I am an ICU Nurse with low MCAT score

Here's what's to expect, DMG: you'll get asked about that 22, over and over, by people who think exactly like Q, sitting across from you at med school interviews, or looking at your app in a pile of other apps. And those interviewers who are asking you about that 22 and why you didn't retake aren't going to like your answer. They'll go back to the admissions committee meeting and have to make a case for why you should get a seat at their med school instead of another compelling applicant, in the context of too many compelling URM applicants to accept them all, as well as way more overqualified ORM candidates than seats. Everybody in that room knows how many students in the classes before you are in danger of failing out. Everybody in that room has interviewed and accepted allied health professionals who did well, and some who didn't. Maybe the student affairs folks who help make sure there's funding and support for URM students will be in the room too. At the newer DO schools, maybe interviewing for their 2nd class, they all know how much tuition money they lost by accepting and failing out the poorly qualified students they accepted to fill their first class. Intense meetings, full of very experienced folks, making really hard decisions affecting the lives of the best kids in America and the hopes and dreams of hard working parents.

So you'll apply to a bunch of schools that seem within reach, because of anecdotes on SDN, and you'll get invited to interview because you're URM, and in the interview you'll have nothing compelling to say about why 2 tries at the MCAT didn't get you better than 22; you'll have to say that you weren't willing/able to work for a better score for whatever reasons. And they'll be nice in the interview, maybe even selling you hard because you're URM. You'll spend time worrying if you have the right suit, if you should have made that comment in that one interview, etc. And you'll spend a bunch of money on those interviews, and get excited about those schools, and think you don't have to worry about the less reachy schools on your list. And the interview season will drag on from August into March, with you taking bunches of days off work to travel in 2-3 day chunks. Then you'll start seeing that your more reachy schools like UMinn are taking a really long time to get back to you, and Howard and ATSU-SOMA et al maybe put you on the waitlist or in some "candidate pool". Maybe their student affairs folks call you to keep you on the hook in case their better prepared URM acceptees take other acceptances. And maybe you'll then get a DO acceptance at one of the newer schools, which will give you incredibly mixed feelings because you want to be excited to have a med school acceptance but jeez you really had your hopes on a UMinn or Howard. At this point you'll send off some Carib apps. And you'll be more excited about your waitlist letters than your acceptance letter. And so you'll wait.

Then it'll be May, and you'll start having this overwhelming, suffocating sense that you only have 3 months before med school starts. You could call it a day and start planning a move to your new sketchy DO or Carib school, but those waitlists! You'll call those waitlist schools for updates, send letters of intent, contact student affairs to see if they can help you. Then it's June. Then it's July. Tick tock.

Or you could decide that you'll have a better attitude about the MCAT, and figure out how to get a better score, and be one of those URM students who gets to choose between multiple acceptances from desirable med schools, pretty darn early in the season. My goodness, an experienced nurse with a great GPA and a decent MCAT score and she's URM? Let's get some scholarship money in that acceptance letter! Don't let her get away!

Here's a question: why would older, experienced, seasoned attendings like Q and med students like me take all this time to advise you not to sit on a 22? What motivates us? Are we haters? Please think about it.

Best of luck to you.

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I am an ICU Nurse with low MCAT score