Category Archives for Nontraditional Applicant

Today we want to introduce you to a future doctor with a really inspiring MCAT success story! His name is Tim Knebel and he's one of the MCAT Mentors on our team 🙂 Enjoy!

I know many premeds are nontraditional students, so hopefully my story can help remind some of them that having a different path to medicine is actually an asset.

It started after graduating high school, when I went to community college but soon dropped out because I had absolutely no academic motivation and was dealing with a lot of personal issues. 

For the next three years I worked, played in a band, and slowly got my life together which eventually culminated in me finding an intense passion for mental health and caring for people.

I also became interested in science for the first time in my life, but the thought of actually being able to study science never crossed my mind. 

Strangely, the thought did cross my mind one day and after several months of thinking about what the path actually meant and whether I could do it or not, I decided that I needed to embark on the path to becoming a physician.

After three years and with no study skills from previous schooling, I went back to community college and started completely from scratch. By scratch, I mean in the three semesters I went to community college (the first time, before dropping out) I got one B and everything else was an F or W. 

I spent 3 1/2 years there and then transferred to UC San Diego for Biochemistry.

If I Can Do It, You Can Do It

The reason I'm sharing all of this is for that stereotypical "if I can do it, you can do it" factor.

I managed to claw my way from being a very dysfunctional person with a nearly incalculably low GPA and no study skills to going to a top university and getting a 513 on the MCAT. 

Imagine taking the MCAT and getting a score so far below your expectations that you can’t find the courage to write it again...

For another three years.

Now imagine for two years within that time, being so scared to take the MCAT again that you deeply contemplate giving up your dream of being a doctor.

This was what Andrew experienced after he first wrote the MCAT in 2017 and scored a 490.

The MCAT is no fairytale. A lot of aspiring doctors put rigorous time, effort, and a lot of focus into studying for it. But it’s an added hardship when you are a non-traditional student and have been far removed from the academic world for quite some time.

Say, your last exam taken was years ago, and you are bound to take your MCAT in a few months. That’s a pretty tough scenario you’ve got there.

Too many premeds on forums dole out tips on how to study, which mostly just involves empty affirmations like “You can do it! Just focus and study.” But we know that’s easier said than done, especially if you have been out of the routine of school.

Imagine this...

You take your baseline test at the beginning of your MCAT prep, and you score a 500! Not bad right?

In fact, you're kind of pumped because you have 4.5 months before you write your MCAT! That's a lot of time to improve your score by 10 or more points! Especially since you're investing in a big-name MCAT prep company to help you study...

So you take the exam 4.5 months later, you get your score and you can't believe your eyes when you see that you scored a 501! Just a ONE point score increase from your baseline test!

This is the true story and situation of today's featured top scorer, Jennifer Nedimyer...

Throughout our ongoing 90+ percentile MCAT scorer research and interviews over the years, we've come across many non-traditional MCAT test takers. 

We find their MCAT success stories especially inspiring because they're often struggling with additional pressures and challenges that the average MCAT scorer doesn't face.

Recently, we interviewed Valentina Viertel...

A graduate student and a stay at home mom who was pregnant for almost her entire journey as she was studying for the MCAT!

In fact, she was 24 weeks pregnant when she took the MCAT!

Not only that, but as you'll find out in her interview below, it had been 5 years since Valentina graduated college and almost 10 years since she took some of the pre-reqs!

The most amazing part? 

Even with all of these additional barriers...

Valentina managed to increase her MCAT score by 19 points and achieve a 514 (91st percentile) MCAT score.