempt) because i felt i did very poorly on PS. i was averaging a 27 on my aamc practice exams. i am debating whether i should give the mcat another shot. my gut tells me i can do better, but i really dont want to risk going lower. when i got a 27, i was averaging a 25 on my aamcs, so i did better than my average. don't know what to do. i have a lot of shadowing, extracurriculars, volunteering, good letters of rec and personal statement. if i don't get in this year, i am planning on going to the caribbean. any advice on whether i should give the mcat another shot?? its driving me nuts! debating between the sept 18 test date and october 25 th

 

[sonofva]

This probably will be better responded to in pre osteopathic forum. My 2 cents, if you plan on going Caribbean anyway if you don't get in, why not just go for it and retake the mcat?


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[PizzaFactory]

Hey ya'll

Any comments/suggestions would be appreciated.

I am currently applying to osteopathic schools for the third year in a row. I have a 27 MCAT and a 3.12 undergrad gpa and a 2.86 science undergrad gpa. Last year I did a masters biomedical sciences program and unfortunately did not do too much better (2.96 gpa). i received a 27 mcat score in my second attempt. since my gpa is on the lower side, i thought of retaking the mcat in july to try to bring it to a 30+ to help offset my lower gpa. unfortunately i voided that exam (3rd attempt) because i felt i did very poorly on PS. i was averaging a 27 on my aamc practice exams. i am debating whether i should give the mcat another shot. my gut tells me i can do better, but i really dont want to risk going lower. when i got a 27, i was averaging a 25 on my aamcs, so i did better than my average. don't know what to do. i have a lot of shadowing, extracurriculars, volunteering, good letters of rec and personal statement. if i don't get in this year, i am planning on going to the caribbean. any advice on whether i should give the mcat another shot?? its driving me nuts! debating between the sept 18 test date and october 25 th

 

[PizzaFactory]

Hey ya'll

Any comments/suggestions would be appreciated.

I am currently applying to osteopathic schools for the third year in a row. I have a 27 MCAT and a 3.12 undergrad gpa and a 2.86 science undergrad gpa. Last year I did a masters biomedical sciences program and unfortunately did not do too much better (2.96 gpa). i received a 27 mcat score in my second attempt. since my gpa is on the lower side, i thought of retaking the mcat in july to try to bring it to a 30+ to help offset my lower gpa. unfortunately i voided that exam (3rd attempt) because i felt i did very poorly on PS. i was averaging a 27 on my aamc practice exams. i am debating whether i should give the mcat another shot. my gut tells me i can do better, but i really dont want to risk going lower. when i got a 27, i was averaging a 25 on my aamcs, so i did better than my average. don't know what to do. i have a lot of shadowing, extracurriculars, volunteering, good letters of rec and personal statement. if i don't get in this year, i am planning on going to the caribbean. any advice on whether i should give the mcat another shot?? its driving me nuts! debating between the sept 18 test date and october 25 th

Taking it again is risky. When you take the MCAT multiple times, any additional times you take it are compared to past attempts, and if you don't improve upon your last score it looks REALLY bad on an app. That said, if you feel you can definitely improve, it could work out to your advantage because it shows persistence and a drive for self improvement. Your GPA is definitely on the low side even for DO schools, but if the rest of your app can really shine in their eyes you might still be a contender. Your gender and ethnicity matter as well since some schools have quotas to make a class that is optimally diverse, so keep that in mind.

I would advise against attending Caribbean schools so hastily due to their generally poor retention rates, board scores, residency placements, and reputations within the medical field. While the education provided by them may be on par or even better than some US medical schools (I don't attend one, so I truly have no idea), you don't want to spend 4 years of grueling work and hundreds of thousands of dollars only to not be able to practice medicine (or be much more limited in your practice of medicine) in the US upon graduation because of discrimination against graduates of those schools in the professional US environment.

If you do take it again, I would definitely make a drastic change in whatever you're doing to prepare before you do so. If you use the exact same strategies, techniques and resources as you did the previous 2 times, your scores may not change at all, which I mentioned before could actually hurt you. Best of luck. Feel free to PM me if you have any questions.

 

[Winged Scapula]

Moving to Pre Osteo as this is the forum for high school students,

 

[Mx300]

I would not retake the MCAT unless u are consistently scoring in the low to mid thirties on the AAMC practice tests. Ive been hearing from alot of ppl that the MCAT can be very variable and they usually score + or - 3 points from their mean practice scores. Also your GPA is an issue, especially since you did not do well in your graduate program, thats a red flag. I would apply to all of the low tier DO schools including the one with all of the controversy, that creationist school I forgot what it was called, and some mid tier schools and see what happens. Personally I would really advise against going to the Caribbean, if I was in your position I would actually choose another field in healthcare instead of going to the Caribbean. It would be a bigger risk for u then most others in my opinion because of your GPA, you might not be able to handle the course load and be stuck with massive debt. Ive seen this happen with ppl I know who were academically weak and went to the Caribbean.

 

[hallowmann]

I wouldn't retake unless you are going to get >30. It would be a mistake. You've already retaken once. You need to improve your GPA. That is really what's killing you. You need to retake enough science courses until your GPA is >3.0. Without that, its pointless to reapply a third time with essentially the same stats. Really, you should never have applied, let alone reapplied before doing that. Retake sciences wherever and get your GPAs up.

Now all that said, getting <3.0 on the SMP is a bad sign. It'll be tough to get into any school with such a mediocre track record. That may mean that it'll take even longer to get into a program (you need to show you'll do well consistently with advanced sciences).

As far as the Caribbean goes, I would strongly recommend against it, even if it means having to wait 1-2 yrs. Ultimately, its up to you, but know exactly what you're getting into before you head out there. If all you want is community FM or IM, and if you honestly believe you'll do well enough to make it through 4yrs at a Carib school, then maybe taking the risk isn't a big deal for you. That said, at this point in time, I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. Again, if in spite of all this, you decide to go Carib, ONLY go to one of a big 4 (SGU, AUC, Ross or Saba), and if possible only SGU.