u/ashhplantss

This might seem like a silly question, but how essential are amazing LORS compared to just good ones?

I am in a weird spot where I am taking my MCAT on the 30th (of May), and I want to go ahead and apply on the 28th of May, so I won’t know my score for sure. Based on my practice exams (I’ll take FL 6 the 25th to get a more accurate idea), I think I will at least pass a 510 as a conservative estimate.

I am worried about applying without knowing a hard score, and I wanted to know is if really strong LORs might be able to compensate for a score that may still be a few points under a given school’s average.

For reference I have a strong GPA (~3.93), 200+ college credits (I am a triple major), and a good bit of research experience. All four of the facility I asked to write a LOR also know me very well and I have tight relationships with them. They have been known to write good letters in the past and they know me well enough for it to not be superficial. Is this something I should even worry about or just see what happens?

Hey Reddit,

This is my first time posting, but I wanted to get honest feed back on my chances of apply MD/PhD in the upcoming application cycle.

I go to a smaller school that does have the capacity for large scale research projects, so all of my research has been concentrated in the summer at about 1000 hours (half of those are expected this summer). I have been able to present a decent bit with 4 posters (one national conference), one oral presentation, and the opportunity to go to talk to legislature in D.C. about research funding (specifically for the summer program I did that is ultimately NIH funded) on behalf of my state. There is also a paper that is currently revision in progress that I will be third author on (out of 8). I will also be applying with some other research that is data analysis and math based, but it is my senior capstone so I am just starting. In total I will have around 1500 hours of research.

I don't have amazing clinical and showing hours (around 300 and 75 respectfully) and I take the MCAT May 30th. I am expecting around a 515 based on my practice exams but I am waiting to take AAMC 6th until the 25th, so I am not certain.

I am a triple major (Biology, Data Science, Mathematics) graduating with a little over 200 credits (in four years) and currently at a 3.93 GPA, so I think that helps but I am worried I don't have enough of a research backing at this point in time.

I tried to keep this as short as possible but still keep relevant details. I would truly appreciate any advise, I feel pretty lost in this regard. I would absolutely love to do MD/PhD, but I don't know if it would be better to focus on applying MD and seeing if I could potentially switch into MD/PhD after starting (I know this is highly school specific and probably not a great bet).