Please help!!!!

[Tabz]

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Hello! It's been awhile since I've been on here. I'm a senior graduating in May of this year and I'm thinking that I may have to reapply to med school 🙁 . I applied extremely late in the 2010-2011 cycle due to family issues and I haven't heard much back from schools. Here are my stats:
MCAT (09/03/10): PS:11, VR: 7, BS:11 = 29O (I speak 4 languages and English was the last one I learned so that may explain the 7)
GPA: 3.79 cumulative, though science GPA is about the same
EC's: Average - Lots of volunteering in many areas, some research, a fair amount of shadowing...

For this cycle, I applied to 13 schools on AMCAS and completed 9 secondaries. I've received one interview and one rejection so far and the rest is still up in the air. Is this just because I'm a late applicant or is it because I'm late AND because my application wasn't great? I'm not very hopeful as the end of the cycle is nearing, so I'm looking for advice for next cycle.

Do I NEED to retake the MCAT? If so, what course do you recommend? I have access to Kaplan and TPR. I would prefer a course that focuses on test taking strategies and the material, rather than just a deep overview of the material. Also, I have been told that going on a medical mission trip would strengthen my application. I've always wanted to do something like that since I've seen the less than adequate healthcare that people in third world countries receive. But money is kind of tight right now, so I can only do one. So which do you think would be most beneficial for my application: retaking the MCAT or going on a medical mission trip?

 

[Bernoull]

How late was late? What was ur school list?

 

[Tabz]

I'm a Florida resident so I applied to all 6 Florida schools and 3 OOS (for which I was somewhat competitive for). I didn't apply to any upper tier medical schools. I submitted my AMCAS around the end of October and supplementaries by the end of December, so yeah.... REALLY LATE!

 

[Bernoull]

Given that u applied late, schools may still have not reviewed ur application for an interview decision, so there's still some hope although the window's closing. If u get interviews, it'll likely be for waitlists which can turn into acceptances post May 15th..


Start preparing for this cycle just to be ready, retake MCAT ONLY if u think u can do better AND are consistently scoring better on AAMC practice exams. Ur science scores are decent, it's ur VR that needs improvement. For VR, EK is the best hands down. Get the EK 101 passages and the regular EK VR; follow their strategy to the 't'. If u have to pay for the review courses, i won't recommend either but if u already paid for them, definitely use their Q banks and practice exams.

Keep u some ECs so that u can update other sections of ur reapplication IF u need to reapply.

Best of luck!