What route to take?

[bigballer27]

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Hey guys, so my MCAT score comes out June 1st, which is when i will submit my app if i get a score good enough

if not, then i am contemplating waiting a year to apply, or retaking in July (~ a month more of studying) and still applying with my original score and just indicating that i will be taking it again

i know that you can't really say because it depends on how much i feel like i can raise my score in a month, but the MAIN part of the question is:


if i get a decent score and apply to a school and get in thats all great, but do you think its better to wait a year and try and get into a better school? i personally don't want to be far from home, but i just want to be a doctor, and if that means i have to leave, i will. However, if waiting a year to strengthen my app by doing more shadowing ECs, and research...not to mention having another year to start from square 1 with the MCAT, i think i give myself a better shot at staying near home and getting in a better school........ahhhh i just want my score already and my decision would be so much easierrr

 

[GeneCoDoctor86]

Better be safe than sorry. When I apply to medical school, I want to be absolutely sure that my app is ready and I want to know my MCAT scores. Getting more shadowing experience and clinical experience will definately give you a better chance at getting into a better school, if that is what you want. You say you don't want to be far from home, well if you feel like your app is good enough to get into a school closer to where you live then there is nothing wrong with that. It really does not matter which US medical school you go to, its how you perform in the classroom and on the USMLE tests which determine what residency you will be matched to.

Still if you are unsure, I would wait. You never want to have the what if feeling and be unsatisfied with your decision. If you feel you can do better on the MCAT and get more experience, I would go with that feeling. Like I said above, its better to be safe than sorry. Whatever, you do my best advice would be not to apply anywhere until you know your MCAT score.

 

[klmnop]

without knowing anything else about your app....
get your scores, if they are competitive then apply
if they aren't, then take a year to boost everything and really focus on another MCAT
if you didn't do well this time around what would make you think you could do better a month later
also, if you are borderline waitlist/rejected, they will wait to review your application until those scores are in... which could be too late for someone not at the top of the class
i would put all my efforts into doing better and - like the previous poster suggested - apply when i know i have put forth my best application

 

[bigballer27]

the rest of my app info is on my mdapps

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[klmnop]

the rest of my app info is on my mdapps

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your cumGPA and sciGPA are the same?
do these take your comm college courses into account, because they need to

regardless, without an MCAT score there is little to go on here. unfortunately you can get a 22 and get rejected everywhere so i don't know what else to tell you yet

 

[Appless]

Well your app seems ok, not outstanding but certainly good enough to get into med school. is your GPA including the bad grades though? Possible weaknesses: no shadowing, not a whole lot of non clinical volunteering, activities kinda general vanilla things that all pre meds do, and a possible lack of research (not sure what 100 hours means or how long you did it). For me 100 hours of research was only like 2-3 months worth at best. UC schools being the research powerhouses that they are tend to look for research. Being that you want to get into a UC, i dont need to tell you how hard that is even if you had a strong app. If your mcat score is 30+ id just apply, as i wouldnt want to wait another year when theres no guarantee at any UC school. I went through a similar decision last cycle. I almost waited to apply because my app had a few weaknesses but i just went through with it and im glad i did.

I wouldnt wait a year to apply unless you did poor on your mcat. If its bad you might as well just take another year off to strenghten the app and retake the mcat🙂

 

[MilkmanAl]

I agree with the rest regarding your application. It seems fairly standard for a typical matriculant.

The one thing to remember about med schools is that they all have nearly identical education quality. It is never worthwhile putting off your life for an extra year in an attempt to get into a more prestigious school because prestige is all you'll get out of it.

 

[bigballer27]

I agree with the rest regarding your application. It seems fairly standard for a typical matriculant.

The one thing to remember about med schools is that they all have nearly identical education quality. It is never worthwhile putting off your life for an extra year in an attempt to get into a more prestigious school because prestige is all you'll get out of it.

this is what i was looking for. thanks

yeah i know elijah, my app doesnt have anything that jumps out, but i still feel like i have all the parts to be accepted somewhere; that is, with a good score

100 hours was for 6 months (the hospital was over an hour from my house). but i also did a full year of research as a grade and will have a poster (presenting this wednesday!), both of which i will continue until i get into a medical school.

 

[Appless]

this is what i was looking for. thanks

yeah i know elijah, my app doesnt have anything that jumps out, but i still feel like i have all the parts to be accepted somewhere; that is, with a good score

100 hours was for 6 months (the hospital was over an hour from my house). but i also did a full year of research as a grade and will have a poster (presenting this wednesday!), both of which i will continue until i get into a medical school.

ah ok well nevermind the lack of research thing, that pretty standard about 1+ year on one project. And yes like i said you certainly stand to be accepted somewhere, just maybe not a super strong chance at a UC. i just wanted to point out some things you might want to work on. Trust me i had far more "Weaknesses" then you have haha

 

[bigballer27]

hahaha dont be modest you did great...anyways i will talk to you more in the specific threads

thanks for the help guys, i think im going to push forward and try to apply this year, even if i get a poor score i will just retake it july 16th and spend the whole month and a half studying again

 

[klmnop]

100 hours was for 6 months (the hospital was over an hour from my house). but i also did a full year of research as a grade and will have a poster (presenting this wednesday!), both of which i will continue until i get into a medical school.

100hrs is not very impressive over 6mo's unless you have something else going on that ate up a bunch of time

what is the commitment of the full year you speak of

 

[bigballer27]

100hrs is not very impressive over 6mo's unless you have something else going on that ate up a bunch of time

what is the commitment of the full year you speak of

it is an independent research position with one of the faculty for honors biology department research. Ive been doing it since Fall 2009, and for the first quarter, the data didn't turn out to what we had hoped, so we had to come up with a tweak to it and redo it somewhat which made everything lag, but now its pulling together and we should have a paper in the near future hopefully (definitely not by the time i apply, however).