What are my chances? URM

[alwaysworried]

Hi! As you can tell, I'm always worried. I'm scared I might even regret posting this.

I'm a URM (I think), my mother is from El Salvador, and my father's family is from Mexico. I identified myself as "disadvantaged" since I grew up very poor. My PS has a lot to do with me growing up as a minority and helping the underserved who can't speak english, immigrants, struggling with psoriasis, medicine is all i've known, etc. I graduated with a cumulative ~3.34 GPA. I majored in bio so mostly all of my classes were basically science ones. I showed an upward trend in my grades throughout the years.

600 Hours of research

400 Hours (including service) in a sorority

50-70+ Hours shadowing a dermatologist (still shadow)

100+ Hours volunteering in a hospital

Attended a Minority Education Program (2 days)

Attended an SNMA conference

*I leave for Spain August 5th to shadow doctors abroad till the 26th!*


I am STRUGGLING with the MCAT. I took my first test July 29th and am trying to stay positive, but I don't think I did very well. Practice tests range in the 494-498. I take the test again August 3rd.

I applied to the following schools:
Central Michigan U
East TN State, James H Quillen
Florida State U
Howard U (my father went there)
Indiana U
Loyola U
Marshall U Joan C. Edwards
Medical U of South Carolina
Meharry
Michigan State U
Morehouse
Northeast Ohio
Toledo
UCLA/Drew (father did residency there)
U of Cincinnati
U of Kentucky
U of Louisville
U of Missouri
U of South Carolina
West Virginia U
Wright State U


Do I stand a chance if my MCAT score doesn't improve this second time?
(Please be gentle, my anxiety is bad, I don't want to cry lol)

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[Dr.Cut.em.up]

Hi! As you can tell, I'm always worried. I'm scared I might even regret posting this.

I'm a URM (I think), my mother is from El Salvador, and my father's family is from Mexico. I identified myself as "disadvantaged" since I grew up very poor. My PS has a lot to do with me growing up as a minority and helping the underserved who can't speak english, immigrants, struggling with psoriasis, medicine is all i've known, etc. I graduated with a cumulative ~3.34 GPA. I majored in bio so mostly all of my classes were basically science ones. I showed an upward trend in my grades throughout the years.

600 Hours of research

400 Hours (including service) in a sorority

50-70+ Hours shadowing a dermatologist (still shadow)

100+ Hours volunteering in a hospital

Attended a Minority Education Program (2 days)

Attended an SNMA conference

*I leave for Spain August 5th to shadow doctors abroad till the 26th!*


I am STRUGGLING with the MCAT. I took my first test July 29th and am trying to stay positive, but I don't think I did very well. Practice tests range in the 494-498. I take the test again August 3rd.

I applied to the following schools:
Central Michigan U
East TN State, James H Quillen
Florida State U
Howard U (my father went there)
Indiana U
Loyola U
Marshall U Joan C. Edwards
Medical U of South Carolina
Meharry
Michigan State U
Morehouse
Northeast Ohio
Toledo
UCLA/Drew (father did residency there)
U of Cincinnati
U of Kentucky
U of Louisville
U of Missouri
U of South Carolina
West Virginia U
Wright State U


Do I stand a chance if my MCAT score doesn't improve this second time?
(Please be gentle, my anxiety is bad, I don't want to cry lol)

Cant say without MCAT. Alot of thoes state schools are out unless you reside there. Why no DO schools?

 

[Dr.Cut.em.up]

If you got below 500, you probably wont get into a DO school. Kentucky as an average of 512. Marshall only takes border states.

 

[alwaysworried]

Cant say without MCAT. Alot of thoes state schools are out unless you reside there. Why no DO schools?

I think I will start my DO application after I take the MCAT again, but not sure what schools I will be applying to

 

[Goro]

We can best advise when you get your MCAT score.
What state of residence???

Hi! As you can tell, I'm always worried. I'm scared I might even regret posting this.

I'm a URM (I think), my mother is from El Salvador, and my father's family is from Mexico. I identified myself as "disadvantaged" since I grew up very poor. My PS has a lot to do with me growing up as a minority and helping the underserved who can't speak english, immigrants, struggling with psoriasis, medicine is all i've known, etc. I graduated with a cumulative ~3.34 GPA. I majored in bio so mostly all of my classes were basically science ones. I showed an upward trend in my grades throughout the years.

600 Hours of research

400 Hours (including service) in a sorority

50-70+ Hours shadowing a dermatologist (still shadow)

100+ Hours volunteering in a hospital

Attended a Minority Education Program (2 days)

Attended an SNMA conference

*I leave for Spain August 5th to shadow doctors abroad till the 26th!*


I am STRUGGLING with the MCAT. I took my first test July 29th and am trying to stay positive, but I don't think I did very well. Practice tests range in the 494-498. I take the test again August 3rd.

I applied to the following schools:
Central Michigan U
East TN State, James H Quillen
Florida State U
Howard U (my father went there)
Indiana U
Loyola U
Marshall U Joan C. Edwards
Medical U of South Carolina
Meharry
Michigan State U
Morehouse
Northeast Ohio
Toledo
UCLA/Drew (father did residency there)
U of Cincinnati
U of Kentucky
U of Louisville
U of Missouri
U of South Carolina
West Virginia U
Wright State U


Do I stand a chance if my MCAT score doesn't improve this second time?
(Please be gentle, my anxiety is bad, I don't want to cry lol)

 

[alwaysworried]

We can best advise when you get your MCAT score.
What state of residence???

 

[PreMedMissteps]

Your father is a physician yet you grew up very poor?

Why did you schedule two MCAT exams so close to each other?

I am STRUGGLING with the MCAT. I took my first test July 29th and am trying to stay positive, but I don't think I did very well. Practice tests range in the 494-498. I take the test again August 3rd.

Is there a typo there?

 

[cactusman]

Do you mean July 22? July 29 is in the future and is not a test date.
Do not retake the MCAT on August 3. If you do poorly the first time, racing to get another sub-500 score is the worst thing you can do.
It does not sound like you are prepared to apply this cycle and if I were you, assuming the first MCAT does not come back strong, I would wait rather than rush ahead to finish and spend thousands of dollars and many hours on secondaries.

And I forgot the first rule (step? agh exact gonnif wording) - take a breath. It'll be alright, but it does seem like you need to extend the timeline a bit.

 

[alwaysworried]

Your father is a physician yet you grew up very poor?

Why did you schedule two MCAT exams so close to each other?

My father was the first to graduate high school, and college. He began medical school when I was 9. We lived solely on my mother's income until he graduated.

And I have debated taking the September 1 MCAT but I feel like that is too late.

 

[alwaysworried]

Do you mean July 22? July 29 is in the future and is not a test date.
Do not retake the MCAT on August 3. If you do poorly the first time, racing to get another sub-500 score is the worst thing you can do.
It does not sound like you are prepared to apply this cycle and if I were you, assuming the first MCAT does not come back strong, I would wait rather than rush ahead to finish and spend thousands of dollars and many hours on secondaries.

June 30th is when I took it! Sorry

 

[cactusman]

June 30th is when I took it! Sorry

Ok, so you should get the score back before the second date. Regardless of the score, I do not think an August 3 retake makes sense. If better than expected - yay! Continue with the cycle!

If it's in the 494-498 range, it will be too low to apply until you have a retake, and it would be a poor choice to retake without a significant improvement on practice tests, especially when there's already one score which you want to counteract.

 

[alwaysworried]

Ok, so you should get the score back before the second date. Regardless of the score, I do not think an August 3 retake makes sense. If better than expected - yay! Continue with the cycle!

If it's in the 494-498 range, it will be too low to apply until you have a retake, and it would be a poor choice to retake without a significant improvement on practice tests, especially when there's already one score which you want to counteract.

Since it will be verified by August 1st (that's when I get my scores back), let's say I didn't get above a 500, would retaking it in september be a bad choice? Rather than August 3rd? I'd have more time to study, even in Spain

 

[cactusman]

Since it will be verified by August 1st (that's when I get my scores back), let's say I didn't get above a 500, would retaking it in september be a bad choice? Rather than August 3rd? I'd have more time to study, even in Spain

If you were still trying to apply this cycle then yes, simply because a September retake would put your completion date sometime in October (shouldn't submit most primaries until after you have it back, since they may not wait for the second score before reviewing your app) and that's not going to work for MD.
If you wanted to wait a year but also to retake in September, then it would depend on how quickly you can improve. The big thing in this scenario would be not to rush it. I doubt 4-6 weeks would be enough time to improve that much, but some people have certainly done it.

 

[efle]

If you end up getting back a ~496 you will absolutely need to retake, and also make peace with DO likely being the attainable option (though I'd still apply to state MD program if your retake came back above 500)

 

[AnatomyGrey12]

If you got below 500, you probably wont get into a DO school.

I think you meant MD. A URM with community service will get into DO with a sub 500 score.

 

[gyngyn]

You can quit shadowing the dermatologist.
Primary care would be a better idea.
Shadowing in Europe is not in the same category as US experience.