MSWschnoodle Posted October 6, 2015 Report Share Posted October 6, 2015 I keep hearing that having a balanced MCAT is vitally important to life... but I'm curious how badly an unbalanced MCAT would hurt my chances? I scored a 508 (77th percentile) overall but was dramatically higher in 2 categories compared to the other 2. I only applied to U of C this year because I needed to know my MCAT before applying to U of A and applying as OOP to McMaster didn't really seem prudent as my GPA is not a 4.0 (and they get enough applications to wallpaper the entire university)CARS was a 131, so that should be OK for U of C in terms of the CARS weighted section... but I'm curious how much the fact that my MCAT is unbalanced will hurt my global academic score or how much it would hurt my chances at another institution if I applied to a wider range of places next year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freewheeler Posted October 7, 2015 Report Share Posted October 7, 2015 I'd say the most important thing is at least meeting if not exceeding the cutoffs of the schools you are applying to. Of course a high, balanced score is ideal but it isn't the end-all-be-all. I wouldn't worry about the global academic score as it is a fairly small part of the application. Whether an unbalanced score would hurt your chances at another institution depends on a) whether you meet that institution's cutoffs, b ) whether they evaluate the mcat as a threshold or more competitively and c) the competitiveness of the applicant pool Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheApiarist Posted October 7, 2015 Report Share Posted October 7, 2015 You're definitely golden for UofC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chronicconic Posted October 15, 2015 Report Share Posted October 15, 2015 Your 131 for CARS will essentially give you a top score for the MCAT section of the application (I'm extremely jealous ). You may lose some points for R1 (Academic Assessment), but I'd expect only a tiny loss since that category looks at not just your MCAT, but your academic history, etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bearpuppy Posted October 16, 2015 Report Share Posted October 16, 2015 I keep hearing that having a balanced MCAT is vitally important to life... but I'm curious how badly an unbalanced MCAT would hurt my chances? I scored a 508 (77th percentile) overall but was dramatically higher in 2 categories compared to the other 2. I only applied to U of C this year because I needed to know my MCAT before applying to U of A and applying as OOP to McMaster didn't really seem prudent as my GPA is not a 4.0 (and they get enough applications to wallpaper the entire university) CARS was a 131, so that should be OK for U of C in terms of the CARS weighted section... but I'm curious how much the fact that my MCAT is unbalanced will hurt my global academic score or how much it would hurt my chances at another institution if I applied to a wider range of places next year. I think part of the question here is HOW low your other scores are (agreed - for U of C it won't matter much). Are they lower than 125s? that could hurt substantially at schools that either have cut-offs or look at the entire exam. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maybenow Posted October 17, 2015 Report Share Posted October 17, 2015 I think part of the question here is HOW low your other scores are (agreed - for U of C it won't matter much). Are they lower than 125s? that could hurt substantially at schools that either have cut-offs or look at the entire exam. Is only a 125 considered low? I would've thought a score being 'low' for Canadian schools to be higher than that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bearpuppy Posted October 17, 2015 Report Share Posted October 17, 2015 Is only a 125 considered low? I would've thought a score being 'low' for Canadian schools to be higher than that. depends on the school to be honest. MCAT is much more valuable in the US than in Canada. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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