<p>Seniors in high school's score on any section of the MCAT is totally nonindicative. It is too early to make any sort of prediction. It's just not possible. It's like asking what a fifth grader should be scoring on the SATs.</p>
<p>Besides which, I am trying to explain to you that you're wrong about being guaranteed a spot after medical school. Some significant minority fail the USMLEs entirely, and even those that pass really need to excel! Among those that excel, FINALLY we are talking about a low-grade residency.</p>
<p>Beyond that, anesthesia and cardiology are quite competitive as residencies, anesthesia in particular. So you can rule those out pretty much completely if you go overseas. (Again, London/Paris being different from Grenada/Pakistan.)</p>
<p>Being crestfallen is part of the game. You wouldn't be the first to do poorly on the MCAT.</p>
<p>I personally believe that it would be far more dissappointing to go through all the work of medical school (anywhere) and then not be allowed to practice the type of medicine you wanted simply because you had to be different and chose a more difficult means of entry to the ends.</p>
<p>Do you want to climb the mountain first, then ski down the other side or waltz through the beginning only to have to a more treacherous path at the end? Those are your choices. </p>
<p>But as BDM already asked, if you aren't going to take our suggestions, then what exactly are you looking for?</p>
<p>What it comes down to is that you go to a US school you are VERY likely to make it into your desired match (very high % receive one of their top three choices in the Match). If you go to a foreign school no matter how stellar your USMLE scores are, you will find significant difficulty in obtaining your desired match.</p>
<p>I really think that you are more afraid of the MCAT simply because it is closer on the horizon...</p>
<p>whoa whoa whoa man...don't diss Pakistan by putting it with Grenada, hahaha...King Edwards Medical College is very highly respected over there and it is still really tough to get in from kids in the country and out. It is well known...or at least in Europe it is... for bring out great doctors who pass the USLME to get in a good residency</p>
<p>and why are you SO worried about the MCAT...I know you are being realistic, but you have to go to college first man...as I said, if you are really that concerned, go to a small college where the classes are small and the professors are in close contact and study like crazy and you will do fine in the end...you have got to have SOME optimism dude, afterall the premed route is very competitive and sometimes very depressing so look on the brighter side of things...if you are really determined, even a slighly low MCAT score won't kill you and you will still become a dr provided everything else is great</p>
<p>umar: well dow and smc are good too, besides aku and king edwards</p>
<p>hey now, i know all of you are discouraging me from going there, because that is right; I agree with you that i will be considered a second class applicant when applying. In fact, to be honest, i actually want to stay here. College years of undergrad are the most crucial years. I am wondering if the college i am going to, will provide me with good education background do well on MCAT. Its deep southern: Mississippi. Or my second choice is uiuc, where i am not getting enough financial aid. So .....</p>
<p>correction: if i choose to go to
[quote]
I am wondering if the college i am going to,
[/quote]
</p>
<p>i dunno anything about those schools lol...but I have learned that it really doesn't matter what undergrad you go to when it comes to that much preperation for the MCAT, it depends heavily on the person him/herself. Of course going to a top notch college will help you even further in preperation with the MCAT, but even kids who come from really low ranked schools still come out with stellar scores. Every college teaches you whats gonna be on it, but it depends on your willingness and determination to know it so well it becomes easy on the test</p>
<p>Mississippi or UIUC seem fine..why not just go there? enjoy your 4 yrs, study hard, and do fine</p>
<p>of course this is all up to you...obviously you know what is best for you as well as your parents, so if going abroad sounds good to you and your parents think it is a good idea too...then do it...just heavily consider the US route first and foremost</p>
<p>i plan on going to this med school next week or so and see how the professors teach. I also want to check out some doctors, and see how they practice..
So is it a good idea to get acquainted with doctors as it would help me out in some way or another? (getting into a research program)</p>
<p>why are you going to a med school to see how professors teach...if you were good enough to get INTO the place in the first place, you shouldn't really have to worry about how they teach or anything...</p>
<p>shouldn't you be going to your 2 undergrad schools you said and see how their professors teach??</p>
<p>....and yes getting acquainted with a dr can help as well as getting into a research program. You what would be cool...getting a research project with a professor who is on the admissions committee at w/e med school, haha, I know a friend who is doin that</p>
<p>but anyways dont worry about med schools right now, worry about your undergrad</p>
<p>alright..got that straight..more updates later</p>
<p>Of course, any professors who you're involved with will be forced to recuse themselves from the admissions committee (i.e. no voting priveleges).</p>
<p>dell, you say you won't do well on the MCAT, but you say you'll do well on the USMLE (which is 10 times harder), I think you're contradicting yourself.</p>
<p>ok so i was just looking through some DAT books and did not find them to be as hard as the MCATs. is there an option that if i dont do well on MCAt, i can take the DAT and get into a dental school if my score is decent enough on DAT? But as i was looking at the Univ of SF, there were about 700 plus apllicants, and only 60 got admitted. Now that is fairly competitive. And also, PCAT doesnt didnt look bad; the concepts look straight forward and could be tackled to a competitive score. </p>
<p>So what are the views on that?</p>
<p>The DAT is "easier" though there are some differences - namely the perceptual ability test (since you are going to be looking at the world upside down and backwards for the rest of your life).</p>
<p>Most dental school classes are smaller. I think one of the biggest obstacles is that you have to demonstrate your interest in dentistry. If your resume only reads like a failed medical student, then it's going to be tough. So you would have to shadow a dentist or work a summer in a dental lab while you volunteer in the hospital. If you do both, there's no problem in explaining how you didn't know which you prefered, but you do need to demonstrate interest in both.</p>
<p>Pharm is the same way in the need to show interest for admission. PCAT is easier though as well - my roommate took it with little prep and got the 88%ile.</p>
<p>lets say i take the MCAT in my 3rd year, and don't do well. Does my scores show in some transcript that would indicate to DAT admission officials, that i failed to become a med student? I mean, i could simply prevaricate, if my scores does come out to be bad, that i haven't even taken it. </p>
<p>Also, is getting into dental schools really tough since there are not a lot of dental schools in USA, and there are a whole bunch of applicants (900plus for 70 slots)?
IN what ways does pre-dent differ from pre-med ? (preerequisites etc)</p>
<p>I think i will need a lot of information about Dental schools, competiteveness, salaries, DAT...etc, i should do pre-dent a secondary</p>
<p>It looks like the pre-dental courses are nearly identical to the pre-med requirements.
-1 year general chemistry with lab
-1 year organic chemistry with lab
-1 year introductory biology with lab
-1 year general physics with lab
-1 year English (composition and literature) </p>
<p>Possibly useful websites:
<a href="http://www.predental.com/%5B/url%5D">http://www.predental.com/</a>
<a href="http://prehealthadvising.unc.edu/pre-dent.htm%5B/url%5D">http://prehealthadvising.unc.edu/pre-dent.htm</a>
<a href="http://www.washington.edu/students/ugrad/advising/predent.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.washington.edu/students/ugrad/advising/predent.html</a></p>
<p>The pre-reqs are almost entirely the same.</p>
<p>Your MCAT will not show up on your transcripts at all. </p>
<p>The limited number of spots (fewer schools with smaller classes) does make dental school very competitive, especially b/c you do not have to finish a bachelor's degree - only three years (90 hours) of undergrad. Again, like any graduate school you need to show dedication to the profession. There is a lot of money invested in you to become a dentist, they want to make sure you make it through. You need to shadow dentists (just like you would doctors), work in a dental lab, or somehow show that you are dedicated to dentistry. There are many students who desperately want to be dentists (my cousin among them) and for you to take this cavalier attitude that dentistry is a "backup" will be noticed. Also, I really think that if dentistry is viewed as some sort of begrudged alternative you will be extremely unhappy in practice, and also in school. Dental school is just as rigorous as medical school, and I can attest that if you aren't 100% tied to the profession, the schooling will destroy you. Medical school will (and has in my class) weed out any who are at all hesitant to become doctors. Dental school will do the same.</p>
<p>Furthermore, any prevarication regarding the MCAT would be ethically troublesome. If they don't ask, of course, you're not obligated to tell them - but if you actually lie about it, you are committing fraud.</p>
<p>ok what i was shocked to see was this: <a href="http://mdapplicants.com/searchresults.php%5B/url%5D">http://mdapplicants.com/searchresults.php</a> </p>
<p>
[quote]
You searched for applicants:
Whose applications are complete
MCAT score greater than 20 and less than 23
Overall GPA greater than 3.50 and less than 4.00
[/quote]
</p>
<p>that these people got into med school with such low MCAT scores...</p>
<p>now that pulls up my confidence...</p>
<p>I was looking through some of those profiles and I realized that many of the people, although not all, who had gotten low MCAT scores and pretty low GPA's of less than 3.5 either had applied several times over again after the completion of their undergrad or were really dedicated to something particular like being an EMT or Paramedic. Or they just really aced their interview. </p>
<p>But yea it gives some hope lol</p>
<p>My guess is a pretty large proportion of them applied with URM status or in states with extremely unselective state schools.</p>