WAMC: 3.4 cGPA, 3.3 sGPA, 512 MCAT ORM

[officialmedschoolfan]

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Hi. I need help with a school list and advice on whether or not to retake my MCAT.

1. cGPA and sGPA: 3.4 and 3.3 respectively
2. MCAT score(s) and breakdown: 512 (127/127/128/130) -- I'm thinking of a retake because my average was a 516 with my last attempt being a 521.
3. State of residence or country of citizenship (if non-US): Maryland
4. Ethnicity and/or race: ORM/Vietnamese female (part of LGBT+ if that also factors in somewhere)
5. Undergraduate institution or category: Small liberal arts college
6. Clinical experience (volunteer and non-volunteer): 1000 hours volunteer EMT/150 hours as an EMT student teacher/field coach
7. Research experience and productivity: 250 hours
8. Shadowing experience and specialties represented: 25 hours shadowing
9. Non-clinical volunteering: 75 hours with an ongoing volunteer position now until 8/22
10. Other extracurricular activities (including athletics, military service, gap year activities, leadership, teaching, etc):
    1. 1000+ hours as a leader (president of honors society, supervisor of a clinical diagnostic lab)
    2. 450 hours as a TA for various classes and lab
11. Relevant honors or awards
    1. Dean's list, scholarship to attend school
12. Anything else not listed you think might be important
    1. First gen, low income; LGBT like I mentioned, and that's all that comes to mind.

Applying to DO schools as well as MD. I just need help curating a list and if I should retake my MCAT given my averages and that this was my first attempt.

 

[Faha]

I suggest these MD schools with your stats:
U Maryland
George Washington
Georgetown
West Virginia
Virginia Commonwealth
Eastern Virginia
Drexel
Temple
Jefferson
Penn State
Seton Hall
New York Medical College
Albany
Vermont
Quinnipiac
NOVA MD
TCU-UNT
Creighton
Loyola
Rosalind Franklin
Medical College Wisconsin
Wayne State
Oakland Beaumont
Also apply broadly to DO schools and I suggest these:
Touro-NY
NYITCOM
PCOM (all schools)
LECOM (all schools)
MU-COM
DMU-COM
KCU-COM
ATSU-KCOM
AZCOM
TUNCOM
WESTERN
TUCOM-CA
WVSOM

 

[parasiteeater13]

Aren't Vietnamese considered URM?

 

[officialmedschoolfan]

Aren't Vietnamese considered URM?

Unfortunately I don’t think so. Asians are seen as a monolith by most even though we aren’t and even though I’m pretty sure only 25% of Viet immigrants in the US have completed college.

 

[officialmedschoolfan]

Thank you, @Faha! @Goro, do you have any recommendations?

 

[Goro]

Hi. I need help with a school list and advice on whether or not to retake my MCAT.

1. cGPA and sGPA: 3.4 and 3.3 respectively
2. MCAT score(s) and breakdown: 512 (127/127/128/130) -- I'm thinking of a retake because my average was a 516 with my last attempt being a 521.
3. State of residence or country of citizenship (if non-US): Maryland
4. Ethnicity and/or race: ORM/Vietnamese female (part of LGBT+ if that also factors in somewhere)
5. Undergraduate institution or category: Small liberal arts college
6. Clinical experience (volunteer and non-volunteer): 1000 hours volunteer EMT/150 hours as an EMT student teacher/field coach
7. Research experience and productivity: 250 hours
8. Shadowing experience and specialties represented: 25 hours shadowing
9. Non-clinical volunteering: 75 hours with an ongoing volunteer position now until 8/22
10. Other extracurricular activities (including athletics, military service, gap year activities, leadership, teaching, etc):
    1. 1000+ hours as a leader (president of honors society, supervisor of a clinical diagnostic lab)
    2. 450 hours as a TA for various classes and lab
11. Relevant honors or awards
    1. Dean's list, scholarship to attend school
12. Anything else not listed you think might be important
    1. First gen, low income; LGBT like I mentioned, and that's all that comes to mind.

Applying to DO schools as well as MD. I just need help curating a list and if I should retake my MCAT given my averages and that this was my first attempt.

Do you have any rising GPA trends?

A high MCAT will not remediate a low GPA. In fact, it just highlights the discrepancy.

retaking a fine 512 will leave some people questioning your judgement. And yes, you were doing better in practice, but anybody can hit .300 in batting practice. Yet when you get into a real exam situation and have to face a Jake DeGrom fastball, things turned out differently.

Do you have any service to LGBT communities?

 

[officialmedschoolfan]

Do you have any rising GPA trends?

A high MCAT will not remediate a low GPA. In fact, it just highlights the discrepancy.

retaking a fine 512 will leave some people questioning your judgement. And yes, you were doing better in practice, but anybody can hit .300 in batting practice. Yet when you get into a real exam situation and have to face a Jake DeGrom fastball, things turned out differently.

Do you have any service to LGBT communities?

My GPA rose from a 3.2 to a steady 3.5-3.6 range. I hit a snag because of a close family member death one semester and had a 3.3. Otherwise, it rises steadily and looks like it plateaus.

There was only one organization on my small rural campus that I was a member of, and it only really consisted of hanging out with other LGBT students. There wasn’t really any outreach off campus.