Help!

[changnoi]

I 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!

[y82benji]

Average admitted med student: GPA of 3.59, MCAT of 29.8.

Ben’s MCAT score descriptors:
Unbelievable – 14+
Great – 12-13
Good – 10-11
Okay – 9
Poor – 7-8
Abysmal – 6 and below

I’m guessing your physical sciences was a 10 and your verbal was a 13, or else 11 PS and 12 VR. I wouldn’t want to burst your bubble but 9-10-13 is still a very competitive score. It won’t make the guys at Harvard drop their jaws but it won’t hurt you very much either. It won’t matter to them that you didn’t take organic chemistry before taking the MCATs – after all you knew what the MCATs entailed and you selected the time to take them and the time to take organic chemistry. If it had any effect it might be to seem like poor decision-making on your part, so I wouldn’t mention it as an excuse. If you don’t offer any explanation, they’ll see the 9 and then see that you are doing very well in organic chemistry and see that as mediating the score of 9.

I think that you have been confusing “average” with “average for admitted students.” Your scores are hovering a little above the average for admitted students, not all applicants, so you should consider yourself in good shape if the rest of your application is strong and you apply to enough schools.

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