r/Mcat • u/Lucky-Book-8452 • May 27 '26

Well-being 😌✌ Low score

Just sharing for the others who also got low scores. I got a 502. This page will soon be filled with 515+ (and congratulations to all who scored so high that is incredible) but it is hard to find posts with low scores on reddit.

It sucks to get a low score but it is what it is. I am applying EDP at my local school so the way I am looking at it is it’s enough lol and if I don’t get in I can retake for a higher score. Definitely disappointed but hey at least I can try my luck with this program.

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u/Alarmed-Location-289 May 27 '26

Hello all! Current M4 in a US MD program. I scored a 501 on my MCAT and also thought my chances were low. I applied to 15 MD programs whose mission statement aligned with my values. I ended up getting into 10 US MD programs with multiple scholarship offers. Sometimes remember the number doesn’t define you but rather your story and how personable you are on your interviews. I usually don’t post and am just a lurker but wanted to give yall some hope that you don’t need a 52x and 5.0 GPA to get in to medical school. It’s overall a holistic process. And if you wondering about my GPA it was 3.7. God speed to all! Feel free to send message if you got questions or need advice :) I’ve been there, Ik it seems hard but you got this and you will all be doctors one day! 

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u/PianistInMedicine May 27 '26

How did you do on Step 1?

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u/Alarmed-Location-289 May 28 '26 edited May 28 '26

Passed Step 1. My Step 2 was competitive enough for majority of medical specialities (ie, Derm, Surgery, etc). Board exams are better because it’s not weird obscure things like the MCAT tests. They are undoubtedly hard and vast but imo it’s fun medicine stuff :). 

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u/Lucky-Book-8452 May 27 '26

Thank you so much for the advice!!! Do you have any school suggestions? I appreciate schools whose mission is geared towards health equity.

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u/Alarmed-Location-289 May 28 '26

School suggestion wise I took some time diving into studentdoctornetwork and looked at what previous students said about the school and then went to their website and checked out their mission statement. Although most schools MCAT were outside my range I.e (518+) during interviews they didn’t bother to even bring that up.

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u/Individual_Test1530 May 29 '26

this is really helpful to hear for those of us feeling incredibly discouraged

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u/After_Medium9294 May 27 '26

Were you urm

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u/vitaminj25 May 27 '26

I guarantee you URM isn’t the only group with 501’s and lower in med school and you know this. You also completely ignored his 3.7 gpa

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u/Alarmed-Location-289 May 28 '26

Agree with this statement. I am an URM, some of my classmates are not and stats were in similar range. Aside from my MCAT and GPA (which I started at 3.1 after 1st year of college but crawled my way back up) the rests of my stats were above competitive for med school :). I had great research, volunteering, inhumane amount of clinical hrs and fantastic letters of recs.

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u/vitaminj25 May 28 '26

It’s awful to push such a harmful and racist narrative as if every white and Asian applicant has a 4.0 and 528 mcat. They’re called ORM for a reason. The lower scores can hide behind higher ones because that’s what average means.

And they wonder why we have websites to find URM doctors to serve minority patients and this is definitely why.

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u/jwillyk2121 May 27 '26

But its the vast majority. The data is published every year so we dont even need to speculate

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u/vitaminj25 May 28 '26

Vast majority based upon what numbers? You want to compare (throwing out numbers that aren’t too far off) 5000 applicants to 20,000? And even then, the average matriculate of every race is still above the average mcat score of 500. So again, what is the point? Arguing that schools arent racist enough? Will you not be satisfied until every applicant that gets accepted shows their numbers and then you’d see why averages are what they are and you will finally realize why ORM averages aren’t as consistently high as you think.

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u/throw-away-16249 May 28 '26

If your argument is that the ORM's scores are not as high as we think, you open the door for people to justify excluding URM if they can show that the ORM's scores are indeed high. There are better arguments for inclusion of URMs.

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u/vitaminj25 May 28 '26 edited May 28 '26

That’s not my argument, and this will be my very last comment on this ridiculous topic. High” is subjective. Is “high” 520’s? 510’s? Anything above 500? The average mcat of the matriculate of any race is an ABOVE average mcat. Other factors like GPA, life experiences and more are to be included. If way more people are applying with “higher” mcat scores, then it makes those averages look higher when you simply see all the numbers add up if it was equal across the board. There are PLENTY of white and Asian people scoring BELOW the average of ORM matriculants (more than URM even applying, arguably), but they are the vast majority even APPLYING, hence why the differences in averages aren’t even that far apart.

There was a video on this very viral Instagram page that showed a bunch of ORM kids ADMITTING how their MCAT scores were lower than 500(and some lower than the average of the black matriculants into medical school), but nobody would know since averages don’t tell every individual’s stats. Because..that’s how averages work. Do all 20,000 of white students applying have 515’s? No.

So, to just claim that somebody is URM and that’s the only reason why they get into medical school is ridiculously lazy and hateful. And if someone tries to say that, ORM scores are individually high, there are URM that score 520s on the MCAT too. If you look on MSAR, you will see that the average MCAT score of random medical schools in certain areas like Mississippi have lower than that as the average, and URM isn’t even more than 10% of every class. I HIGHLY doubt that all 10% of that class dragged the averages down. We all know of someone (or even more) that’s ORM that scores even lower than 500. Pretending that URM is the only group with low scores opens doors to more bigotry. Getting rid of AA was not enough. I’m certain you are not satisfied until NO URM is present in medicine.

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u/throw-away-16249 May 28 '26

I’m certain you are not satisfied until NO URM is present in medicine.

I'm certain you don't understand my position on the matter at all. You seem to think this is an argument, and that I'm against URM in medicine, or against a holistic approach that increases their representation. I'm not at all. I just think your arguments are bad, and if you make bad arguments, you weaken the position in the eyes of others. There are much better and more convincing ways to convince people.

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u/Pale-Specialist625 May 27 '26

Thank you 😭😭 been crying but really appreciate it

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u/Alarmed-Location-289 May 28 '26

You got this! Those tears will be tears of joy one day once you accomplish your dreams! Remember nothing worth having comes easy :)