Medical Should I retake the MCAT? If so, when?

[GoSpursGo]

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Hello, and thanks in advance for your help. So I took the MCAT earlier this year, and got a 517 (subsections ranging from 127-131). I'm looking at quite a few schools with average MCATs in the 520s, and need to be a little particular because I'm trying to be in the same location as my partner's grad school (don't know exactly where that will be yet, but likely NYC or maybe Boston, and I'm OOS in both places). I'm really open to slightly lower tier schools, but because I need to be particular about location I would like to have all my options open.

In terms of my studying the first time around, it could have been better- I mainly did content review. I took a diagnostic and got a 508, did all my content review, took another AAMC practice exam, got a 519, did the section bank and reviewed concepts I was struggling with, and that was about it before exam day. I'm realizing I studied pretty poorly (should have done more practice problems I think) but I didn't expect to do worse than my practice exam after additional studying. I signed up to retake on April 10th, but I'm in the middle of what has become a really tough semester for a variety of reasons, and I don't feel ready. I could reschedule for May 14 or 15, but then I won't have my new score until mid-June, which makes me nervous given that I'll want to submit my application (and know where I should apply) ASAP.

My cGPA is a 3.95, and sGPA is 3.89. I can go into more detail if it would be helpful, but I think I have very strong clinical experience (700-800 hours) and non-clinical volunteering (600-700 hours), as well as a bit of related leadership. I have a couple years of bench research but nothing super in-depth, I'll be a low author on a paper I helped update/edit and I did a poster presentation at my university's research symposium. I spent a summer doing public health research with a hospital, and my work with that has been submitted for publication.

Thanks again for your help, I'm really unsure what to do here so any advice would be great.

I totally hear you about being concerned about location, but there is no way we can recommend that you re-take a 517. That is objectively a good score. Furthermore, panicking and hurrying up to re-take in the hopes that you might raise your score by a point or two seems like a really good way to bring your score DOWN, which would really kill your chances for some of these competitive schools. Honestly I generally think it's extremely risky to retake anything >515 as there's a real chance of seeing your score go down, and that goes double for your case.

Apply on 6/1 and hope for the best. Overall you have a strong application that is competitive, even with an outside shot for some of those super-competitive schools. You have done everything you can. Since you are geographically restricted, at least give thought to what your plan will be in case you don't get in this year--ie, would you be willing to extend your geography at all, or would you do something else to enhance your application's competitiveness?

Good luck.

 

[GoSpursGo]

Thanks for your reply. That's kind of what I've been thinking, I'm just upset that the score came out quite a bit lower than I had hoped, and I feel like I'm taking myself out of the running for a bunch of schools that I might otherwise be competitive for. I definitely agree that the 4/10 retake is a bad idea at this point. Would it be possible to submit my apps with the 517, and then update schools later with a higher score if I retake? (sorry for my lack of knowledge of how AMCAS works)

Yes, that technically would be feasible. But I still think it's a bad idea to re-take the MCAT.

 

[GoSpursGo]

I think I'm working toward accepting that haha, thank you. Sorry to ask so many questions here, but you've been super helpful. Assuming I do submit with the 517, given that my GPA is proportionally better than my MCAT score, would it be worth addressing it in my personal statement? A month before I took my test, a family member had a life-threatening health issue, which is a big part of the reason why I did fewer practice problems/tests leading up to exam day. Would that be helpful or productive information to share?

I understand you were hoping for a higher score and this was disappointing, but 517 is a good score. Wasting space in your personal statement talking about how you think you could have done better would honestly come off as bizarre.

 

[gyngyn]

There is no gpa significantly higher than the 95th percentile.
Re-taking an unexpired 517 MCAT will distinguish you in a way you really don't want. Talking about it in the application will achieve the same (ill) effect.

 

[TheBoneDoctah]

Please don't retake a 517. Please. Congrats on an amazing application. You worked hard. Apply and hope for the best location wise.