<p>I'm helping a friend of D2 who will be applying next cycle. She graduates next December (2012) so is looking at the 2012-13 application cycle.</p>
<p>She just received her score from her Sept sitting. Not good news: BS 11, PS 10, V 7 for a score of 28.</p>
<p>This score is not out of line for consideration at our in-state med school. (A 26 will get you considered, but last year's median MCAT--which included 17 BA/MDs who only needed a 26 to get admitted--was 30.)</p>
<p>The friend is a native English speaker and attends a mid-level UC (where her advising is lousy). She's being strongly urged to apply with her score as is. I think her verbal score will be a app-killer. Am I being overly pessimistic?</p>
<p>The girl is not a URM, not from a rural county (both of which would help) and has a so-so 3.5 GPA as bio major. Her one asset is she's fluent in Spanish.</p>
<p>Was the V score inconsistent with what she was doing on practice exams? (e.g. was she scoring 11, 12 or was she getting 9’s and 10’s) Unless there is a REAL expectation of doing better, based on practice exams, then she should probably not repeat it.
D.O.?</p>
<p>Doubt she’ll consider a DO. DOs are all but non-existent where we live. (Plus her mom would have a stroke…) A non-US med school would be a more likely possibility. (Possibly in Mexico since she’s fluent in Spanish.)</p>
<p>Her practice scores were in 9-10 range. She didn’t take a prep class, but her mom hired a private Princeton Review tutor to work with her over the summer.</p>
<p>This would be an unbelievably foolish move on her part. A US DO schol is infinitely better than any foregn school for someone wanting to practice in the US. If they (or their mother) has any qualms about the DO degree, they frankly need to get over it and look at the facts, espcially recently with residency funding.</p>
<p>A 7 on one section isn’t an app killer (though it will fall below the cutoff for some schools). With a median of 30, at least half the class has at least one section less than 10. She shouldn’t retake unless she’s sure of a higher score, because a lower one would be a killer.</p>
I heard that for the 12-member super-committee in Congress, one of the chief targets of budget cut is RESIDENCY TRAINING. With the possibility of even having the defense budget on the chopping bloc, everything is possible.</p>
<p>Off topic: If we are so poor, why bother to increase the size and number of medical schools and then reduce the size of residency program? Maybe just outsource the task of training/producing our new physicians to other more “cost-effective” countries like many big business have been doing for the past couple of decades? Hmm…it seems Cuba is quite a cost-effective country in producing many doctors cheaply and quickly, or we may even explore the feasibility of importing its “finished products.” (already-trained newly-minted doctors. Have we already done this for nurses?) — It will be really “disgusting” then: There is a country which is not good enough for us to visit as tourists, but their trained doctors are good enough to treat our patients. The well-off families will never need to see this kind of doctor anyway so they do not care.</p>
<p>I really do not see how someone with a MCAT V=7 could succeed in medical school or pass the the three step USMLE which all states require to obtain a license to practice medicine. I had a Verbal score of 10 on the MCAT and still seemed to have had to spend every waking minute on keeping up with the huge amount of reading needed to keep pace with my studies in medical school and passing all three steps of the USMLE on my first attempt.</p>
<p>She needs to consider DO.<br>
BTW, I had to visit nose/throat/ear specialist last week. There are 2 docs in the same office. One is MD, another is DO. There is not difference in them seeeing patients or anything else. they are both listed as ones who just implemented or maybe developed themselves some non-surgical sinus procedure that works better than surgery. Apparently, it got well known internationally as they were visited by foreign MD who came to their office out of all places on Earth to study this innovative procedure. I personally was seen by DO, I did not feel that he was inferior to MD’s that I have seen in my life, he was better than many of them. </p>
<p>3.5/28 is low. D’s friend had higher, do not know her GPA (definitely higher than 3.5 though), her MCAT was 30. She got only to DO. She applied only to state school in-state. When one of the Med. Schools (MD) accepted her at the very end, she already has made her mind, she decided to go for DO since she liked the school a lot.</p>
<p>I definitely agree she should consider DO schools (especially before foreign schools), but your daughter’s friend’s case isn’t the best data point. Applying only to IS state schools is a pretty bad med school application strategy. And even if she did have a more common strategy of applying across the country, the process is a crapshoot a lot of the time. 3.5/28 isn’t too far off from the average. Depending on her state and how widely she applies and other parts of her app…</p>
<p>Tough situation. Verbal is reputedly the most important score and the toughest to bring up. I’d still invest a whole lot of time in verbal test prep (strategies, tips, tricks, familiarity) and see if she can consistently hit some higher numbers on retired AAMC tests. If so, consistently, then certainly re-take. I do think a 7 in verbal puts her in a very tough position for a U.S. allopathic school.</p>
<p>"Applying only to IS state schools is a pretty bad med school application strategy’</p>
<p>-It is all together completely different subject. Some kids are limiting themsleves to this, it is their preference and they do not care about other’s strategies. My own D. was the same (distance, not IS). However, my D. ended up going in-state also. Even with close by states, she did not feel “at home” OOS. But my D. had several to choose from and discussion is not about her.
However, my D. also had low verbal all along in her practice tests and I can attest that it is impossible to bring up. She got lucky to get her highest verbal test score on her real exam, which is very unusual.</p>
<p>I think instate her best bet for allopathic. Her stats aren’t too off and supposedly once one passes the GPA+MCAT cutoff, the interview process is allegedly blind. (However, D1 was questioned extensively about her stats by one of her interviewers. OTOH, here adcom duty rotates biennially so the likelihood of the friend getting the same interviewer is nil.)</p>
<p>Friend has lots of hands experience (EMT-I) in clinical situations in both the US and Mexico. I also expect she’ll have some decent to excellent LORs.</p>
<p>I don’t know how hard she prepped for the verbal. I think she concentrated on the science portions. In retrospect, a mistake on her part. Right now it looks she’s gonna re-group and re-take the MCAT in the spring.</p>
<p>Her reasons for considering a Mexican med school…her longtime, very serious BF/fiance (2+ years) is a Mexican med student in his final year of clinical training.</p>
<p>Is her fiance Mexican and attending med school in his home country, or is he American and going to med school in Mexico? As far as I can tell, the two situations are completely different, and I hope she realizes that too!</p>
<p>Does he plan on practicing in the US? Would she like to?</p>
<p>Seems like the consensus is, if the goal is to practice in the US, go US MD or US DO wayyyy before deciding to go to school in another country.</p>
<p>Fiance is Mexican national attending med school in his home country. </p>
<p>In an ideal world, they would like to practice together. They would prefer the US, but if that doesn’t work out…he’s well placed to have a successful and lucrative practice in his home country. His family would welcome his gringa GF as an addition both to the family and to the family biz.</p>
<p>How about a 11BS/11PS/7V 29Q with about 3.7 sgpa and 3.6 cgpa at top 25 LAC, varsity athlete first two years, published after research with surgeon on staff at IS medical school (also a LOR), EMT, entire summer (50 hour per week) shadowing OOS surgeon while also volunteering as EMT in emergency room. Other volunteer ECs. Received mid-october interview at highly ranked IS medical school. Thoughts…will 7 be a deal breaker ? interviewing/social skills are strong point for this person.</p>
<p>^ I’ve heard (and truly believe, perhaps because I want to) that once you get to the interview stage, you’re academically qualified to attend that school and “all” they’re looking for is whether you’re the best fit for that program. After all, there just aren’t enough interview spots to waste them on students who aren’t academically qualified and will later be cut based on numbers, right? I know that’s the way my school works and that’s what I was told at other interviews. The question then becomes, “How well did my interview really go?” and I think that question is nearly impossible to answer because you can never know truly what they’re looking for.</p>
<p>I have friends who seemed like natural and perfect fits for my school get rejected; I’ve seen friends who I think have the personality of a wet noodle get accepted early; it’s just too hard to tell.</p>
<p>So I’d say…at this point, I doubt the MCAT is what’s keeping you back–but in no way does that mean you’ll surely be accepted (because, let’s face it, not all interviews lead to acceptances).</p>