What are my chances/list of schools to apply to? 3.68 GPA, 518 MCAT

[neuronerd.777]

Hi All,

I'm struggling to narrow down the list of schools to apply to given the discrepancy between my mcat and gpa. I'd love some input on what tier level schools to apply to/list of schools to apply to given my stats and background.

Demographic/Personal Background: CA resident. female. racial category: other.

Academics:

• Graduated from UC Berkeley with departmental honors in Molecular and Cell Neurobiology, Minor in Human Rights.
• Upward GPA trend over 4 years. cGPA: 3.68, science GPA: 3.64, non-science GPA: 3.98.
• MCAT (most recent score from 9/2020): 518 (c/p: 128, cars: 129, b/b: 130, p/s: 131). I had taken it once before (8/2019) and had gotten a 506.

Research:

• 2 years in a neuroscience lab. Worked on an independent honors thesis and presented a poster on it (2020). Co-Author of an abstract accepted at Neuroscience in Chicago (2019).
• 2 publications, mid-author, low-tier journals on incidence of mental health disorders in genocide descendants.
• 2 publications, submitted and under review, mid-author, low-tier journals on 2 ER clinical case studies.
• co-founded 2 start-up biotech companies.
  • developed a physical therapy device that wirelessly connects to an app to help increase accessibility to PT and increase patient compliance. Won 1st place at a National Hackathon. We made our design open source afterwards (1 year).
  • participated in a start-up incubator on developing a device for Alzheimer's patients. Went into prototype testing, company was then sold off after 1 year.

Clinical Experience:

• 3+ years as a volunteer EMT at a medical reserve corps. I became a field training officer during my last semester of college, cut short due to the pandemic. Also was a volunteer EMT at concerts pre-pandemic.
• medical scribe (6 months, gap year job) at primary care office serving predominantly low income and immigrant population.
• job shadower (100 hours) at pediatrician's office (although this was senior year of high school).
• job shadowed a pediatric neurosurgeon (~4 weeks).
• job shadowed a physician assistant oncologist at a children's hospital (~10 weeks, I was meant to shadow a doctor but he had to take medical leave).

Extra Curricular Activities/Volunteer Work:

• Founded a committee at my local branch (a national non-profit org). Eventually became President of this local branch. Held other leadership positions until then.
• National Vice President of the same aforementioned organization. Also held 2 other national positions in this non-profit org prior to this one.
• National Student Program Director of a non-profit dedicated to raising awareness about sex and gender differences in symptom presentation and disease etyology. Our goal is to incorporate these peer reviewed and published findings into medical school curricula as well as inform the general public.
• Volunteer Tutor for high school refugees (6-7 months, cut short due to pandemic).
• Writing Staff for a Human Rights Journal at my university .
• Fundraising Director for a grass-roots non-profit dedicated re-building kindergartens in sustainable ways in my homeland (3 years).
• National Education Director of a clinics collaborative aimed at connected medical student run clinics across the country.
• CPR instructor (AHA and BLS) for over 3 years.

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[Medicine-Man]

• MCAT (most recent score from 9/2020): 518 (c/p: 1298, cars: 129, b/b: 130, p/s: 131). I had taken it once before (8/2019) and had gotten a 506.

1298 in the c/p section? Damn I've been studying wrong...

 

[neuronerd.777]

1298 in the c/p section? Damn I've been studying wrong...

haha I wish! fixed that typo.

 

[candbgirl]

There isn’t that big of discrepancy since you took the MCAT twice. AMCAS rec that schools average multiple MCAT scores . Some do, some don’t and even if you call and ask it doesn’t mean the person reviewing your app won’t take your 506 into account. Maybe use 512 as your MCAT.

 

[Banco]

Average your MCAT score and apply broadly - you can throw some reaches in there as you have a very productive and impressive research record (Rochester, Pitt will value that). Some schools may also look at only the most recent MCAT - but it's hard to know which ones those are.

Look at MSAR at private schools where your GPA is within the 10-90th percentile and your MCAT is near the average (use 512) to form your base list. Definitely apply to all the California schools.

 

[neuronerd.777]

There isn’t that big of discrepancy since you took the MCAT twice. AMCAS rec that schools average multiple MCAT scores . Some do, some don’t and even if you call and ask it doesn’t mean the person reviewing your app won’t take your 506 into account. Maybe use 512 as your MCAT.

thank you for your honest input! do you think I should apply to DO schools then?

 

[neuronerd.777]

Average your MCAT score and apply broadly - you can throw some reaches in there as you have a very productive and impressive research record (Rochester, Pitt will value that). Some schools may also look at only the most recent MCAT - but it's hard to know which ones those are.

Look at MSAR at private schools where your GPA is within the 10-90th percentile and your MCAT is near the average (use 512) to form your base list. Definitely apply to all the California schools.

Thank you for your input! I was using this to determine which schools take the average vs most recent scores: Allopathic Medical School Multiple MCAT Scores | Pre-Health do you think it's accurate?

 

[candbgirl]

Well that list is 2 1/2 years old so... And schools can see all of your test scores ,so you can never predict what biases a reviewer brings to the table. Ultimately it is up to you where to apply but your GPAs are below average for matriculated students. You want to give yourself the best chance of getting interviews and ultimately Acceptances. So apply smart and realistically.