<p>Her 30 is balanced 9 ,10,11. The only reason she wants to retake is to be a competent applicant for schools like case, northwestern, NYU, Mayo etc. Since she has a guaranteed admission to the BS/MD, she is not looking at any other State schools.</p>
<p>Somemom, she is looking at lower cost than her BS/MD(59,000 for out of state). Since she is well rounded and has significant ECs, she will be a competent applicant to top 20 if she achieves higher MCAT. She usually interviews well with her down to earth attitude.</p>
<p>Will private schools in other places be lower cost? It sounds like some schools give some grant/scholarship aid, we have seen everything from no aid to a few thousand dollars to half or full tuition posted on this board. But to whom are they giving that aid? Would you DD be in that category?</p>
<p>*Since she has a guaranteed admission to the BS/MD, she is not looking at any other State schools. *</p>
<p>???</p>
<p>Since her guaranteed admissions is to a pricey OOS public, why not apply to an instate public or two? Unless, money is no object to you. </p>
<p>Anyway…I agree with Kristin…dangerous to retake.</p>
<p>somemom, privates cost between 42,000 to 47,000 much cheaper than her BS/MD school. She has looked in to our state med school and does not fit in with her academic goals in terms of clinical and research experience and curriculum.</p>
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<p>For what it’s worth, I had an identical MCAT score, and interviewed at both Northwestern and Mayo. At both those schools, they told me that once I got to the interview stage, my GPA and MCAT had proven sufficient and were no longer factors in decisions. So I don’t think the MCAT would keep her out.</p>
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<p>From my experience, I don’t know how true that is. I don’t know if high MCAT is the key to an elite school because (unless they were lying to me, which they could very well have been) each elite school I interviewed at mentioned a few times that once you get to the interview stage, you’ve proven yourself through GPA and MCAT and those are no longer factors. (Then again, I don’t know the MCAT scores of other interviewees–perhaps they were all mid-30s, and I was the oddball with the low score.) I think the key for elite schools is getting your foot in the door, and from there, really clicking with your interviewer–which can be challenging to do, even for the most competent interviewers/cool as a cucumber kids. </p>
<p>Truthfully, having just gone through this process, I don’t think the MCAT is worth worrying about at this stage, given the other components of her candidacy. I considered retaking it–after all, getting a 30 when your practice tests were 33s and 34s consistently is a huge ego blow–but eventually decided that proving my test taking ability to myself was not worth the gamble of applying 6 weeks later. </p>
<p>I didn’t apply as intelligently as I could have, looking back. I didn’t submit AMCAS until mid-July, didn’t have my committee interview until the end of August, and wasn’t complete in terms of secondaries until mid-September. Had I finished AMCAS in June and finished secondaries over the summer, I might have had more interviews or earlier interviews and may have picked up more acceptances (all water under the bridge now though).</p>
<p>If she’s really looking into elite schools–and most of the ones you listed are considered elite–applying early is crucial, and I think that was a big mistake for me. </p>
<p>So let’s say the earlier you apply, the more likely you are to be accepted to an elite school (I would bet a lot of money that this is the case), a school that doesn’t care about your MCAT and GPA after you meet a certain threshold (which for Mayo and Northwestern, could be 30, as I was interviewed). Would a few MCAT points be worth applying considerably later? I would argue for quite some time that it would not be, given the rest of your candidacy is very strong. </p>
<p>I think time is a much bigger factor than applicants realize. I thought I was just fine and borderline early applying in August and September–I mean, the deadlines aren’t until November, right? Turns out I was nowhere near early compared to many applicants applying to elite programs. If I could do it all over again, the only change I would make is applying earlier.</p>
<p>Could you give us any more details about the work she’s done as an undergrad? Think leadership, volunteer, clinical, shadowing, research, campus involvement to begin with.</p>
<p>*hop on over to the thread “Is a hook really necessary?” that was created…last week maybe. In it, I posted some details of other kids interviewing with me, and the depth of their experiences. If hers are in line with those, I think the case for keeping her 30 is even stronger.</p>
<p>I’m going to buck the trend here and advocate for a retake. If the only schools she’s applying to are top 20 schools and she has the BS/MD program as a backup, then she’s going to need better than a 30 in general. I know there are always exceptions and there are even a couple of exceptions on this forum. But, a 30 in general is not good enough for Pitt or Northwestern or Penn. </p>
<p>Now, retaking in July and having that delay the application is a bad idea. If she wants to retake, she needs to retake the MCAT earlier and still be able to send out her primary by the end of June.</p>
<p>kristin,these are some of her ECs.
She is a chapter founder and president of an international medical relief organization. The chapter grew to a 200 membership -They plan and organize events that will raise awareness and funds to help medically underserved areas of the world. She and some of the group members have travelled to 3 countries in central America and Africa with medical equipments and necessities in the last 3 years
I believe her hook is service. She is very passionate about it.</p>
<p>She serves the community by coordinating a large group of volunteers to tutor English, science , Math to the underserved children. She is also a tutor.
She is a chair of a health clinic at her school through which they promote health education.
She has been volunteering at the community hospitals for the last 3 years -neo natal unit and cancer care unit,ER unit- this was mandatory for her program
She has shadowed 11 different doctors in the last 3 years and one of them is her mentor who is an ER physician -This was mandatory for her program.
She has had paid Research assistant positions for the 3 summers(4 months each summer)-numerous conferences, presentations &posters. She is continuing last years research and there will be a publication soon. She will be a part of it. She also did research throughout school year for 8 months.</p>
<p>She has been a pianist at her church for the last 8 years. She has few awards and recognitions.
She is very much involved in the Honors college -As she is filling out AMCAS activites she realized she has lot more than 15. so she is trying to just fill out the most meaningful 15.</p>
<p>I thank all of you for taking the time to read and give valuable advice. She is submitting the primary in few days. She is working on the activities section and PS final draft.
Kristin, You are an amazing young lady with lots of wisdom and I believe life is going to present you wonderful experiences .</p>
<p>Thanks meddaughter! </p>
<p>And it sounds like your kiddo has a wonderfully deep and meaningful connection to service, which was a very popular topic for me at my interviews (I’m also pretty service-oriented, having also started a nonprofit that serves my community (not global…yet?)) Looks like she’s managed to meld leadership, service, campus involvement, and medical service all into a few big things–plus, it seems like her dedication is genuine (ie, not to make her resume look amazing) I bet she’ll be very popular!</p>
<p>I also had more than 15 things, so I got creative when grouping them to fit as many in as possible. So, for example, instead of listing a leadership position in my sorority and a leadership position with Greek Life as 2 things, I listed it as “Greek Life leadership positions” and then used the 700 characters to explain each of my positions. I also mentored for 4 different organizations–so again, wrote “Mentoring for various campus organizations” and then explained them, rather than eating up 4 spots with those activities.</p>
<p>Don’t skimp on the big ones though. I only combined small ones, and kept important ones (big leadership, shadowing docs, starting an organization, etc) individual. I think there’s a lot of strategizing when it comes to listing activities, and this method worked well for me!</p>
<p>*privates cost between 42,000 to 47,000 much cheaper than her BS/MD *</p>
<p>Cheaper per year??? or over 4 years? </p>
<p>Wow…I thought privates and OOS publics were about the same price…but I haven’t checked a bunch.</p>
<p>How much is her OOS MD?</p>
<p>Her OOD MD is about 59000 one of the highest in the country. We are looking at 15000x4=60,000. We will have to see how the application process play out for her. My instinct tells me she will have some wonderful surprises.</p>
<p>meddaughter,
I do not see much risk for your D. retaking MCAT. Here are few points from a parent of Med. School applicant who has applied out of bs/md.
- Most posters here do not take into account that she will have a spot at one Med. School no matter what, since she is in bs/md. Most likely she will do very well at her interviews since she has this confidence of having one spot. So, basically, she is in Med. School already, she just wants to have more choices.
- Whatever she gets second time around (for example, 36), she will not have exactly 36 she will have a combo of (30, 36).
- Costs of couple schools on your D. list, specifically, Case is about $50K and NwU is about $44K with cost rising by significant amount every year. Living in Cleveland is relatively cheap (depending what apartment your D. choose), living in Chacago is very expensive. My H. and I checked out many in person at both (not on-line, but visiting mahy apartments, we are very familiar with them.
- I would let your D. to decide herself, there is much less risk for her than regular route applicant. We have stayed away from influencing our own D’s decisions, while worrying sick about various aspects and specifically her driving to interviews (some of them with unwanted adventures). Then I told her many times do not ask us and do not consider cost. She has chosen the most expensive one on her list, so be it. I have calculated the total difference in cost between the cheapest at most expensive, and basically it is the cost of one car. We will keep our cars a bit longer and pray to have our jobs for the next 4 years. I was also glad that D. limited application cost to min (including all inteview travel and Second Looks travel), I do not see that it would change final outcome if she applied to more schools. But again it was entirely her decision, her alone, she did not listen to anybody.</p>
<p>Thank you so much Miami. I have the same sentiments. She is going to retake, but she is submitting the primary tomorrow. I will keep posting the outcome.</p>
<p>Miami is right, it is an entirely different consideration given that she is already guaranteed a spot and just trying to stretch for bigger & better options</p>
<p>parents are pressuring their kids too much about med school admissions; they need to calm down and let their kids enjoy their life</p>
<p>I really like that my parents are involved in this process. They’re not aware cc exists (and i’m not sure i’m about to alert them) but they’ve been a great resource in helping me figure out what schools to apply to, keeping me calm when I was freaking out the night before the MCAT, and reassuring me every step of the way that it’ll be all right.</p>
<p>And the parents on CC that’ve been hanging around since I started posting 3 years ago have been great too. </p>
<p>App update: submitted, applied to 17 schools, i have a really high mcat but ok GPA so i applied to a good mix of “safety” and “reach” schools, waiting on amcas to verify before I even think about secondaries (the essay prompts are available on SDN from last year). </p>
<p>One of my profs somehow lost my rec materials so I had to mail it all out to him again so it might be the end of the month or mid july before washu writes its committee letter.</p>
<p>I’m a little nervous about the schools I picked because I really of my GPA and this game is risky no matter how one plays it. And I spent a good month agonizing over my PS before I finally turned it in.</p>
<p>there is no such thing as a safety school when it comes to med school admissions</p>