Rejected :(

[MedGrl@2022]

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I found out yesterday that I was rejected (not called for an interview) for my top choice Medical School... UNECOM. My MCAT scores were real low so that probably has a lot to do with my rejection. I plan to retake them by the end of this summer. Then I was thinking about joining the peace corps. What types of jobs can a graduated Biochemistry major, psychology minor get for the summer? What other suggestions do you have in reapplying and in the summer/ time off?

Thank you,

Veronica

 

[Jpc984]

have you considered a post bac?

Also, If you're grades are good and you have the right hospital experience, get your mcats up and reapply!

Don't give up and good luck!

 

[MedGrl@2022]

have you considered a post bac?

Also, If you're grades are good and you have the right hospital experience, get your mcats up and reapply!

Don't give up and good luck!

Grades are 3.8, volunteered in the Hospital all last summer as an internship.
what would be the benefit of post-bacc?

 

[VALSALVA]

How about getting a CNA certificate and working at a hospital or nursing home? That way, you're getting great experience AND making a little money too!

 

[koennen]

Grades are 3.8, volunteered in the Hospital all last summer as an internship.
what would be the benefit of post-bacc?

The answer in your case is nothing. Your MCAT score of 20M is what is killing you. Hate to sound harsh, but unless you can get that up start thinking about another path in life.

 

[jp104]

Did you apply early or late this year? That may have been a factor.

Your GPA is great so I wouldn't worry about taking post-bacc classes. More volunteering and clinical experience would help. However, getting that MCAT up will be the best way of getting an acceptance in 2008. Good luck! 👍

 

[sexyman]

Getting the MCAT up is a must for a med school in the US, however there are many successful physicians that have gone to school in the caribbean. A friend of mine got into Ross with an 18 on his MCAT.

 

[ShyRem]

The average for UNECOM c/o 2010 was around a 27, I believe. Your MCAT is killing you. Your GPA is fine. They seem to like experience too. But for UNE, you need to get your MCAT to at least a 24.

 

[DoctorMom78]

How about getting a CNA certificate and working at a hospital or nursing home? That way, you're getting great experience AND making a little money too!

I think that something along those lines would be a great idea. As everyone here has already said, it is the MCAT that hurt you. Your GPA is great. Retake and get some more ECs and you will be fine. You don't even have to bring it up that much. Just a few points would make a big difference.

If you want to stay in school, you would be wasting your time with a post-bac program. I don't know what your undergraduate degree is in, but you could also go to grad school.

Good luck!

 

[Doc2007]

You need to retake the MCAT and apply again. I scored really low first time and improved by seven points second time. I studied EK material second time around. You have an excellent GPA. Don't loose the hope and good luck.

 

[Dr JPH]

1. Post Bacc program
2. Retake the MCAT
3. Find a physician to write a stellar LOR
4. Fix your picture, its sideways

 

[122206DO]

I think the biggest mistake with approaching MCAT is to approach it like a midterm or final. It's simply not a test designed for you to feel comfortable. More you study does not = higher scores. Don't get stuck on problems or on concepts. With your GPA, i'm certain that you understand all the concepts, so don't freak out about it. Concentrate on your strategy (ie. timing, skipping Qs, skimming.) Study and take practice tests with confidence, you'll do fine.

 

[lrobin15]

I think the biggest mistake with approaching MCAT is to approach it like a midterm or final. It's simply not a test designed for you to feel comfortable. More you study does not = higher scores. Don't get stuck on problems or on concepts. With your GPA, i'm certain that you understand all the concepts, so don't freak out about it. Concentrate on your strategy (ie. timing, skipping Qs, skimming.) Study and take practice tests with confidence, you'll do fine.

Wow! Really good advice.👍

 

[HemaOncoDoc]

I think the biggest mistake with approaching MCAT is to approach it like a midterm or final. It's simply not a test designed for you to feel comfortable. More you study does not = higher scores. Don't get stuck on problems or on concepts. With your GPA, i'm certain that you understand all the concepts, so don't freak out about it. Concentrate on your strategy (ie. timing, skipping Qs, skimming.) Study and take practice tests with confidence, you'll do fine.

I whole-heartedly agree with this suggestion. The MCAT is very daunting test for more people and test takers often believe that tons of memorization and remote knowledge will get them through the test. My main problem when taking the tests was that I relied to heavily on the facts instead of using the test taking skills that I had learned from Kaplan (or another test taking service). I would recommend ExamKrackers since studying by myself and taking timed practice tests is what improved my score the most.

To the OP, I'm sorry that you didn't get into your top school this round. Increasing your score six plus points may seem like a hurdle, but it's doable. Getting even one double digit in a section will increase your odds dramatically. Best of luck.

 

[scdocusc]

to the OP:

I would be very weary of a post bacc program. If thats not what you want to do then why do it? Using it as a stepstone to Med school (to me) is a waste of time and money. If your MCAT is low then try and retake it. Or take an extra class in upper level biology and volunteer more. Unless you are really really interested in a post bacc program dont do it. This is my opinion but good luck to you next year.

 

[Pansit]

1. Post Bacc program
2. Retake the MCAT
3. Find a physician to write a stellar LOR
4. Fix your picture, its sideways

Great advice...I was rejected last year with everything going for me, but I forgot that my SDN picture was upside down...guess what, I fixed it and got accepted...try it and reapply!👍

 

[scdocusc]

I heard that one question they ask reapplicants is " Have you returned your SDN picture upright?" and most importantly "what have you learned from this experience?"

 

[Cueball3]

The average for UNECOM c/o 2010 was around a 27, I believe. Your MCAT is killing you. Your GPA is fine. They seem to like experience too. But for UNE, you need to get your MCAT to at least a 24.

I am truly afraid to go against anything that ShyRem states, however, my wife was placed on UNECOM's ASA lsat year with a 22 MCAT. She was accepted this year, which I believe was prior to her resubmitting her new and improved score of 26. So, keep your chin up.

PS - My wife also does not have an avatar/SDN User profile at all. Thus, the school could not argue that her picture was rotated 90 degrees counterclockwise and could not use that as a potential rejection reason.

 

[Jpc984]

sorry,

I didn't check your profile for your gpa and mcats... don't worry about a post bac your grades are awesome...

 

[HemaOncoDoc]

This may be helpful for those who would like to improve their candidancy. Posted by one of the alumni from my alma mater.

Special Master's Programs, SMPs

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=346106

Enjoy.

 

[BoxcarWilly]

I heard that one question they ask reapplicants is " Have you returned your SDN picture upright?" and most importantly "what have you learned from this experience?"

Am I missing something here? What is this talk of SDN pictures? SDN user profiles for medical school application?

What gives? Thanks.

 

[BoxcarWilly]

I am truly afraid to go against anything that ShyRem states, however, my wife was placed on UNECOM's ASA lsat year with a 22 MCAT. She was accepted this year, which I believe was prior to her resubmitting her new and improved score of 26. So, keep your chin up.

PS - My wife also does not have an avatar/SDN User profile at all. Thus, the school could not argue that her picture was rotated 90 degrees counterclockwise and could not use that as a potential rejection reason.

People actually consider including their SDN profiles as part of the application review for medical school? Please tell me it ain't so joe.

 

[Cueball3]

People actually consider including their SDN profiles as part of the application review for medical school? Please tell me it ain't so joe.

Ahh, just to clarify, we are completely joking. You really don't need to worry about your SDN profile picture logistics when applying to medical school. Well, at least, I don't think so. 😉

 

[BMW19]

ExamKrackers is good. But the key to doing well on the MCAT is practice Qs until you want to puke!! They can only ask the concepts in so many different ways. After a while the patterns develop and you will see them on the real test as well. Trying to read the 6 Kaplan books that are as thick as Harrison's Internal Medicine is daunting. Get your hands on at least 7 old MCATS and do them. Analyze the wrong answers if possible (this may be easier with old MCAT books that you get at Borders etc.) Good Luck!

BMW-

 

[ShyRem]

I am truly afraid to go against anything that ShyRem states, however, my wife was placed on UNECOM's ASA lsat year with a 22 MCAT. She was accepted this year, which I believe was prior to her resubmitting her new and improved score of 26. So, keep your chin up.

PS - My wife also does not have an avatar/SDN User profile at all. Thus, the school could not argue that her picture was rotated 90 degrees counterclockwise and could not use that as a potential rejection reason.

Ah, heck! disagree! I'm certainly not infallible... and if it came across that no one with under a 24 gets accepted, I sincerely apologize. There are people who get in with lower scores, but it isn't very common. As you suggest, perhaps her MCAT of 22 was a reason for an ASA and not outright acceptance.. but that is merely supposition on both our parts. 😛

I perhaps mistook the problem of how to better the OPs chances... and in that regard, MCAT is definitely an issue. And I don't think anyone could disagree that an MCAT of 24 would definitely be more appealing to any adcom. 🙂

OH! and it seems I was misinformed. I could swear they said our average MCAT was a 27 during our orientation - I remember thinking it was quite a jump from previous years... but according to the FAQ page:

The average MCAT score for the first-year class (of 2010) is 25; the average MCAT generally is in the 24-26 range. The average GPA for the first-year class (of 2010) is 3.34: the average GPA for the last few years has been in the 3.3-3.4 range

. Certainly not infallible!

 

[msa786]

NO post bacc retake MCAT's aim for 25+

 

[aeroquick765]

I may not know what i'm talking about, but to me its seems like a numbers game, that is until the interview and ec s are considered.

The mcat validates the gpa, if you have a mcat score lower than 50 percent of all who take the mcat but your gpa is in the top percent of all applicants then it seems that your gpa is inaccurate.

Inaccuracies are probably one of the first tools admission's boards use to lower their workload.

So, just like everyone else said; the sideways picture just confuses admissions boards.

😀

 

[Richie Truxillo]

Your #1 priority should be to retake the MCAT. Took me 3 tries to hit that wonderfully high magic number (which I didn't study for the 3rd time, go figure.). Once I hit it, all the DO and MD schools I applied to were interested. Got accepted to 1 DO school and 3 MD schools. I ended up going the DO route and I haven't regretted it one bit yet.

Don't let anyone fool you. Medical school admissions is all a numbers game. D.O. schools seem a little more interested in your personality than allopathic schools for the most part (at least from my personal experiences), however it's all the same. They have a boat load of applicants and the only way to differentiate them is to screen using numbers.

It's nice to have your pick of medical schools to goto and having a good MCAT score helps greatly. Unfortunately that is the nature of the beast my friend. If you are looking for study materials, I can't recommend the Examcrackers books and Audio Osmosis CDs enough. Practice questions are a must too. I can attest to the fact that all the stuff you learn from your MCAT preparation (minus a small part of the biology section) is utterly useless in medical school. But acknowledge the fact there are always hoops we have to jump thru. Embrace that fact and get a hopping 😉

Don't worry though. In your 3rd and 4th year, the paradigm changes. People become much more interested in what you can actually do rather than just raw numbers on a page. That is where common sense and the ability to actually utilize knowledge far outweighs the ability to read sleep-inducing passages on dead obscure jazz musicians during a standardized timed multiple choice exam.

My best to all of you working on getting into medical school. Keep working hard at it. It's a long road but so far I've found it worthwhile and very rewarding!

Much love,
Richie

 

[sweetkc]

Don't worry though. In your 3rd and 4th year, the paradigm changes. People become much more interested in what you can actually do rather than just raw numbers on a page. That is where common sense and the ability to actually utilize knowledge far outweighs the ability to read sleep-inducing passages on dead obscure jazz musicians during a standardized timed multiple choice exam.

Richie

lol just made my day hehe
well that's a relief!