<p>Attending a state university
overall gpa: 3.80
science gpa: 3.73
mcat: 34 (V9, B13, P12) English isn't my first language
major: biology
minor: spanish</p>
<p>activities:
- ER volunteer ~1.5 yrs (8hours/week..with a 2 month gap)
- ER volunteer; childrens hospital (3hr/week for 2 months)
- research in biochemistry since freshman year (no publications, just 2 presentations)
- Shadowed a surgeon (40hrs/week for 3 weeks)
- intramural soccer for 3 semester (vice president of the indoor soccer club for a semester)
- energy group (I was involved in the water program where we gave information to students about how to conserve water)
- volunteered in a food bank for 8 months (3hrs/week)
- tutored organic chemistry for 2 semesters (got paid)
- lifeguard for 2 semesters (got paid)
- I will also do research in the summer of my junior year</p>
<p>If the goal is to get into a medical school of any kind, you need to retake anything lower than a 9 (e.g. 8 or lower). That advice is a few years old; even a 9 might be trouble nowadays.</p>
<p>I should add that that’s especially true for Verbal, which (for whatever reason) is the section that (or so I’m told) has the highest correlation with eventual medical school success.</p>
<p>NCG: What’s a mid-tier school? I was trying to figure out whether it’s a match for Case/Pitt/USC, and I think it’s a little weak for those programs, actually.</p>
<p>i know you guys are much more knowledgeable about this than I am since I just graduated high school…but my brother had a 12/11/8 breakdown with the 8 being in Verbal and he got into NYU medical school, which is a pretty good school (ranked just below Brown)…</p>
<p>BK: Yeah, I mentioned I don’t know much about Brown’s standards. By analogy, I don’t know much about NYU’s. The other thing is that your brother may have had other things going for him as well, which the OP doesn’t really seem to have.</p>
<p>Brown and Dartmouth are possibilities (heck if you have the dough why not apply to all of them. You wouldn’t be the first to make it with stats like this, but it wouldn’t be very likely. If you aren’t strapped for cash and are ok with filling out more secondaries). The problem, however, is that even though the OP isn’t super below the average applicant there in terms of stats, the classes are small (a big chunk of brown’s class is combined degree). This makes its pretty tough. </p>
<p>I agree that mid-tier is the way to go. Case is a maybe, NYU as well (average MCAT is about 34 and 33 respectively for the last incoming class, GPAs are traditionally low at both schools due to a lot of high MCAT/low GPA folks, especially non-trads with Case). Pitt is a stretch but possible. UVA and Emory should be considered possibilities to apply to, and of course your in state schools. Where are you from OP, and what part of the country would you like to attend (I’m guessing east coast)? Most of the schools I have talked about are the high end of your application. You need some less competitive schools as well. Some of the NY schools perhaps. If you are going to apply to a lot of top 30 schools, you should definitely balance it out with an equal number of lower tier ones. Maybe shoot for about 15-20 schools total.</p>
<p>The reason why an 8 is considered to be the lowest acceptable Verbal score is because of fear that you will not be able to pass your board examinations with anything lower (interesting bit of trivia, Biological Sciences has the highest correlation to Step 1 score, but its a weak one. I don’t know how strong the VR to board success correlation is). An ideal application would be something with 32+ wouldn’t have anything below a 10 in order to have balance.</p>
<p>Is it possible that OP is an URM? If yes, will this hook possibly compensate for the somewhat below-average (for matriculants to above average medical schools) MCAT score? I learned from this site at one time that being in a specific ethnic group could essentially give you at least 5 points boost in MCAT. With this amount of boost, OP’s 34 could be a competitive score. </p>
<p>I am not sure whether OP is an URM. But any chance thread should include this info – if OP is indeed an URM.</p>
<p>I do not know whether the following is true. It seems that public medical schools tend to give more boost due to a desirable URM status, as compared to competitive private medical schools. Also, this boost may be different depending on which state the applicant is in. California and Texas state medical schools may give more boost, due to the fact that there is a larger URM population in these two states.</p>
<p>It’s a good thought. If the OP is Hispanic, that might be worth something like five points. African-American status might be worth double that. My suspicion is that private schools pay somewhat more attention, but not sure.</p>
<p>u have a chance to get into med school. however, not the top ones. U NEED PUBLICATIONS! without publications, it’s not a big point for u to work in the research lab seriously. they don’t want lab techs… see if u can get a chance talk to ur PI and put ur name in some of their papers, maybe not the 2nd author, see if 3, 4th works… well it is still better than nothing. ur mcat is not bad actually. i know some ppl got in with lower than that. ur gpa is a killer tho… see if u can improve that to 3.9… or retake some of the classes u got B in.</p>
<p>This is incorrect. Publications are helpful, but not mandatory, even at top-ranked research schools. It is also not true that lab experience is worthless without publication.</p>
<p>Retakes don’t help, since the old grade will still show up on AMCAS and be counted, so that’s just an embarrassment. Retaking a B is a sure sign of either gamesmanship or neuroticism and would be a major red flag.</p>
<p>just imho, 3.8 gpa just isnot really enough for today’s “top” medical school program. i said it could be enough for regular med school… considering he/she did not have some stand out points mentioned in the background info… by retaking the course, u could BS some stuffs to the admins, i don’t know but i think anything would help in this case if he/she really wanted to go to med school. also a note, what class u got a B in? cause in my school the premed counselor told me get a B in foreign language is ok, but B in bio/chem is not acceptable. i came from cali, this is how school here ranks the student tho. but definitely not alot of top med school here either, cept UCSF.</p>
No! ABSOLUTELY NOT. The B will still show up, and it will be obvious that you are retaking a course very unwisely. The B will still count in your GPA, it will still show up, it will still be there. Retaking it – even if you get an A – is an embarrassing, neurotic thing to do. And getting another B would be a serious humiliation. Retaking a B is a MAJOR negative. Besides, most places won’t let you anyway.</p>
<p>
I got a C in organic chemistry and rest assured that you wouldn’t have any complaints about the six medical schools I got into.</p>
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Stanford and UCLA are both in the top 10. I don’t know what your standards are that you’re distinguishing #6 from #7 from #9.</p>
<p>Seriously, I don’t know where you are getting this information, but you need to stop listening to these people. You’ve made several points that were grossly erroneous.</p>
<p>Am I correct in assuming you were saying that in jest, that the OP’s MCAT would be like a 39 if Hispanic or 44 if AA?</p>
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<p>Wow, I have no point of reference for this, but isn’t six alot of acceptances? Is there any data showing the percentage of schools that applicants get accepted to?</p>