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Rejection thoughts and MCAT retake?


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Third rejection. Honestly in this moment I feel like giving up. I can’t stand the feeling of telling people I’m applying to medicine and constantly facing this wall.. beginning to feel like a broken record and I know people are judging me. :( I can’t see myself doing anything else but I feel like I’m never going to achieve this. I took a full year of classes this year and rocked them. That is basically the only way my application is better for next year, in addition to more hours on some of my existing activities. I’m not sure what to do next... I had a plan but now it seems stupid and this seems like an unattainable pipe dream. I don’t know if I should retake the MCAT? I got 511. I don’t want to spend the summer studying again. I just spent all year killing myself for my grades (which are awesome). What else can I do? 

I will post my stats in the accepted/rejected/waitlist thread, but also here...

 

Non-trad

IP

Avg interview

Naq ~32

Aq ~20

 

Congratulations to everyone receiving an acceptance/waitlist today.

 

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Hi there, I don't know what to say in this moment but I saw your previous posts and believe your motivation to persevere will come back after this understandable disappointment. I wanted to give you my perspective on your stats and hopefully encourage you to initiate a plan again. Your NAQ is great, and you say your marks for next year will be great too, so your TFR score is taken care of. Good job on that. If you're done school, you can focus on maintaining the level of ECs you had, and possibly include new employment. Since you won't have to deal with school again, you could dedicate the summer to retake the MCAT, since it seems that some people think that factor has some significant weight. It's not fun but it should be the last time in some time that you have to hit the books! Then, for the rest of the application cycle, work on improving your interview skills in any way possible! 

If I were you and wanted to pursue medicine, this would be my plan for next year. I know you might feel a bit resigned so I hope this helped in showing you a possible path. Best of luck and remember, you have achieved so much! 

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I do feel like MCAT does play a bigger role than many people would like to admit. They even explicitly say that higher MCAT does help post-interview on the admission website.

 

I think one question you have to ask yourself is, can you realistically do better on the MCAT? If you are confident that you can do better, I say do it if you can. I remember getting a 31 on the old MCAT but was absolutely sure I could do better based on practice results and a realistic evaluation of my own ability. Retaking the MCAT paid off very well for me in this case.

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I feel the same way...third rejection. There’s no possible way for my application to get better. I was waitlisted last year but it seems that I’ve taken a step backwards rather than forwards. I feel like med school is just going to be a dream. The only thing I can do is rewrite the MCAT.

AQ: 39

NAQ: 40

TFR: 79

IP

MCAT: 508

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3 minutes ago, Windcalibur said:

I do feel like MCAT does play a bigger role than many people would like to admit. They even explicitly say that higher MCAT does help post-interview on the admission website.

 

I think one question you have to ask yourself is, can you realistically do better on the MCAT? If you are confident that you can do better, I say do it if you can. I remember getting a 31 on the old MCAT but was absolutely sure I could do better based on practice results and a realistic evaluation of my own ability. Retaking the MCAT paid off very well for me in this case.

I havent looked at the mcat stuff since 2015 so I dont know. At the time I bailed on physics for time constraints and lucked out it wasnt really on my test. At this point I can only hope I could do better but I would need to properly assess by taking some practice q's and exams.

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I am sorry to hear about your rejection — I’ve seen through the forum how much effort you’ve been putting in the last couple years.

I would echo the advice that since your AQ and NAQ are in good shape, you may want to look at finding employment and maintaining EQs you enjoy. A backup plan is always good, but as a non trad, it also seems like pursuing work you find interesting is a good way to bolster your application for future years. Although that’s less helpful for this upcoming application year given the June deadline. But I know that having a job I really loved made it a lot easier to weather the long period of years that it took me to be able to apply and get in.

Your mcat does seem like one of the only things you could improve. How balanced is your mcat in terms of the individual sections? I have long wondered if there may be more weighting on some sections that others? Although I know the idea of retaking it must seem awful.

There is also some room for you to improve on your interview, so maybe that was the missing piece? And that’s certainly something you could work on for next year.

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6 minutes ago, medschooldreams said:

I feel the same way...third rejection. There’s no possible way for my application to get better. I was waitlisted last year but it seems that I’ve taken a step backwards rather than forwards. I feel like med school is just going to be a dream. The only thing I can do is rewrite the MCAT.

AQ: 39

NAQ: 40

TFR: 79

IP

MCAT: 508

1

Are you legit!? You're the second person I've seen in the forums today with an extremely high TFR score who's been rejected. I'm sorry about your rejection but don't you guys think that the way they are assessing applicants this cycle is a bit strange? The other guy literally was IP with a TFR > 70 (41 NAQ and 31 AQ), an above average interview, 512 MCAT, and good references...

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2 minutes ago, Coldery said:

Are you legit!? You're the second person I've seen in the forums today with an extremely high TFR score who's been rejected. I'm sorry about your rejection but don't you guys think that the way they are assessing applicants this cycle is a bit strange? The other guy literally was IP with a TFR > 70 (41 NAQ and 31 AQ), an above average interview, 512 MCAT, and good references...

I guess i forgot to mention I got a below average interview and a “low” MCAT. 

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24 minutes ago, clever_smart_boy_like_me said:

I've already pulled out all my mcat stuff.. Last date ubc accepts is Aug 25... no choice I guess really. Luckily my classes covered some of the material (bio, psych...).

I registered about a month ago and no dates were available for all of Western Canada on August 25. The latest one that was available was on August 10 in Victoria. Probably full too now? Look into registering for the MCAT ASAP. By ASAP I mean like right now.

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47 minutes ago, frenchpress said:

I am sorry to hear about your rejection — I’ve seen through the forum how much effort you’ve been putting in the last couple years.

I would echo the advice that since your AQ and NAQ are in good shape, you may want to look at finding employment and maintaining EQs you enjoy. A backup plan is always good, but as a non trad, it also seems like pursuing work you find interesting is a good way to bolster your application for future years. Although that’s less helpful for this upcoming application year given the June deadline. But I know that having a job I really loved made it a lot easier to weather the long period of years that it took me to be able to apply and get in.

Your mcat does seem like one of the only things you could improve. How balanced is your mcat in terms of the individual sections? I have long wondered if there may be more weighting on some sections that others? Although I know the idea of retaking it must seem awful.

There is also some room for you to improve on your interview, so maybe that was the missing piece? And that’s certainly something you could work on for next year.

Thank you.

My MCAT is very balanced so that's good. I'd love a 520+...

When I took the MCAT I had only slept for 2 hrs (sick pet) so maybe I can do better with more prep too. I'm just not sure I have it in me to do this again (study for the mcat, re-apply, etc.). I worked *so* hard this year to prep for this coming 2018/19 cycle in case I didnt get in and thought I'd have a break for the summer to relax and recover but I guess not. I'm just so tired of this process. :(

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8 minutes ago, Coldery said:

I registered about a month ago and no dates were available for all of Western Canada on August 25. The latest one that was available was on August 10 in Victoria. Probably full too now? Look into registering for the MCAT ASAP. By ASAP I mean like right now.

What about Seattle? Bellingham? I would travel. Ill go to Ontario or wherever for an aug 25 test. Ill check now. Thanks for the heads up.

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3 minutes ago, clever_smart_boy_like_me said:

Thank you.

My MCAT is very balanced so that's good. I'd love a 520+...

 When I took the MCAT I had only slept for 2 hrs (sick pet) so maybe I can do better with more prep too. I'm just not sure I have it in me to do this again (study for the mcat, re-apply, etc.). I worked *so* hard this year to prep for this coming 2018/19 cycle in case I didnt get in and thought I'd have a break for the summer to relax and recover but I guess not. I'm just so tired of this process. :(

 

2

 

3 minutes ago, clever_smart_boy_like_me said:

What about Seattle? Bellingham? I would travel. Ill go to Ontario or wherever for an aug 25 test. Ill check now. Thanks for the heads up.

 

1 minute ago, clever_smart_boy_like_me said:

Thank you for the link <3

No problem. The thing is that, apparently, Canadians cannot take US MCAT exams. Tried to sign up for an MCAT exam on Aug 25 in Nevada (LOL) but it wouldn't let me because I'm Canadian.

 

 

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1 minute ago, clever_smart_boy_like_me said:

It looks like I can order a test for Portland on the 18th... what happened when you tried to register for a USA one?

How far into the test registration process are you? I went as far as I possibly could but was denied or else I would be signed up for a later date right now... If you can sign up then let me know, I'll probably switch into that one too. I honestly need all of the time I can get. 

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10 minutes ago, Coldery said:

How far into the test registration process are you? I went as far as I possibly could but was denied or else I would be signed up for a later date right now... If you can sign up then let me know, I'll probably switch into that one too. I honestly need all of the time I can get. 

I got to the point where I could enter payment info.

Also, I just called them and was told canadians can test in usa.

I'm going to try again later. Looking at Aug 18 in Portland though I think. Getting overwhelmed by this atm tbh.

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17 minutes ago, clever_smart_boy_like_me said:

It looks like I can order a test for Portland on the 18th... what happened when you tried to register for a USA one?

If you can’t register now, or can’t get a date you like, keep checking. I ended up rescheduling my exam a couple years back because I had been overly optimistic and realized I needed more time to study. It took a few weeks of watching, but eventually someone cancelled and I was able to get in. It was still earlier than I wanted, but I decided the extra cost to switch later was still worth the few extra weeks of time. No guarantee someone will cancel before the date passes where you can’t cancel, but possible!

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1 minute ago, frenchpress said:

 

If you can’t register now, or can’t get a date you like, keep checking. I ended up rescheduling my exam a couple years back because I had been overly optimistic and realized I needed more time to study. It took a few weeks of watching, but eventually someone cancelled and I was able to get in. It was still earlier than I wanted, but I decided the extra cost to switch later was still worth the few extra weeks of time. No guarantee someone will cancel before the date passes where you can’t cancel, but possible!

The 18th isnt too bad. Just a week earlier and Portland isnt too bad... roadtrip! Or, with gas prices as they are, cheapish flight! Lol.

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Just now, clever_smart_boy_like_me said:

I just called them and was told canadians can test in usa.

I'm going to try again later. Looking at Aug 18 in Portland though I think. 

Hmmmm alright that's strange then... I specifically remember getting the popup that I couldn't register in US but thanks for the information! I may end up reconsidering my current MCAT date then? Either way, good luck!

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Just now, clever_smart_boy_like_me said:

The 18th isnt too bad. Just a week earlier and Portland isnt too bad... roadtrip! Or, with gas prices as they are, cheapish flight! Lol.

If you’re in vancouver you could also consider taking the train down the day before. You could actually study and might be a bit less exhausted.

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4 minutes ago, clever_smart_boy_like_me said:

Train?? Hmm!

Yeah, the Amtrak Cascades route! I’ve taken it many times for various trips in Washington and Oregon. It’s usually quite affordable, and frequently cheaper than the flight or gas when travelling alone.

It’s not glamorous by any means. And I have had a train to Seattle cancel on me once because of a mud slide, and I ended up needing to drive down instead. But it’s really nice to have that 8 hours to work / relax instead of having to drive and focus.

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