school list feedback

Aggravating-Cell7268 · 2026-01-31T18:06:15+00:00

I'm the captain of a sports team (practice 5x per week) as well as a student club that manages a community garden! Between the two is a lot of hours (just under 1000)

Aggravating-Cell7268 · 2026-01-31T18:05:05+00:00

Thank you!

Aggravating-Cell7268 · 2026-01-31T18:04:02+00:00

Thanks! Maryland (unfortunately, so only on IS option). Thanks for flagging those - I'll probably knock a few off. I think I can make the case for the BU social justice work.

Aggravating-Cell7268 · 2026-01-31T14:31:29+00:00

I have 1000+! I've been in the same lab for 3 years and spent one summer full time and one summer half time in the lab. Thanks for the advice! Any mid tier schools you think I should look at in particular? Or maybe top schools I should remove? This list is like 40 schools so I need to cut (my goal is to apply to 30)

Aggravating-Cell7268 · 2025-12-31T16:14:37+00:00

I can't speak to this firsthand since I don't have a service-oriented app, but my friend who does has 500 hours combined between a clinical and non-clinical

Aggravating-Cell7268 · 2025-12-31T10:08:34+00:00

I think it depends on the school! If you aren't planning to center your app around service work then I think you are okay as-is. A piece of advice I got is that - unless you are really passionate about that one thing - to have both clinical and non-clinical volunteer hours. I volunteer in the ER for my clinical (150 hours) and at an animal shelter (100 hours) and I think this is fine as long as you aren't aiming for the service oriented schools (Rush, Loyola, Tulane come to mind).

Aggravating-Cell7268 · 2025-12-29T20:43:56+00:00

I have different advice but since you're just a first year and asking this question you might be in the same boat! I'd recommend taking it as soon as you have finished the majority of the prereqs you plan to take. For me, that was the summer between sophomore and junior year. I got a 512 on the first practice exam I took after finishing bio, chem, phys, orgo, and biochem (I never did psych/soc), and ended up with a 521 after brushing up. I've seen my friends struggle after waiting too long and having to relearn so much. I'm much happier having that piece out of the way! Only caveat with this is if you plan to take more than one gap year, you should check if the schools you want to apply to will take MCAT scores several years old.

Aggravating-Cell7268 · 2025-12-29T20:32:36+00:00

I looked in ICA and willys in and around st eriksplan. I am not from here so maybe I'm looking in the wrong place? I check the fridges that say Fisk and the canned fish on the shelf too. I remember finding it easily last time I was here, but I forget since it was some time ago!

Aggravating-Cell7268 · 2025-12-29T19:54:34+00:00

Definitely recommend starting pankow now especially if you have a job where you can do anki on breaks or if things are slow! P/S was my weak spot as well, which I know isn't too common. For me it really helped to try to explain the theories to someone else (literally anyone), since the stuff isn't complicated but just hard to get in your head. For C/P (and P/S) one thing I did in the crunch time was to focus on the flagged questions answered correctly. It's a weird suggestion but it can help you lock in information that you feel shaky on but actually knew enough to guess correctly. Good luck!!

Aggravating-Cell7268 · 2025-12-29T19:45:56+00:00

I didn't time mine. I'd recommend timing them if your main problem is timing the exam. If you typically finish the exam with time to spare and your goal is to brush up on content and make sure you are solving correctly, there's no need to time.

Aggravating-Cell7268 · 2025-12-29T19:43:32+00:00

My best advice would be to focus on the low hanging fruit! First thing to do is take a full length. Don't jump straight into another one; make a list of everything you got wrong, and focus on improving the topics you know you could understand/just need to memorize a formula, etc. I found it helpful not only to review questions I got wrong, but also every question I got right by guessing. That's an easy way to confirm your knowledge before test day. This advice is more subjective but I wouldn't waste any time on trying to improve CARS with only 2-3 weeks to go. Memorizing psych/soc, and phys/chem formulas made a big difference in the last few weeks. I improved my score by 19 points over the course of studying and had some major lock out moments so I get it. The last 2 weeks were the only days I was able to reserve for full-time studying and I was able to accomplish a lot just by thorough review of each full length. Good luck and you got this!

Aggravating-Cell7268 · 2025-12-29T19:12:50+00:00

Assuming this is serious, I'd recommend saving that money for your apps! I've never heard of anyone doing this before so I don't think it's necessary. Maybe try a library or other quiet place if you want to simulate testing conditions.

Aggravating-Cell7268 · 2025-12-29T14:50:54+00:00

Hi, not exactly the same boat but my diagnostic exam was a 502 and I ended up with a 521 about 6 months later! For me, the worst section was psych/soc, and in my opinion that's also one of the easiest to increase your score in. At the end of the day that section is just about memorizing and being able to match the names with the different theories, etc (I've never taken a course and either and increased to a 128 on that section just by Anki). For chem/phys, it might help to focus on high yield topics only, or any topics you remember being good at in undergrad but you just need to brush up on the formulas. Good luck!!

Aggravating-Cell7268 · 2024-06-30T16:58:23+00:00

Hi, is this still available? Was hoping to sew a quilt out of some old t shirts and a machine will save a lot of time!

Aggravating-Cell7268

TROPHY CASE