Hey all! I am currently in the middle of writing my secondaries and want some guidance on where I stand in terms of competitiveness. I have been serving in the Army National Guard for 3 years now while double majoring in chemistry and dance. I have over 3,000 volunteer hours and 4,000 hours of clinic experience. I worked as a full time medical assistant during the pandemic and probably swabbed over 10,000 people for covid-19 and also got it from working at a pediatric urgent care. I created a non profit to help people with terminal illnesses and have partnerships with local hospitals in the area to help people. The only thing I am nervous about is my mcat score. I made around a 480 and do not know how this will affect my application. Any advice?
Unfortunately, a 480 MCAT is too low to receive a medical school acceptance. In terms of competitiveness, this is a 3rd percentile score, meaning 97% of test takers received a higher score than you. You did not share your GPA, but your GPA is essentially irrelevant at this point. According to the
AAMC GPA/MCAT acceptance rates grid, applicants with <486 MCAT have a less than 1% chance of acceptance, irrespective of their GPA.
You asked for advice, and here it is: do not complete or submit any more secondaries. You should withdraw your application from this cycle ASAP and focus on improving your MCAT if you are serious about medical school. Proceeding with this cycle will be a complete waste of your money. Medical schools will eagerly take your secondary fees, and will then turn around and automatically screen you out due to your MCAT score. Most medical schools set their autorejection bar at about a 495-500 MCAT.
You need to retake the MCAT and aim for a 500+ to have any kind of shot at a DO school in a future cycle. A 510+ would be preferable. Do not reapply until you've met these MCAT targets.
You will also need to have a solid explanation for what happened with your first MCAT, since that's going to be a permanent red flag on your application. MD is going to be challenging with a 480 MCAT on your record, but it may be possible if you have a truly phenomenal improvement on your retake and you can get your application in front of a sympathetic reviewer.
The MCAT forums on SDN are a good source of knowledge for people seeking to improve their MCAT scores. You can receive assistance with your MCAT retake strategy there.
