Chances? And do I retake MCAT?

[wildpotato]

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[clever_smart_boy_like_me]

1 hour ago, wildpotato said:

Hi all, 

I'm a 4th-year Canadian applicant going to school at UBC. 

I applied to UBC this year, despite my gpa being on the lower end and received these stats (and also, needless to say...no invitation lol): 

Overall Grade Point Average	81.89
AQ Score	17.43
NAQ Score	23.98
TFR Score	41.42

I am graduating this year, however, and will be applying with an adjusted GPA of 88.26% to UBC next cycle. If I were applying with these grades instead of my 81.88%, I would have reached the 51.67 threshold for an interview by 0.11 points (which is not amazing, but man, would it have been something for me). I'm obviously really hoping to improve my NAQ still and I think I have a better shot at an increase as I started a lot more EC's this year working with various marginalized populations, took on a President role in a club, and also continued with my current EC's. What destroys me though, is that I think UBC may be my only shot at practicing medicine in Canada (which I'm okay with but I don't want to put all my eggs in one basket), but even then my MCAT score is a little bit on the lower side: 508 (128/125/128/127) which may really shoot me down post-interview. 

Without any adjustments, I'll have a gpa of 84.8% after graduating which I don't think will be adjusted for any other school as I haven't taken 30 credits every year (or for two years like Queens wants?). Can someone correct me if I'm wrong? My credits + years follow like so: 

First year: 26
Second year: 24
Third year: 27
Fourth year: 30

(I haven't included credits taken during summer sessions). 

All this rambling brings me to my question: 

Should I be sacrificing another summer to retake the MCAT? I'm just afraid of somehow doing worse and am not sure whether Canadian uni's take our most recent MCAT or the highest one? Or should I just stick with UBC for another cycle and hope for the best? 

Help and thoughts would be definitely be appreciated! 

Hey, 

I don't think Queen's needs 30. They count 3 courses per term as full. What is your most recent 2 years with min 3 classes per term gpa? Might have a shot at Queen's. 

For UBC, it's good your aGPA will be higher, ~88 is decent. And if you add more ECs and word them better you might be able to score an interview.

I'm not sure about the MCAT so can't speak to it. But definitely re-apply seeing as how you will have a better gpa to work with. Look into Queen's again. 

[Butterfly_]

If you get your cars score up then you would also have a chance at McMaster.

I also had a 508 on my MCAT and received an interview at UBC this year; however, it is on the lower end.  If you could increase it, it would give you a better chance of acceptance as post acceptance stats have an average 511~.

Definitely try to strengthen your ECs as much as you can. It’ll be the factor that will improve your post interview chances if you choose to keep the same MCAT score.

Good Luck!!

[frenchpress]

Pre-interview the score doesn’t matter at all as long as you meet the cutoff. Post-interview, how the MCAT is used is a bit of a mystery. There are several people in my year that I know with scores similar to yours or lower. But they did tend to have strong applications in other areas (i.e. a really high GPA, or older with a lot of other experience). So hard to say.  Average post-acceptance stats for the last couple years have been 513-515, whereas the rejected averages the last two years have been ~510-511

I totally sympathize with the idea of having to spend another summer studying for the MCAT. That was the thing that caused me the MOST stress when I was waiting to find out if I got in, because the idea of writing it again was awful. 

Perhaps the biggest thing to keep in mind is that it’s probably easiest to rewrite it now, than in a year or two when you’ve forgotten everything? If you don’t get in next year and then decide you really want to rewrite it, it may be a lot more painful than if you do it this summer, especially if you can dedicate a lot of time to it this summer. I was working full-time when I studied for the MCAT, and it was rough. UBC will use your highest score, not the most recent (and I think most other schools do as well, but I am not 100% sure on that). 

[heyhellohi]

19 hours ago, wildpotato said:

Hi all, 

I'm a 4th-year Canadian applicant going to school at UBC. 

I applied to UBC this year, despite my gpa being on the lower end and received these stats (and also, needless to say...no invitation lol): 

Overall Grade Point Average	81.89
AQ Score	17.43
NAQ Score	23.99
TFR Score	41.42

I am graduating this year, however, and will be applying with an adjusted GPA of 88.26% to UBC next cycle. If I were applying with these grades instead of my 81.88%, I would have reached the 51.67 threshold for an interview by 0.11 points (which is not amazing, but man, would it have been something for me). I'm obviously really hoping to improve my NAQ still and I think I have a better shot at an increase as I started a lot more EC's this year working with various marginalized populations, took on a President role in a club, and also continued with my current EC's. What destroys me though, is that I think UBC may be my only shot at practicing medicine in Canada (which I'm okay with but I don't want to put all my eggs in one basket), but even then my MCAT score is a little bit on the lower side: 508 (128/125/128/127) which may really shoot me down post-interview. 

Without any adjustments, I'll have a gpa of 84.8% after graduating which I don't think will be adjusted for any other school as I haven't taken 30 credits every year (or for two years like Queens wants?). Can someone correct me if I'm wrong? My credits + years follow like so: 

First year: 26
Second year: 24
Third year: 27
Fourth year: 30

(I haven't included credits taken during summer sessions). 

All this rambling brings me to my question: 

Should I be sacrificing another summer to retake the MCAT? I'm just afraid of somehow doing worse and am not sure whether Canadian uni's take our most recent MCAT or the highest one? Or should I just stick with UBC for another cycle and hope for the best? 

Help and thoughts would be definitely be appreciated! 

Pre-interview: the MCAT plays no role in your score.
Post-interview: from what I know, apparently the MCAT does not greatly impact your score (do not take this for a fact though). People do get in with lower scores by compensating in other areas of their application. So a "low" MCAT score is by no means a deal breaker, especially if you're in province.   

I would recommend against re-writing the MCAT considering how much work goes into it.  Instead, devote that MCAT-studying time towards an activity or a job.  I think those will serve you better (in and out of the application!).

[frenchpress]

5 hours ago, pekingduck said:

Does anyone know if they look at the overall MCAT score or do they also consider individual section scores

Nope, they won’t give any information on how it’s used, or if they care more about some sections than others. Only that higher is better.

[clever_smart_boy_like_me]

On 3/27/2018 at 6:51 AM, Butterfly_ said:

If you get your cars score up then you would also have a chance at McMaster.

I also had a 508 on my MCAT and received an interview at UBC this year; however, it is on the lower end.  If you could increase it, it would give you a better chance of acceptance as post acceptance stats have an average 511~.

Definitely try to strengthen your ECs as much as you can. It’ll be the factor that will improve your post interview chances if you choose to keep the same MCAT score.

Good Luck!!

What is a good set of stats for OOP for McMaster and what is the CARS they need? Do they have a weighted gpa formula at all? 

[GITG]

All the stats/ admissions criteria are on their website. But I am assuming you have checked those? There is no GPA adjustment and OOP has 10% quota. you need, on average, around 3.85, 129 CARS, decent Casper and interview to get in. So for OOP think above those numbers.

[Butterfly_]

1 hour ago, clever_smart_boy_like_me said:

What is a good set of stats for OOP for McMaster and what is the CARS they need? Do they have a weighted gpa formula at all? 

 

43 minutes ago, GITG said:

All the stats/ admissions criteria are on their website. But I am assuming you have checked those? There is no GPA adjustment and OOP has 10% quota. you need, on average, around 3.85, 129 CARS, decent Casper and interview to get in. So for OOP think above those numbers.

For your reference my stats were 3.87 and 129 CARs. I got an interview at McMaster.

Hope that helps!

[wildpotato]

Hey guys,

I just want to thank you so much for all your replies and input! I've been feeling especially down and overwhelmed these past two weeks and so I appreciate the direction so much. 

I think as of now, I'm leaning towards rewriting the MCAT in July, although I am truly dreading it already. I really just don't want to take another chance and potentially throw away another year. I think it'll help in opening a lot more options up for me as well, which is always good, right?! 

34 minutes ago, Butterfly_ said:

 

For your reference my stats were 3.87 and 129 CARs. I got an interview at McMaster.

Hope that helps!

Question about % to gpa: I'm familiar with the omsas gpa table, but how (and this might be an unbelievably stupid question) do you convert a percent that isn't a whole number (and therefore, not specified exactly on the table) into the 4 point grade scale? For example, like I mentioned, without any adjustments my gpa will be around 84.8%. So a little higher than 3.7, but lower than 3.9? 

[clever_smart_boy_like_me]

You have to do it class by class...