Quoted from Mengo: Hey y'all, I'm looking to apply this year and have a few questions.
1) Are my marks good enough to make it? I'm biochemistry bs with a 3.47 current GPA, 3.36 science. I took the MCAT twice and got a 30 the first time and a 28 the second time (unfortunate, I know). I plan to retake the MCAT for a third time in April, but I believe that would be too late to be considered by the program? Would love clarification on this.
Answer:
For this program, and only this program, the Medical College Admissions Test (MCAT) is required instead of the Graduate Record Examination. While not the only criterion considered in acceptance into medical school, the applicant should have a competitive MCAT score before the application deadline. In general, composite MCAT scores below 20 and individual subset scores below 6 are not competitive. Applicants interested in pursuing admission to dental school may substitute the Dental Admissions (DAT) exam. Applicants interested in pursuing admission to physician assistant programs may substitute the Graduate Record Examination (GRE). Intentions to pursue these programs must be communicated clearly in the admission application.
If the applicant has plans to retake the MCAT/DAT/GRE for future professional school admissions, he/she should sit for the exam no later than August during the first semester of the year he/she enters the program.
2) How many letters of recommendation are required? I only have one strong rec letter, so I'm afraid any subsequent required LoR might significantly hurt my chances. I also don't have very strong ECs, so I'm afraid that might work against me as well.
Answer:
2 Letters of recommendation
The applicant must contact his/her recommenders to request the letters. We do not do this for the applicant.
Letters must be on letterhead, signed, and come directly from your recommender. Please ask your recommenders to scan and email their letters to
[email protected]. The email must come from your recommender’s University email address (or place of employment)
Letters can also be mailed to the address above. Applicants can submit a committee letter and can use the same letters used for the medical school application. Those that use interfolio can have the letters emailed to
[email protected] from Interfolio.
3) How important is applying early? I understand that they don't send out acceptance letters until April, so I thought applying later might give me a good chance to work at stronger LoRs during the spring semester. This would be the only thing preventing me from applying early in the cycle.
Answer: from previous cycles I hear it's rolling admission and they don't start looking at apps until 30 people have applied, so the sooner the better would be my best assumption.
Hope this helps some!
