MCATs and taking a break?

Pre-Med & Medical School Pre-Med Topics
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<p>Hi everybody,</p>

<p>First, here is some background info about me and my situation. If you don't feel like reading it all (I don't blame you), just skip down below to my real question. I am a high school student taking college classes at my community college, and plan on graduating high school with my AA degree in 2012. I plan on studying two semesters at a university right after high school, and then take a two year break from school to serve as a missionary for my church. I still am not sure what I want to pursue, but am thinking of Dental, Optometry, or MD. I understand that for all of these, there is a test one must take (MCAT, etc.). </p>

<p>So here is my question: Would it be best to take the MCAT/DAT/OAT (still not sure which) at the end of my junior year before taking the two year break? My main concern with this is will the test score "go bad" sitting there for two years? Or would it be best to take the test when I return from the two year break, and hope to remember all the material from before the break? </p>

<p>Thanks in advance to anybody who can help out :)</p>

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<p>scores expire after 3 years, so take it after your break.</p>

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<p>after the break, scores expire after 3 years.</p>

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<p>After the break. Take a prep class after you return but before you sit for your exam. Plan on spending 6+ weeks in intensive preparation.</p>

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<p>Alright, thanks for the responses. But I don’t understand, if the score lasts for 3 years, and I’ll only be gone for 2, wouldn’t it be best to take the test right before I leave? There would still be almost a year left for the score when I come home.</p>

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<p>But what if you don’t get in round one? You won’t be ready to apply for round two. A statiscally significant number of applicants are re-applicants. As a veteran motorcycle rider who always wears full protective gear, I’ll tell you why. You dress for the crash, not for the ride. ;)</p>

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<p>Thanks for that, curmudgeon. Would there be a downside to taking it before the break, and if I don’t get accepted into round one, to study and take it again after break? Would I lose time doing this? How long are these rounds? Is it tougher to get into round 1 than round 2? Obviously, I don’t know very much about MCATs and the application process, etc :)</p>

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<p>Sorry. By round one (and round two), I mean an entire application season. IOW, if you apply and don’t get in one year, you need to be ready to go the next year. Let’s say a student applies to 20 schools, gets 5 interviews, 3 rejects and two waitlists. Stays on the waitlists into June (and sometimes later). If the score expires, she won’t be ready to apply for the next app season and now we have an un-intentional gap year.</p>

<p>And no. I think it’s tougher for a re-applicant. If applying to the same school, they expect your application to have improved.</p>

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<p>I have no idea how much you know about medical school or how competitive an applicant you are. When I was in your shoes, I knew next to nothing about medical school and believed I was a competitive applicant (after all, I had been for everything else). </p>

<p>I would dismiss numbers like Curm just threw out–20 apps, 5 interviews, 3 rejects, 2 waitlists–as some belonging to a less-competitive applicant than I perceived myself to be, but now (having gone through this process myself!) I realize that the breakdown he just mentioned is extremely likely even for pretty competitive applicants.</p>

<p>Getting into med school is ridiculously challenging, and you probably won’t be able to understand that until you’re applying (which is totally fine, in my opinion). Taking the MCAT, letting the score sit for a few years, applying, and then perhaps having to take it again (should you not get in) just sounds absolutely miserable to me–the test itself is pretty daunting (doesn’t compare to ACT or SAT), the preparation takes lots of time, and the application process is exhausting. Do whatever you can to maximize your options and opportunities–and in this instance, that seems like waiting to take the MCAT until a year before you apply :)</p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

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<p>i just realized you might have to take the new mcat if you take it after the break</p>

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<p>Thanks for the info everybody. kristin5792, you’re right, I don’t know very much about the MCAT, medical school, etc. But I think I’ll just get the best grades I can, and worry about that jazz (taking MCAT, applying, etc.) when I come back from the break. You said “I knew next to nothing about medical school and believed I was a competitive applicant (after all, I had been for everything else).” Can you expound on that? If you don’t mind me asking, what were your stats like? And were you accepted into the medical school you wanted? I wonder if I am in the same boat. I am competitive compared to other students, but it sounds like medical school is more challenging than I had anticipated. And bigreddawgie, how different is the new MCAT compared to the current one? </p>

<p>P.S. I am new to this forum, could somebody tell me how to quote somebody else’s post into my post? Thanks</p>

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<p>haha i dont even know how to quote someone. there doesnt seem to be an easy button to press like other forums.</p>

<p>the new mcat is going to be completely different from the current one. more subjects like biochem, mol cell, no writing and less physics and ochem</p>

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<p>Removing the space character right after both “[” below:</p>

<p>[ quote] the quoted message [ /quote]</p>

<p>you will get:</p>

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<p>testing 123</p>

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<p>Oh, crap. mcat2. We had something the youngsters couldn’t do. Now you’ve gone and spoiled that for us. What have we got left? Growing ear hair? Episodic incontinence? Now don’t be teaching them those, too. ;)</p>

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<p>The sad fact is: I originally learned this trick from a high schooler here, who is at least 30 years younger than me.</p>

<p>I think we are still better than most of these youngsters in dealing with the taxman.They can not take this hard-earned experience from us easily! Most likely, most of them show very little interest in learning this from us so we may be stuck with this tax reporting task for many years to come.</p>

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<p>Since I knew nothing about medical school admissions, I assumed they were like high school (yes, I had to apply to my high school–private) admissions, college admissions, winning scholarships, etc. I got into one of the most academically rigorous high schools in my area. I was 5/5 on college admissions. I pay very little for school because I have a nice array of merit awards. I’m used to getting into the schools I apply to, and assumed medical school would be the same way. Well…I was wrong!</p>

<p>I figured the MCAT would be like a difficult ACT (after all, the ACT was like a difficult standardized test I’d taken in grade school). I did great on standardized tests when I was little–rarely falling below 96%ile–and got a 32 on the ACT (in '06 when I took it, that was 99%ile). Wrong again!</p>

<p>What I failed to realize is how different the pools of students are, which is basically what I attribute the competitiveness to. When you’re taking standardized tests in grade school and high school, it’s relatively easy for a bright kid to score in the upper 90s %ile. Think about it–it’s basically saying “You scored better than about 90% of the kids taking this test,” and all the kids in the nation practically are taking this test. Makes sense that if you’re the brightest in your class, that will be reflected in your score. But when you’re taking a standardized test like the MCAT, you’re competing against the brightest kids in your challenging premed classes from a huge range of colleges. By the time you get to the point of taking the MCAT, many people have been weeded out anyway. So getting a top score is much more challenging (because the scores are scaled, which is sort of like weighing them but not quite) because the pool is just insanely competitive. I think my score put me in like, the 84%ile or something, which is by far the worst overall score I’ve ever gotten on a standardized test.</p>

<p>Same goes for admissions. What I failed to realize when I began applying was that this is FAR from your average pool of applicants. Sure there’s some variation, but I’d argue that by and large, most of the applicants are reasonably competitive. In order to even get to the point of applying, one has to at least complete all the prereqs and take the MCAT (and prepare for it). By that point, many have self-selected out. In order to be a competitive applicant, one has to have completed a wide range of extracurriculars, leadership, research, volunteering, etc. And that same person will have to have found people to write recommendation letters and have spent a lot of time writing essays. Additionally, applying to these schools, taking the MCAT, etc all carry pretty hefty price tags. All of the elements of this paragraph require a huge commitment of time, energy, and resources by the applicant, and I just can’t believe that people who are not at least reasonably competitive applicants would even bother continuing with the application process. </p>

<p>So it’s not like “just anyone” applies to medical school, and consequently, the competition for a spot in a medical school is wayyy more intense than I realized.
So by the end of it, you’re left with a pretty well-qualified and very competitive group.</p>

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<p>Look through the 2010-2011 Applicants thread, my stats and extracurriculars are all over that (I believe I began posting in July…) Briefly: 3.8 (rigorous courseload)/30 (balanced), a boatload of clinical experience, both clinical and bench research (breast and prostate cancer, respectively), a boatload of leadership, a boatload of service, studied abroad, part time job tutoring, started a nonprofit, have a nice collection of awards from my school. I’m reasonably sure my resume/extracurriculars are to thank for my success in this process.</p>

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<p>Absolutely, I’m thrilled. I interviewed at Missouri, Northwestern, Mayo Clinic, and Duke. I was accepted to (and will be attending) Missouri. I was rejected from Northwestern and am currently on the alternate lists at Mayo and Duke. Don’t know what I’ll do if I get into one of them, but I’ll deal with that if the time comes :)</p>