A while back, I read that some schools don't look at subscores and only look at the overall MCAT. Is this even true? How an you learn more about this?
Schools that don't look at MCAT subscores
- Thread starter aayz345
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I had the same question during this application cycle. I learned the best and probably only way to know which schools do/don't look at subscores is to call the school's admissions office. They will provide a general idea whether they screen out applicants based on certain subscores or if they simply look at the overall score. MSAR and school websites do not indicate MCAT screening practices, while a few schools provide MCAT subscore cutoffs for competitive applicants on their secondaries (eg: Georgetown and George Washington). As such, it is best to simply call the schools you plan on applying to and pose this question directly to them. You will find some schools look at subscores more closely than others, but again, this depends on the particular school.
Hope this helps. Good luck!
Hope this helps. Good luck!
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Scores are all taken in context of the entire application. I don’t know of any MD school in the US that explicitly doesn’t care about breakdown, but MSAR could be your best bet here for estimating competitiveness of a particular lopsided score.
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How adcoms look and interpret scores for evaluation purposes is unknown since it is not disclosed anywhere. School policies stated online could focus on boosting their own matriculant MCAT medians.
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As a reapplicant who had a subscore issue last cycle and is getting a lot of love this cycle (retook and fixed), I would say that most schools do. All of the schools I called to discuss my app with also mentioned that they looked at the full breakdown of my score rather than just the total.
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What is considered a "subscore issue"
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Are you asking me to clarify?
If you are, I was referring to a lopsided score. Solid score in general, with high subsections scores in 3 and a lower one in the remaining 1.
So if OP is asking whether or not one low subsection score will be overlooked, I would say no from my experience.
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125 or lower imo
I am about to start studying for a retake. I scored a 504 (127/121/129/127) in june of this previous summer. I'm not ESL, I just burned out really badly and had an enormous amount of family related stress at the time. I was scoring 125's on CARS near the start of my prep even though my study method was sub-par.
I am dedicated to this retake but was just about the aforementioned subscore claim since I've read about it in the past.
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I have an issue with CARS as well (129,124,129,130). Even with a 124, I am getting a good amount of interviews, including a couple of top 25's. It is a great decision to retake, as a 121 is probably too much to overlook for the vast majority of schools (can't speak for DO, don't know much about their standards/methods). I think that 124 should be the minimum to shoot for. Even a school like Georgetown, who explicitly states that any subscore less than 125 is considered noncompetitive, gave me an interview.
Best of luck!
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I feel like this is a low yield strategy because different adcoms of the same school reading your application may prioritize different factors.
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I would retake if I were you, but I would make sure I could score higher before retaking. It's a big risk and we all know that doing worse is pretty lethal. While I didn't have a 121, I am glad I retook. I knew that the score was a fluke and that I could do better.
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Cars killed me too. It was my crutch for chem/phys. I was scoring 128-130 every practice exam even with kaplan up towards my test day. Ended up with a 125 and i planned to retake and got a few interviews so i didnt retake my mcat and ended up getting in anyways. Hope it works out for you as well. A 121 seems lethal tho. But i feel you have a 510+ with cars work.
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Keep in mind adcoms are composed of people. Each person has a different preference for an applicant. Some look at the whole score while others want to look at the subscores.
Thanks! Hope you don't mind me asking, but which top25 schools offered you II's? I would like to get an idea of which schools are more forgiving haha
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I am mistaken, to this point only one top 25 has offered me an interview, and that was Mayo for the 2+2 MN/FL. I assumed Dartmouth, being an Ivy, would be in the top 25 but I looked it up and its 35. My mistake! Anyway, I will list my II list below to give you an idea!
However, I only applied to 4 schools in the current top 25 (Harvard, Duke, Emory, Mayo), so I may not be the best example to give you an idea of which of the top 25 schools are more lenient with a low CARS. However, I have heard of a few people on here get II to Cornell and Columbia with a CARS 124 just FYI!
Mayo 2+2 (#20) - waiting to hear decision
University of Rochester (#33) - Waitlist
Dartmouth (#35) - waiting to hear
Georgetown - Waitlist
Miami - Interview in Feb
Medical College of Georgia -accept
Drexel - Did not attend
University of Central Florida- Interview late Jan
Wow, thanks and congrats for the great II's! Best of luck!
