Advice?? Abysmal MCAT

Hi all! New to this forum – looking for advice.



I took the September MCAT rather hastily and received an absolutely abysmal 494… I have already sent in primaries and a few secondaries for this cycle but I don’t expect a lot of love this time around.



My question is – do I go forward and retake the MCAT in January? *I will not take it if I don’t feel ready / unless I’m positive that I will receive a much higher score than my last attempt.



And if I do take it and do much better, do I have a shot at still receiving II’s late in the cycle for either MD or DO?



Or, do I consider a linkage program? Are my stats competitive? (3.6 GPA, BCPM 3.5, overall postbacc GPA 3.9).



Thanks for your input!

Schools have their own individual cutoffs, and I’m not sure if January falls inside the window to be considered for this coming cycle (won’t get scores until Feb). Do some digging into the requirements for the schools you applied to.



I think your best bet would be to take the MCAT sometime between now and maybe April, so your scores will be available to apply as early as possible next cycle. I’m not saying you won’t get in anywhere this cycle, just that the stats are against you.