Wow thank you so much for such an informative post! I'm still debating on whether I should retake the MCATs
With a 20, you're dead in the water. You have to retake.
Also: there's one MCAT. There are no MCATs.
or not to be a better SMP candidate. I currently have a 3.3 from my undergrad at UCSC.
Go banana slugs!
I graduated 2 years ago and have been working as a research assistant, trying really hard to get a publication out from the lab I work at. I also work very closely with physicians that can potentially write me a good LOR. I took the MCATs last year and got a 20 (my workload is currently insane - at least 50-80 hours a week.. my PI is nuts!) so I wasn't able to study that well. I did take the GREs but got an 80th percentile in math but 48th percentile in verbal (english is not my native language and have moved to the US only about 7 years ago).
No blaming your PI and your workload when your actual problem is English. You're just going to have to make the MCAT your full time job and your first priority. You have to break 8 on each section to be taken seriously, and you have to break 31+ to have an above average MCAT. And yes, you need an above average MCAT to go with your sub-competitive GPA. Or you can look at DO schools.
Do you have US permanent residency? If not, then getting your green card is problem #1, and your MCAT is problem #2.
I've had about 4 years of research experience (2 from undergrad, 2 from current job) and I am currently managing one of the tissue banks at UCSF.
Awesome. If med school is your #1 goal, then you are above the bar for research. You can drop it in order to improve your MCAT and GPA.
I'm wondering which SMP will consider my 20 on the MCATs?
None of them will. Why? Because a good SMP isn't going to take a student that can't get into med school.
You should
not do an SMP until you're ready for med school. And you're
not ready for med school until you can conquer the MCAT.
In med school and thereafter, you have to take board exams. The verbal reasoning on board exams is considerably more difficult than on the MCAT. This is true whether you go MD or DO
or Carib. If you want to go to med school from a 3.3, you have to beat the MCAT.
I will be starting CSU east bay's academic enhancer track program in the winter but fear that it won't look as good as an SMP program.
In California that might be a tie (CSUEB vs. Loyola/Gtown/etc). The CSUEB program is more effective for MCAT prep. Doing MCAT prep during an SMP makes no sense - MCAT prep costs $1500, an SMP costs $50k. You have to be really ready before you take on an SMP courseload.
I assume people will hate on me for being harsh. I don't care. I don't do content-free encouragement. The above is the stuff you need to know if you want to go to med school.
Best of luck to you.