MCAT weighting in admissions

[flamesfan]

helloo

 

i am in an IP student who will graduate next year with BSc honours. anyways i am at a loss as to whether to rewrite or not for the mcat. i am sitting at a 33N balanced score 10 11 12 v, p, b respectively.

 

Should i really go through the pain of rewriting?

 

grades are decent the ontario conversion isnt favourable but about 3.8-3.85 when converted to u of c.

 

advice appreciated

[xone]

i would not rewrite, atleast not for the sake of your uofa score. 33N is a fine score, especially when complemented with a gpa like the one you have. worry more about improving your extracurriculars/volunteering/leadership stuff. It seems like you got the grades.

[xone]

*unless ofcourse you think you can do better for sure. then by all means do so.

 

But I'd rather see you spend your time doing some research or working in a kids camp or something, because I think this will do more for your application and interview, which i suspect you should be able to get with grades like that.

[Jamer]

You know my opinion. U of A ranks the MCAT 15% raw score and 5% WS.

 

With your stats I think you'd probably get in regardless, but I know you're capable of getting >N. Almost every Canadian school takes your best MCAT score (Western comes to mind of one that does not). You just might end up getting pwned by American schools for whatever reason but as it stands, you're inelligible to get interviews at almost every school that has mildly strict MCAT cutoffs (Queens, Western, Dal)

 

Edit: And on that note, look at the way U of C and U of A (the 2 major schools you'd be applying to) formulate their applications.

 

U of C's MCAT conversion:

42 and over = 15 points (maximum)

40-41 = 14 points

38-39 = 13 points

36-37 = 12 points

34-35 = 11 points

32-33 = 10 points

30-31 = 9 points

28-29 = 8 points

 

With Q/R = +1 point, OP= 0 point difference, M/N = -1 point.

 

As it stands right now, even a 32O is a better score at U of C and would be more or less equivilent at U of A. I think that's a very optainable score.

 

Bear in mind the MCAT is only worth 7.5% of the final application at U of C. It's 20% of U of A's though, which is a really decent portion of your application. You and I both know you're capable of better than an N so unless you're really set on going to the States (and really paranoid you're going to get <32), there's no reason not to rewrite. You can't even apply to Queen's/Western right now, places you'd have a really decent chance at. Worst comes to worst, you don't improve and you're exactly where you were before because although Western takes your most recent, you can't even apply their now anyway.

[Bestime]

Very useful, Jamer. Thanks