Hey guys! Welcome to my blog and thanks for reading! If you have read my other posts and want to know more about my journey related to the MCAT and applying to medical school you are in the right place, enjoy!
The summer of 2016 is when I took the MCAT for the first time. For me this was the summer in between my junior and senior year of college. I studied for 3 months, all the while telling myself to put forth my absolute best effort that summer so I never had to take it again. Well, I did just that and was really proud of the score I achieved.
I entered college with an undecided major and did not have the “epiphany moment” of what I wanted to do with the rest of my life until halfway through my sophomore year. While I was able to find the necessary resources to be successful on my MCAT a year later, there was a lot I still didn’t know about the process of applying to medical school.
I only applied to five schools (late in the cycle), finished secondaries to four, and was lucky enough to receive an interview to one school. The spring of my senior year I interviewed at Case Western and fell in love. I grew up in Ohio, but had never been to Cleveland. I stayed with a host (a current medical student at Case) and she spent the day before my interview showing me around the city. The next morning, I spent the day interviewing and touring around the campus. Everyone there was so nice and my desire to start medical school was higher than ever.
Unfortunately, I was put on the wait-list and never got pulled off. So long story short, between then and last year when I was ready to apply again I learned that my MCAT score was considered expired for the majority of medical schools. The fact that your MCAT score only lasts 3 years (for most schools but not all, especially this cycle due to COVID) was definitely one of those details I was unaware of as a late-to-the-game premed.
Once I mentally decided to go all in a second time and commit to retaking the MCAT, there was no turning back. I went through the whole process all over again and halfway through I realized I had the chance to substantially increase my score. My first Next Step practice exam was higher than the score I got in 2016 and I still had 9 more practice exams planned before the real thing! From then on, I stopped complaining about the fact that I had to take it again and started to look at it as the perfect opportunity to make my application more competitive.
All that to say, everything about the process of applying to medical school is very long, complicated, and confusing. Especially, for all the non-traditional premeds that don’t even know where to begin and don’t have an advisor to lead them in the right direction. If you are in that boat, check out my other posts and comment if you have any questions about applying or taking the MCAT. I am no expert, but I am more than happy to provide you with the resources that most helped me! If you know others that could benefit from the tips I share in my posts, please let them know! I started this blog to share what I have learned along this process and help make it a little easier for other premeds.
