So I think about the future a lot. I am a rising high school Junior and I am in the process of completing my associates degree in science, i am also completing some of my Prerequisites for med school, but will complete the rest in college (physics, ochem). I plan on going to UNC-CH, I am an in-state student btw. I was wondering that i may not get into Med School for many reasons since it is super tough to get into. I was thinking of going into the Gillings School of global public health as a plan b before med school. My question is am i able to complete my MCAT after my masters? or should i take the MCAT and the GRE during my college years, if so, when is a good time to study and take them.
THANK YOU IN ADVANCE.
Your MCAT score expires after 2-3 years for most schools, so most people take the MCAT the year of their first application cycle. For example, if you wanted to directly enter med school upon graduating from college, you would most likely take the MCAT the winter/spring of your junior year, since you would apply during the summer following junior year, and then receive decisions in the spring of senior year.
Yes, you can complete your MCAT after your master’s degree-- you can actually complete it pretty much whenever, I think, as long as you apply to med school within 3 years. However, as someone who just took the MCAT myself, it’ll probably be a much bigger pain in the butt to take it a couple years out from all your basic science classes. A quick Google search will show you the details, but to do well on the MCAT, you need to have a good working knowledge of a lot of general chemistry, organic chemistry, biology/biochemistry, physics, sociology, and psychology. Studying for the exam takes months of intensive work for most people, and different folks decide to tackle this in different ways. I have friends who dedicated their entire summer between sophomore/junior or junior/senior year to studying anywhere from 5-8 hours per day. That’s probably a bit on the overkill side, but you get the idea. I personally studied for the MCAT during the spring semester of my junior year and took the test a week before my final exams… I definitely wouldn’t recommend that! Very often, people will also study “moderately” (a few hours per week) during the fall semester of sophomore/junior year, cram obsessively over their winter break, and take the exam in January just before classes start back up. Basically, there is no good or convenient time to study for the MCAT; whether you’re working, volunteering, or in undergrad or graduate school, you will always be busy, and it will always be grueling work. I imagine the situation is similar if you take the GRE. So in terms of when to take it, you just have to decide what study schedule you think would suit you best and commit to it. With that said, I can promise you that the parts of the MCAT that were the easiest for me to study were the ones I had just learned; I had pretty much forgotten general chemistry and had to re-teach it to myself, which was painful, and I can’t imagine it would be any fun doing that for every single MCAT topic at the end of your graduate career. So this is my long-winded way of saying you should probably plan to take the MCAT during undergrad if you can. At maximum, maybe plan to take it within a year of graduating from undergrad. Hope that helped!
Some comments. I’ve taught University physics and the topics list for the MCAT is quite intimidating. It’s wider than physics with Calculus. In fact, looking at it I wonder, did I teach all of that? The thing is a lot of information about it is now kind of behind subscription firewalls. Princeton Review seams to be kicking Kaplan’s butt. It’s $3000 for test prep online.
Old threads should be used for research but should not be needlessly revived. The OP has nor been seen for 2 years. Closing thread.