VR trouble

[medstu2006]

I got a 7 on my VR, 26Q overall. I moved from India 5 yrs. ago
I called Wayne State and Loyola and told them about my situation. They said that I should write a letter and tell them that I moved from India 5 yrs. ago etc. Here is my explanation:
I lived in India for 15 years. Although I learned English as I was growing up, it was my second language. I moved to the US in 2000. After I joined college, I have extensively talked in English. It has taken me 5 years to be a fluent English speaker. My writing skills have dramatically improved (evident from the Q on the writing section). However, my reading skills are taking time to develop. I do believe that my reading skills are at par with what is required to be successfull in medical schoolm they have not reached the standards required on the VR section of the MCAT. The written English in India was quite simple and not at a level to the one used here. However my reading skills suffered since I was not exposed to the higher language of English for the first 15 years of my scool years.
I did pick English as my primary language on the AMCAS application because in the past 3 years, I have been speaking English for most of the year. Communicating and writing in english were easy, since I merely had to adjust. I hope that you shall consider my situation.

Would you be willing to consider if you read this or would you just laugh? I just feel like I am whining about my VR score, but I do believe that I was at a disadvantage. Any comments??

Please help me out here.

What do u think are my chances if getting into Loyola with a 26Q, 3.3 science and 3.5 overall?

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[dmtang2]

I got a 7 on my VR, 26Q overall. I moved from India 5 yrs. ago
I called Wayne State and Loyola and told them about my situation. They said that I should write a letter and tell them that I moved from India 5 yrs. ago etc. Here is my explanation:
I lived in India for 15 years. Although I learned English as I was growing up, it was my second language. I moved to the US in 2000. After I joined college, I have extensively talked in English. It has taken me 5 years to be a fluent English speaker. My writing skills have dramatically improved (evident from the Q on the writing section). However, my reading skills are taking time to develop. I do believe that my reading skills are at par with what is required to be successfull in medical schoolm they have not reached the standards required on the VR section of the MCAT. The written English in India was quite simple and not at a level to the one used here. However my reading skills suffered since I was not exposed to the higher language of English for the first 15 years of my scool years.
I did pick English as my primary language on the AMCAS application because in the past 3 years, I have been speaking English for most of the year. Communicating and writing in english were easy, since I merely had to adjust. I hope that you shall consider my situation.

Would you be willing to consider if you read this or would you just laugh? I just feel like I am whining about my VR score, but I do believe that I was at a disadvantage. Any comments??

Please help me out here.

What do u think are my chances if getting into Loyola with a 26Q, 3.3 science and 3.5 overall?

honestly, loyola is tough to get into. best thing to do is to try to explain yourself. try not to be desperate and write something down.... hopefully, adcoms will see that you went to school in india for the first so many years of your life.

 

[medstu2006]

honestly, loyola is tough to get into. best thing to do is to try to explain yourself. try not to be desperate and write something down.... hopefully, adcoms will see that you went to school in india for the first so many years of your life.

so, u suggest i send them this letter?

 

[Kiroro]

I think you should write a letter and explain about your VR score as told by Loyola. Maybe this would help your situation a little bit.

However, I don't think your application's problem is only your VR score.

I've seen other August MCATer asking the same question. One of the guy got (VR6, PS12, BS12) and he came to Canada 2 years ago. Plus English was not the official language in his home country. I think for his situation, it seems like he did work hard for MCAT because of his high scores in science sections. Also I would guess living in Canada for only 2 years would give him disadvantages for VR section.

However, for your situation, it is hard to come across that you worked hard on your MCAT. You got 26 and VR was 7, that means your science sections were not very good either. Plus your GPA is not making you look good either. On top of that, English is one of India's primary language so you had pretty daily exposure to english before coming to the US. Also you came to the US 5 years ago. That's kind of a long time, especially if you came to the US while you were in high school that shouldn't give you that bad of a impact on your VR.

I mean I came to US 3 from Japan and I scored better than you on VR.

You should probably think about applying to many other med schools.

Good luck!

 

[medstu2006]

I think you should write a letter and explain about your VR score as told by Loyola. Maybe this would help your situation a little bit.

However, I don't think your application's problem is only your VR score.

I've seen other August MCATer asking the same question. One of the guy got (VR6, PS12, BS12) and he came to Canada 2 years ago. Plus English was not the official language in his home country. I think for his situation, it seems like he did work hard for MCAT because of his high scores in science sections. Also I would guess living in Canada for only 2 years would give him disadvantages for VR section.

However, for your situation, it is hard to come across that you worked hard on your MCAT. You got 26 and VR was 7, that means your science sections were not very good either. Plus your GPA is not making you look good either. On top of that, English is one of India's primary language so you had pretty daily exposure to english before coming to the US. Also you came to the US 5 years ago. That's kind of a long time, especially if you came to the US while you were in high school that shouldn't give you that bad of a impact on your VR.

I mean I came to US 3 from Japan and I scored better than you on VR.

You should probably think about applying to many other med schools.

Good luck!

Does the explanation sound reasonable though?

 

[Kiroro]

Yeah, I would say do anything that may have chance to improve your possibility of getting in.

But I think you also know that your numbers doesn't sound very impressive, so please consider applying to some more schools that matches your scores.

I think you could try checking this website for the schools that would usually accept your score range. Sorry if you already did it...

http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/grad/tools/brief/med_srch_advanced_brief.php

 

[medstu2006]

any more views? please help me out.

 

[Flopotomist]

I would consider NOT sending the letter. Trying to explain away the negative aspect of your application focuses the reader on the negative component of your application. I am sure that it will be clear from the rest of your application that you are a non-native (eg, list some things on your extra-curriculars that allow the reader to deduce that you are a non-native). Focus on the strengths that you have in your PS such as the unique experiences from being exposed to two different cultures, languages etc. Don't rationalize or try to explain away something preemptively - wait until they ask you in the interview. Overall, I wish you luck, I love Loyola too, so maybe I will see you there!

 

[medstu2006]

I would consider NOT sending the letter. Trying to explain away the negative aspect of your application focuses the reader on the negative component of your application. I am sure that it will be clear from the rest of your application that you are a non-native (eg, list some things on your extra-curriculars that allow the reader to deduce that you are a non-native). Focus on the strengths that you have in your PS such as the unique experiences from being exposed to two different cultures, languages etc. Don't rationalize or try to explain away something preemptively - wait until they ask you in the interview. Overall, I wish you luck, I love Loyola too, so maybe I will see you there!

I thought about that as well. The only thing is what if I don't get an interview? I wont be able to explain myself.

 

[medstu2006]

I would consider NOT sending the letter. Trying to explain away the negative aspect of your application focuses the reader on the negative component of your application. I am sure that it will be clear from the rest of your application that you are a non-native (eg, list some things on your extra-curriculars that allow the reader to deduce that you are a non-native). Focus on the strengths that you have in your PS such as the unique experiences from being exposed to two different cultures, languages etc. Don't rationalize or try to explain away something preemptively - wait until they ask you in the interview. Overall, I wish you luck, I love Loyola too, so maybe I will see you there!

I thought about that too. What if I don't make it to the interview? I won't be able to explain anyting to them.