<p>Hi!</p>
<p>My son messed up his MCAT on the reading section. He could get 10 or 11 but end up with 8. Does he still have chance for medical school this year? His major is Biomedical engineer and his GPA is about 3.65. He has two co-author paper from his research etc. Please help.</p>
<p>Yep. 7 is a killer. 8? Not always , it seems. Depending on state of residence, PS and secondaries , and level/profile of schools applied to, then …Yes. He has a chance. If his list is all Top 30, and he has a crap PS and secondaries, …and he’s not from Texas 
…it might not go very well.</p>
<p>He is an engineer, I believe this is his ticket. The best wishes!</p>
<p>Hi!</p>
<p>My son just received an interview invitation from Einstein. Is this interview too late and he do not have chance to get in? How good this school is?</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>Interviews are a good sign, but like everything else is no guarantee of acceptance. </p>
<p>And no, it’s not too late to have an interview. Some schools will continue to interview thru April. </p>
<p>Don’t know anything about Einstein personally (wrong side of the country for me…) but it appears to be a mid-ranked school.</p>
<p>They would not bother to interview this late unless they were interested, I think it is a good sign.</p>
<p>Usually by this late, you’re interviewing for a waitlist spot. I wouldn’t go to this interview unless you really want to go to this school or if you don’t have any other acceptances.</p>
<p>Does your son have any acceptances so far?</p>
<p>Has he been interviewed by other schools?</p>
<p>If he doesn’t have any acceptances, then he surely should go. Many schools pull from their waitlists.</p>
<p>I did not get interviewed by MCP Hahnemann, now Drexel, until March or April and received my acceptance letter two weeks later so Einstein could still be filling vacancies in its class. Even though Einstein is not considered an elite school I think he should definitely go to the interview. The reality is that with an 8 in reading on the MCAT his goal now is to simply find a U.S. medical school that will accept him. There are no bad U.S. medical schools and they all use the same textbooks and the same cadavers to cover the same material.</p>
<p>Medical school involves very little analysis and deep understanding of scientific subjects which I am sure your son excels in, but it does require medical students to read, understand and remember huge amounts of written material. Medical schools are going to have concerns about a student who has an 8 in Reading as far as their ability to keep up with the reading workload goes. They probably also believe that a deficiency in an area of science such as organic chemistry is fixable while inadequate reading ability is not.</p>
<p>This is the only invitation he received. He only applied 7 schools in total and 5 of them are top 25. He has no problem in reading. His college English writting classes scores are A and A-(In one of top ten college). His MCAT writing is R. The low V score was due to the mess up on the test day. His practice score was between 10-12. He want to retake MCAT next month for next cycle but unexpectly received this invitation. He said he has confidence to get at least 35 MCAT score with V at least 10. But who know? He told me he will skip for one year even he can get in. Do you think it worse to reaply for next year if he can get in a better med school? Or, just go for the interview. If can get in (~20% chance), take it?</p>
<p>I don’t really understand his application process. With a 32 (including an 8) subscore and a 3.65 GPA why did he only apply to 7 schools (with 5 top schools)? He might as well not have applied.</p>
<p>house…</p>
<p>From what others have said on this board…retaking the MCAT is not a good thing. It’s not like retaking the SAT or ACT. Med schools frown on MCAT retakes.</p>
<p>Your son needs to do this interview…
If your son gets an acceptance, he should enroll. </p>
<p>At the end of the day, he’ll be a M.D. And that’s the goal. </p>
<p>It sounds like he’s obsessed with prestige, since he only applied to 7 schools…mostly top schools. he needs to get over that.</p>
<p>Einstein is a well-ranked med school.</p>
<p>mom2collegekids :</p>
<p>He was not satified with his MCAT. I pushed him to apply this year and so he said he just did it for me to make me happy this year. In his mind, he just want skip one year and do it again for next year because he took his MCAT very late last year (In Aug. 2010). I told him he’d rather not to apply if he were only want me happy. That’s why he only applied 7 schools. Yes, his strategy was really bad.</p>
<p>For the med school, If he want an academic career in the future, will the prestige matter?</p>
<p>It looks like this is the profile we’re discussing.
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/pre-med-topics/1004591-ask-help-med-school-application.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/pre-med-topics/1004591-ask-help-med-school-application.html</a></p>
<p>This student attends Duke, which has an excellent advising team and a strong peer group which understands the admissions process very well. He should be relying on those two sources to guide him through this game.</p>
<p>BDM…</p>
<p>So, do you think he should…</p>
<p>1) go to this intereview</p>
<p>2) if he goes, and is accepted, should he go</p>
<p>3) or blow it off, retake MCAT, and apply again next year?</p>
<p>Maybe I’m reading too much between the lines, but…I’m guessing that this student comes from a home where English is not the primary language. If this is the case, perhaps that is why he may not have scored well in the reading section.</p>
<p>He should absolutely go to the interview and should absolutely attend if accepted. This kid is in a very bad spot, application-wise. Next year he’s going to be a re-applicant, and even with a new MCAT score he’ll still have that 8 on his record. If he lucks into an acceptance, he needs to take it.</p>
<p>Remember, he’s going to be a reapplicant next year. If he turns down a chance to interview this year, schools aren’t going to respond well to that in the next cycle. It’ll seem like he’s more interested in name-branding than actually going to medical school.</p>
<p>Besides – even if the odds are very low, at a minimum this interview will be good practice for him.</p>
<p>I agree…</p>
<p>*Remember, he’s going to be a reapplicant next year. If he turns down a chance to interview this year, schools aren’t going to respond well to that in the next cycle. It’ll seem like he’s more interested in name-branding than actually going to medical school.
*</p>
<p>Interesting…so are you saying that med schools would know if he “blows off” this interviewing chance?</p>
<p>* It’ll seem like he’s more interested in name-branding than actually going to medical school.</p>
<p>*</p>
<p>I agree that he’s into “name brands”…and the family seems to think that his only chance for academic medicine is by going to a top/top med school. </p>
<p>Would that be true or not?</p>
<p>1.) They ask, or at least they did a few years ago.</p>
<p>2.) His chances are better for academic medicine from a high-ranked med school, but it’s not necessary. What is necessary is going somewhere. He should go to this interview and do his best.</p>
<p>Thanks for the comments. What bothered me so much is the prestige. Based on what you said, it is important but not necessary. May be I should not influence my son’s choice. He told me he is going to the interview. He originally did not want to apply just as what Bluedevilmikel posted on this thread. It was my mistake to push him for that. Yes, we are non English speaking family but that’s not the reason for his low V score. He started his school from grade 2 elementary here. His SAT reading was 710. I am very appreciate your criticize on my opinion and will let my son decide his future. I did not recognized my push made him in a very difficult situation.</p>
<p>By the way, why the reapplicant has disadvantage? Dose the reapplicant less competitive even his status be improved a lot ( I mean both GPA, MCAT and research experiences)?</p>
<p>Absolutely go to any interview that you received invitation. In regard to prestige, it is extremely prestigious to get accepted to ANY American Medical School, period. Lots (most) of MD’s in our city send their kids to local off ranks Med. School because they know that it does not matter and because they want to save money in case of several pre-meds in one family (I know one MD with all 3 kids being pre-meds and all going to local Medical School). Here is example of people who know exactly what they are doing.</p>