Is it even worth applying? Decent GPA and CARS but terrible MCAT overall

[calgaryallie]

Hey guys! I posted this earlier but in the wrong forum, hopefully someone here will be able to give me a sense of what I should do!

My undergrad is a BA with combined honours bio/french and my GPA calculated by UCAN is 3.85 not including my MSc grades because I am planning to apply to LiM and will very likely not be finished my MSc in time for this cycle anyway. This brings me to my first question as to whether this is reasonable? If I apply again next year my GPA will be calculated as 3.88 thanks to graduate courses. It is my understanding that I can't include my MSc grades since I won't be finished for the cut off date.

The main issue is my MCAT. I only scored a 498 BUT my CARS is 128 (family problems, didn;t really study - thanks to the BA I just happen to be a natural at CARS). Am I too screwed for the qualitative assessment of academic ability because of that low overall MCAT? Is it worth applying?

I think I have pretty okay ECs, I've done a lot for mental health (organized fundraiser, teach mental health in high schools, created mental health choir at my school, collaborating to have music mental health week at U of C next year),I also  have my own business as a piano teacher, worked as a caregiver for a woman with CP, grew up very rural and plan to include how this impacted me in my top 10. I've done several other volunteer and teaching roles as well. In addition to this I have a third author publication and a presentation at a conference. Again, this is something that will improve drastically by next cycle since I have two first author and one co-first papers in the works right now plus an acceptance to a good conference in the states for the fall.

 

Looking forward to any insight or suggestions! Thanks!

[ThatCanadianGuy]

100% apply! There are people in our class who scored less than you on the other sections and got in. Explain that you didn't study for the other sections in the portion of the application that let's you add extra information about your application. The only part of the application that is going to be hurt by your scores in the other sections is the "Global Assessment of Academic Merit" they will also look at your undergraduate courses, and masters courses (so hopefully them looking at your undergrad and masters courses will offset your poor score on the MCAT). This section is only worth 10% pre-interview score. 

TL;DR Apply!