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[twu]

quote:

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Originally posted by eveovirus

I have been emailing some of the MSTPs on my list, presenting them with the scenario of my 30 MCAT but 3.99 GPA and extensive extracurriculars, leadership, reseach, etc. Some of them have suggested to go ahead and apply. However, some of these same schools also suggested I retake the MCAT in August and still apply. Should I retake it even if it would delay my application until November? (I was scoring between a 35 and 36 on my practice runs prior to the April MCAT) Thanks for your help! []

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If you delay your application until November, then you might as well not apply at all. That’s pretty late and snagging a spot in a medical school — even a “mediocre” one — is tough.

Timothy Wu, MD
AdmissionsConsultants
703.242.5885

[mchang]

>As for taking extra science courses, you need one year of a >particular science. Squeezing a year’s work into a semester >doesn’t count as a year. Taking extra science courses can’t hurt >unless you do poorly, but the real question is, do you really want >to?

Well, the question I’m asking myself is, do I really have a choice?

If what you say is true, then I can pretty much assume that I’ll have to take another semester of General Chemistry just to fulfill admissions requirements. I’ve emailed several schools about this, but haven’t heard back from them. Should I just go ahead and sign up for a class?

Thanks,

Mchang

[twu]

quote:

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Originally posted by mchang
Well, the question I’m asking myself is, do I really have a choice?

If what you say is true, then I can pretty much assume that I’ll have to take another semester of General Chemistry just to fulfill admissions requirements. I’ve emailed several schools about this, but haven’t heard back from them. Should I just go ahead and sign up for a class?

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What’s ultimately required by each medical school admissions committee is to their discretion. The 126 medical schools in the United States generally require, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges, 1 academic year each of Biology, Chemistry, Organic Chemistry, and Organic Chemistry. If you take a course which compresses 1 full year of General Chemitry into one semester, the medical school admissions committees will generally require you to take another semester of chemistry. Of course you may find the occasional AdCom that is completely satisfied with that compressed course, but in general, most will require a full year.

My advice is to just take another semester.

Timothy Wu, MD
AdmissionsConsultants
703.242.5885

[adidas32]

Dr. Wu,

A couple of questions about repeats. And can you address my chances for an allopathic program with these scores.

(A) I have 6 repeats on my transcripts. Are they red flags, and will they need to be addressed in the statement?
( How will the adcomm calculate my gpa with repeats? Will they only count the repeats? With the repeats and without the lower grades my gpa is 3.5. 3.1 science. Will they average the lower grades and the repeats? GPA 3.25, science 3.0. Will they count only the lower grades and totally ignore the repeats? 3.0, 2.9.
(C)I have a Masters in physician assistant, and I am a certified physician assistant in the U.S. Army. My GPA was 3.5 in the Master’s Program. Will that mitigate the repeats and the low undergrad gpa. Will the PA experience help at all?
(D) MCAT is 27, pretty poor, should I risk improvement or stick with this score.
(E) I am 33, and I would be 34 before medschool starts. What age do you think the law of diminishing returns kicks in and one should accept the writing on the wall?

Considering this all, any possibilities of a lower top 100 allopathic program. Or was the undergrad experience the killer to medical ambitions as a physician? Don’t you also think that college should be looked more as a one shot and your out? Low GPA, Low Science GPA, and the fact that a specific college is not well known seem to overwhelm even moderate MCATS, regardless of experience.

Curious George

[medschlapp]

i took the mcat in april and got a 26 on it. my gpa is decent (3.76) and i have extracurricular activities. what are my chances of getting accepted? i have already signed up to take the test again, but i do not understand completely how the schools will handle that. do they look at the first set of scores and decide anyway, do you have to reapply? do i need to tell the schools taht i am retaking the test and will they wait unitl then to decide on my application? very confused………..

[twu]

quote:

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Originally posted by adidas32

(A) I have 6 repeats on my transcripts. Are they red flags, and will they need to be addressed in the statement?
( How will the adcomm calculate my gpa with repeats? Will they only count the repeats? With the repeats and without the lower grades my gpa is 3.5. 3.1 science. Will they average the lower grades and the repeats? GPA 3.25, science 3.0. Will they count only the lower grades and totally ignore the repeats? 3.0, 2.9.
(C)I have a Masters in physician assistant, and I am a certified physician assistant in the U.S. Army. My GPA was 3.5 in the Master’s Program. Will that mitigate the repeats and the low undergrad gpa. Will the PA experience help at all?
(D) MCAT is 27, pretty poor, should I risk improvement or stick with this score.
(E) I am 33, and I would be 34 before medschool starts. What age do you think the law of diminishing returns kicks in and one should accept the writing on the wall?

Considering this all, any possibilities of a lower top 100 allopathic program. Or was the undergrad experience the killer to medical ambitions as a physician? Don’t you also think that college should be looked more as a one shot and your out? Low GPA, Low Science GPA, and the fact that a specific college is not well known seem to overwhelm even moderate MCATS, regardless of experience.

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A) Any repeated course would be considered a red flag. The fact that you have six of them gives your application a whole bunch of red flags. Despite this, however, I would still refrain from discussing this in the personal statement. It’ll come up at the interview and that’s when you should ideally talk about it.

I believe the AMCAS counts only the most recent grade for a given course into its calculations. So even if your repeated course grade is lower than it was initially, that’s the grade they’ll use to calculate your GPA. The AdComs, however, will notice when you repeat a course.

C) Doing well in a graduate program always helps. A 3.5 is a good, though not stellar, GPA for a graduate program. Remember that most graduate programs require a 3.3 to be promoted to the next level and that there is rampant grade inflation at most graduate programs. Your PA experience should help in the sense that you’ll at least have the “right” motivation the committee’s looking for, but there’s probably no special consideration given to your application because of your training as a PA.

D) MCAT of 27 is not great, but also not that bad. The average MCAT for matriculated medical students is somewhere between 29 and 30. If you think you can do well, take it again. Be forewarned, however, that the data the AAMC provides predicts you will likely do about the same.

E) There is no special age at which you’ve outstayed your welcome in premed world. The oldest medical student I know, and I believe the world has ever known, is a 54 year-old in New York City.

Timothy Wu, MD
AdmissionsConsultants
703.242.5885

[twu]

quote:

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Originally posted by medschlapp

i took the mcat in april and got a 26 on it. my gpa is decent (3.76) and i have extracurricular activities. what are my chances of getting accepted? i have already signed up to take the test again, but i do not understand completely how the schools will handle that. do they look at the first set of scores and decide anyway, do you have to reapply? do i need to tell the schools taht i am retaking the test and will they wait unitl then to decide on my application? very confused………..

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You will tell the schools of your plan to retake the MCAT (in August) on your AMCAS application.

It is difficult to tell based on the two data points you provided whether or not you’d get into medical school. Being accepted requires a lot more than just having the right combination of MCAT and GPA. That’s the reason why so many 4.0s and >40 MCATs get rejected from med school all the time! A well-prepared application goes a long way in presenting your best foot forward and conveying your desire to get into medical school.

Given that, however, I can tell you about the data we have on med school admissions so that you’ll be able to draw your own conclusions on your candidacy. The average MCAT for matriculated medical students is 29-30. The average GPA for matriculated medical students is a cumulative of 3.56 and a science of 3.55. You put yourself over the top with a 3.76, but most will be able to validate a good GPA with an equally good MCAT score. You were not able to do this on your last attempt at the MCAT. An MCAT score of 26 puts you at or below the average of all applicants to medical school, and based on the MCAT score alone, the average MCAT will not get in. Incidentally, the national average for all MCAT test-takers is 24.

Timothy Wu, MD
AdmissionsConsultants
703.242.5885

[flcn8404]

Hi Dr. Wu, other consultants,

I previously wrote to you on 4/19 concerning my chances of getting into Med school. My greatest concern was and still is my undergraduate grades. I had a rough first 3 years with F’s,D’s C’s and W’s. I was, in retrospect, suffering from a great deal of anxiety and a little depression that I have worked hard on and since conquered. My undergrad cumulative was about a 2.8 but, that was with many withdrawals and repeats in the begining. I had a great deal of weakness in my early engineering courses. I am currently finishing up a PhD in molecular biology. I have a respectable but not stellar 3.65 grad GPA along with alot of research, volunteer, leadership, and teaching experience. I have also shadowed many doctors over the past 3 years that I have been volunteering at the local trauma center. Your biggest concern for me was my MCAT which was 7P,8V,11B (26M). I feel I have taken care of that with my second attempt, 12P,11V,11B(34P). Although I enjoy research, I have a much greater interest in medicine and I would like to combine both interests. What I was wondering is what is the best way for me to spin my application? What about my undergraduate grades, will the adcomms see my improvement and growth over the years? I am 31 and had trouble in college over 10 years ago, will they forgive this at all and focus on my last 6 years? Many of the undergraduates that I mentor as a Grad student go on to Med school. I love mentoring, but it is somewhat frustrating to guide them knowing that I might not even be able to get in.
Thank you for your help,
Dan

[chargers8888]

im a student at the university ot toronto and i am considering applying to american medical schools. in ontario, your gpa is altered depending on the quality of the school you attended. i am wondering if there is a similar system in the U.S.

secondly, a general question. i play college football here at u of t (its about NCAA div 2 quality). i was wondering how this looks as an extracurricular.

thanks in advance

[changnoi]

am going about getting into med school in a (fairly) non-traditional way. I received my bachelors and masters degrees in the same year from the University of Chicago with a GPA of 3.65. These degrees are in linguistics; however, I took a lot of science classes and my masters thesis dealt with schizophrenia (I want to go into psychiatry).

Now I am at the University of New Mexico doing the rest of the pre-med courses that I didn’t do at the University of Chicago. I think my GPA here is 3.9 or something like that.

I took my MCATs without having taken organic chemistry, though I read the text and tried to learn it on my own. As a result, my MCAT scores, though average (32), are only that way because of extremely high verbal scores.

Are med schools going to look at my biology scores (I did “all right” on physical sciences) and laugh and throw out my application? Is there any way I can indicate on my application that I had not yet taken o-chem when I took the MCATs, that they can see my current o-chem grades if they like to see that I am learning, that my verbal scores indicate that I know how to learn and how to think, and that I would be a good candidate despite my abysmal (9) biology score?

Please help.

Thank you.

La cantatrice chauve? Elle se coiffe toujours dans la meme facon!

[chocaddict3000]

Hi
I have talked to a number of people about this and no one seems to know what to do, although I am sure that I am not the first person in the situation. I received my undergraduate education at a Canadian university (i am american), so no problem with entering my grades. However, I then went to Scotland and received my MPH from the University of Edinburgh. I know that AMCAS doesn’t verify foreing transcripts, but I am not sure if I should enter my classes anyway so that medical schools can see what classes I did take. It becoems more complicated by the fact that the classes were modules, not semester classes, so I don’t really know what to enter for the credit number. Further, my transcript from the University of Edinburgh only contains my overall course work mark and thesis mark. Also, grades in the UK a much lower in general, so I averaged a 70, which is considered distinction level there, but sounds really low in the States. So, my questions simply are
1.) should I enter my courses on AMCAS
2.) If I do, will schools know that my 70% marks are actually good?

Thanks so much!

[twu]

Sorry it’s taken so long to get back to all your questions. The 2004 AMCAS application cycle opened this month and AdmissionsConsultants is busy with new clients. We will do our best to answer your questions on this website as quickly as possible, but our clients are very anxious to get their applications out! Good luck to you all.

Timothy Wu, MD
AdmissionsConsultants
703.242.5885

[twu]

quote:

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Originally posted by flcn8404

What I was wondering is what is the best way for me to spin my application? What about my undergraduate grades, will the adcomms see my improvement and growth over the years? I am 31 and had trouble in college over 10 years ago, will they forgive this at all and focus on my last 6 years? Many of the undergraduates that I mentor as a Grad student go on to Med school. I love mentoring, but it is somewhat frustrating to guide them knowing that I might not even be able to get in.

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Congratulations on your improvement in MCAT scores!

Offering advice on how to put a good spin to your application is difficult to do in this forum. We do our best application assistance on a one-to-one basis either in person or over the telephone with all available materials.

Med school AdComs don’t typically black-ball you because of grades or other such academic difficulties. You get black-balled when you commit crimes, do something terribly unethical, or fail out of another medical school. With what you’ve done with your life since college, I think you’ve got a good shot at medical school with a great application.

Good luck to you.

Timothy Wu, MD
AdmissionsConsultants
703.242.5885

[twu]

quote:

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Originally posted by chargers8888

im a student at the university ot toronto and i am considering applying to american medical schools. in ontario, your gpa is altered depending on the quality of the school you attended. i am wondering if there is a similar system in the U.S.

secondly, a general question. i play college football here at u of t (its about NCAA div 2 quality). i was wondering how this looks as an extracurricular.

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The AdComs have complete control over how they individually interpret grades based on an applicant’s undergraduate institution’s relative strength. In other words, the AMCAS has no real input into how grades should be interpreted from Harvard vs. Podunk State University.

It’s not quite the type of extracurricular activity that’s examined so much as how far you take your activity. In other words, playing college football is a great activity because it exhibits teamwork and dedication, but it’d be even better if you were the team captain or recognized at Toronto as a star quarterback.

Good luck.

Timothy Wu, MD
AdmissionsConsultants
703.242.5885

[twu]

quote:

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Originally posted by changnoi

I took my MCATs without having taken organic chemistry, though I read the text and tried to learn it on my own. As a result, my MCAT scores, though average (32), are only that way because of extremely high verbal scores.

Are med schools going to look at my biology scores (I did “all right” on physical sciences) and laugh and throw out my application? Is there any way I can indicate on my application that I had not yet taken o-chem when I took the MCATs, that they can see my current o-chem grades if they like to see that I am learning, that my verbal scores indicate that I know how to learn and how to think, and that I would be a good candidate despite my abysmal (9) biology score

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I doubt that mentioning to the AdComs that you took the MCAT before completing Organic Chemistry would make much of a difference to them. They didn’t impose a strict deadline by which you should take your MCAT — you decided to take the MCAT when you felt ready.

A 32 is not a poor score. The average MCAT for matriculants to the nation’s 126 medical schools falls somewhere between 29 and 30. Even with a 9, so long as your other MCAT scores are fairly even, you have a pretty good composite score. My opinion is you’re overthinking your situation and you should concentrate on producing a stellar application.

Good luck.

Timothy Wu, MD
AdmissionsConsultants
703.242.5885

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