Medical Should I Retake MCAT or focus on EC?

[GoSpursGo]

Here are my stats. I wish to apply in the 2021-2022 cycle.
Asian, Male
MCAT score: 513(126/130/129/128)
Major: Computer Engineering
State: Oklahoma
School: University of Oklahoma
Non-Clinical Volunteer: Mentor for 3 years(~300 hours), Food Pantry(~100 hours), led Volunteer Committee at my work(~50 hours), on the board of members at low-cost clinic helping raise money(~100 hours)
Clinical Volunteer: Triaging and shadowing at low-cost clinic(~150 hours), Shadowing dermatologist(~100 hours) [All these are starting in August 2020]
Work Experience: Software Engineering internships at the U.S. Air Force and Garmin (Full Time Job)
Research Experience: (~500 hours) all software engineering research experiences (one was for a biologist to track migratory bird patterns so sort of biology) which is available on GitHub
Extra-Extracurriculars: Founded and compete on cybersecurity team as well as develop phone apps(none successful)

Story: I went into college planning to be a software engineer. My junior year of college, I developed some health issues that changed my life and now I want to help other people who are affected like me. I wish to go to a school in california because I have family in california and would like the support while in medical school. I know my MCAT score is relatively low for that dream, however, it is still my goal. I was wondering would it be wise to spend time during the application cycle to study for the MCAT, or should I spend that time perfecting my personal statement and getting more volunteer hours? Any advice would be appreciated! Thank you for taking the time to read this! If you have any further questions, please ask! Would it be wise to mention I have job offers from top tech companies, and that I'd rather turn this down to pursue medicine instead?

Would not retake a 513. Just work on ECs

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[Goro]

A 513 is an excellent score. Retaking it would have people question your judgement

 

[Goro]

would a 513 make it impossible for me to get into a california med school as an Asian male and out of stater, though?

Even having a 517+ is no guarantee that you can get into a CA school. CA is a net exporter of medical students and UCLA alone could fill every medical school class in CA.

Most people who retake the MCAT either stay the same, or go down in scores.

On top of that, many schools average scores.

With a 513 score, be practical and target other schools.

IF you really want to go to CA, apply to Western or Touro-CA.

 

[GoSpursGo]

Yeah I agree with @Goro , the problem isn’t your score, it may be your goal. It’s just really hard to get into a CA Med school when you’re OOS, so I would not make any decisions based on that—apply if you want to just see what happens, but apply to other schools that make sense and plan to go there for residency instead if that is a long term goal.

 

[TheBoneDoctah]

Do NOT retake a 513. Cali is gonna be tough even if you had a perfect app. For some reason, everyone loves Cali....(I lived in Cali for 30 years and went to UCLA...I don't really understand the love for it). If you are for sure wanting to stay there, would add the DO schools as well.

 

[TheBoneDoctah]

I took the MCAT when I was in Gen Chem 2 and the only biology class I have taken is Genetics. I don't know how much taking classes matter in teaching me these things rather than just reading textbooks(what I did). If I were to retake, what score should I aim for to show AdComs that retaking was a good decision? Such as +5 points, +6 points?
This is assuming I wait another year before applying.

I can't give you a number...but the point is that retaking a 513 may look like a bad judgement on your part.

 

[GoSpursGo]

It sounds like that was a bad decision. But don't compound it by making another bad decision.

The bottom line is that this is a lot of time that you would sink into HOPEFULLY raising your score an amount that moves the needle. Even if you got to +5-6 points on your practice exams, the thing you have to keep in mind is there's a range of outcomes and there will be no guarantee that you will actually improve that much on test day. Even if you DID score 5-6 points better, that may still not be enough to get you into a CA school as an OOS student, probably because you'll still have have minimal ECs.

So again, I'm sure it would be nice to go to CA. But not everyone gets to go to school in their preferred location. Focus on getting into *a* med school rather than chasing a dream that is honestly unlikely.

 

[GoSpursGo]

What should I focus on to improving my extracurriculars? Thank you so much for your advice so far

I think in general you could buff up your Clinical and no clinical volunteering—you check those boxes, but you basically barely clear the minimum levels we would recommend. Given the number of hours you would need to sink into studying for the MCAT again, I think that time could be better allocated in those arenas.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Can I ask you for your school list? In general you have a good set of metrics so I'm not convinced it's just your ECs. What homework did you do when it came to picking your schools? Who did you teach out to prior to applying from reach of the schools?

 

[Mr.Smile12]

I'm sorry what do you mean about "who did you teach out to prior to applying from reach of the schools?"

I think my original post was a little unclear. I recently took the MCAT, and I am a senior in Computer Engineering. I have not graduated yet, nor have I applied to medical school yet. I am going to apply for the first time this next cycle! Apologies for the miscommunication!

Ok. Well you need to talk to your prehealth team for sure. Just having family in California isn't going to be a boost to your application.

Ideally you should have connected to schools on your list before applying so you get a better idea of each school on your list.

 

[Goro]

What should I focus on to improving my extracurriculars? Thank you so much for your advice so far

Patient contact experience. No shadowing

 

[TheBoneDoctah]

You need more clinical hours.