What should he do next?

Pre-Med & Medical School Pre-Med Topics
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<p>Okay, my buddy just got his MCAT score and it was a good 6 points below what he was expecting - he got a 32. Not awful, but for someone who got a 31 on his Kaplan diagnostic and hadn't scored less than a 38 on any practice test he took 2 weeks before his MCAT, it's not stellar. His breakdown was 13 verbal, 10 bio, 9 physics. Weird. </p>

<p>His BCMP(?) GPA is 3.47. Overall 3.67. Math major. </p>

<p>Dartmouth College.</p>

<p>His extracurriculars are strong - Did a year worth of healthcare research that culminated in an implementation trip to Vietnam. He even co-authored some papers on this that were authored by a former surgeon general. Was a tutor and started a Special Olympics mini-golf program for local athletes. Fraternity member. Played varsity sport for 2 years. </p>

<p>His recs are average I'd say. </p>

<p>His question is can he get interviews at a good medical school? He worries that a 9 physics 10 bio + 3.47 science GPA is a sign that he's just not good at science. I can attest that he is a hell of a smart dude (13 verbal) who just was focused on extra-curriculars in college, and was hoping to prove his aptitude on the MCATS. </p>

<p>Should he take the MCATs again if he thinks he can get a 38+, delaying his application another 1-2 months?</p>

<p>Should he just apply as is?</p>

<p>Year off? I don't see how that will help him out.</p>

<p>Thanks for your advice.</p>

<p>Note - I'm actually asking this on behalf of my friend. I know what you're thinking - that "my friend" is me. Well, he's not. If you still think he is, whatever. Just help me/my friend out. Thanks.</p>

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<p>Assuming he also has good clinical experience/shadowing, then the answers to your questions are: Yes. No. Yes. No.</p>

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<p>–If he’s really right that he can get a 38, that’ll help a lot – but test-day drops are an expected part of the process.
–However, delaying by another 2 months will be quite nearly fatal, bluntly. It would basically mandate a year off in between.</p>

<p>So if he’s sure he can jump by a lot, and if he’s willing to delay a year in order to do it, then I might recommend both those things. I do think a 9 will be a problem at a lot of schools, although I suspect he’ll get in somewhere.</p>

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<p>I’d say it depends on what he means by

If by “good” he means top 25 research schools, then …“not so much”.</p>

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<p>Yep - unless specified otherwise by the OP, I define a “good medical school” as “any US medical school” :D</p>

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<p>OP, pay attention to the latter part of this statement - it sounds like he thought he could get a 38 this time around, but that didn’t happen. Lots of people (I would say a majority) do not do as well on the real thing as they were on practice tests. Unless there was some major change between then and now (like he had really bad swine flu on the day of the last test), don’t retake. Otherwise, there is just as good a chance that he will do worse (which will be killer to his app).</p>

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<p>This is the other huge concern. He’s already a little late in the game for primaries, but I would say still go for it. 2 months more and its just not worth it.</p>