“Whatever gets me into Medical School!” “As high as possible!”
That’s definitely the ultimate goal, but how does that translate into an actual MCAT score. A lot of students I work with start out with black and white ideas of needing to cross some magic score threshold to have any chance at med school. However, each school’s requirements can vary greatly.
As with most things, hard and fast rules may not capture your unique situation. If you’d like to accurately gauge the score range you should aim for, you’ll need to consider at least two things first.
1) The specific requirements of the schools you are hoping to apply to
2) The strength (or weakness) of your other measurables (GPA, activities, research)
School Requirements
First off, make yourself a spreadsheet. This is where you’ll organize all of the data you’re collecting on each school. Trust me it will help you big time in visualizing and making sense of it all. Here’s a template you can use:
Some of you may already have a list of schools that you’re hoping to go to. For those that don’t, an excellent tool to use is something called MSAR from the AAMC.
MSAR is a database of all of the MD-granting medical schools in the country. You can sort it by location and type of school for free, and by median MCAT score and GPA if you purchase a $28 subscription.
Start with the state you live in, look over the list of schools and add them to your spreadsheet. If you don’t want to purchase full access, you can find their MCAT medians and averages for free by going to each school’s admissions website.
Fill in the MCAT & GPA ranges accepted (low – median – high), the most recent year’s class size and tuition cost for each school.
Check out the MCAT ranges for your top schools. This will start to give you a rough idea of the score you’ll want be shooting for. To get an even clearer idea we need to consider your specific situation.
The Strength (or Weakness) of your Other Measurables
The strength of the rest of your application can significantly affect the MCAT score you’ll need to cross a school’s threshold for acceptance.
If the other aspects of your application are less impressive than the average applicant, then you’ll want to strive for an MCAT score above the median of the school you are applying to.
For example, if the school you are applying to has a median GPA of 3.7 and yours is 3.5, then you’ll want to strive for an MCAT score a couple points higher (or more) than the median.
Consider the other parts of your application including research experience, volunteer activities and awards. Are you more involved than most of your peers? Then you may still be competitive with a below median MCAT score.
If you’re still unsure after taking these steps, feel free to send over an email and we can schedule a phone call to discuss your specifics free of charge.
What now?
Now that you have a goal in mind, the question becomes how to get there. Check out my post on “How Many Months Should I Study for the MCAT?” to get a rough idea of what you are getting yourself into.
If you find that your overwhelmed with where to begin or that your goal score is still elusive after months of trying it on your own, enlisting the help of an experienced tutor is great step toward ensuring you reach your highest score potential. Not only will a tutor make sure you are using proven best practices in your prep, but they can also diagnose and expose blind spots that may otherwise lead to disappointment on test day, and tailor your preparation to your specific weak areas and goal requirements.
Click here to learn more about receiving MCAT Tutoring with me. The first session is totally free. No commitments required.
Congratulations on having a clear goal on what you’re trying to achieve! It may seem overwhelming, but believe it or not you’ve already taken a HUGE step toward reaching it. Best of luck, and please don’t hesitate reach out if you’re looking for assurance or advice on which path to take to get there.
What’s your goal range? How does it feel to see it? Is it overwhelming? Does it feel attainable? Let me know in the comments below. And as always, feel free to ask any questions at all.
Paul
Summit the Score
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