What MCAT Score Do You Need to Get Into Medical School? (2024)
/What is a good MCAT score? Discover the exact GPA and MCAT score to aim for to become a competitive applicant, plus MCAT percentiles
What is a good mcat score? Find out what you need to achieve to get into medical school
(Note: This resource also appears in our MCAT Ultimate Guide.)
----
Part 1: Introduction
Part 2: MCAT sections and scores
Part 3: What is a good MCAT score?
Part 4: Where to apply to medical school based on your numbers
Appendix A: Frequently asked questions
Appendix B: MCAT percentiles for total and section scores
----
Part 1: Introduction
The thought of taking the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) unsurprisingly sends chills down premed spines.
After all, despite admissions committees’ constant reminders that the MCAT is just one piece of your overall application, it seems that the results of this one exam can make or break your chances of getting into medical school.
You may be worried that years of academic effort and nonstop extracurriculars for medical school may be shoved aside if you don’t do well on the MCAT. Or even if you think you did well, you may be wondering whether your scores are high enough to help you get into a top-10 or top-20 program. (Check out our list of the average GPA and MCAT score of matriculants at every U.S. medical school.)
Naturally, then, you’d like to know: What is a good MCAT score? What MCAT score do you need to get into medical school? How about to get into the medical schools you actually want to attend?
In this guide, we’re going to dive deep into how the MCAT is structured, what your scores mean, what score you need to achieve to effectively solidify your chances of getting into medical school, and how you should develop your school list based on your MCAT score.
----
Part 2: MCAT sections and MCAT scores
The MCAT is composed of the following four sections:
Chemical and Physical Foundations of Biological Systems (CPBS)
Critical Analysis and Reasoning Skills (CARS)
Biological and Biochemical Foundations of Living Systems (BBLS)
Psychological, Social, and Biological Foundations of Behavior (PSBB)
Your MCAT scores across all four sections of the exam will produce a scaled score that accounts for the difficulty of questions you answered correctly and incorrectly. In other words, answering two different sets of 30 questions correctly will produce different scaled scores.
The MCAT was designed to account for item difficulty to better estimate your “true mastery” of the material being tested. Specifically, you will receive more “mastery points” if you answer difficult questions correctly vs. easier questions. Conversely, you will be more harshly punished for missing easier questions relative to more difficult ones.
What is the MCAT out of?
Your MCAT total score will range between 472 and 528, with 501.5 marking the mean, or 50th percentile. Each of the four MCAT sections is scored between 118 and 132, with the 50th percentile coming in around 125 for each section, though it does vary slightly from section to section.
What is the highest MCAT score?
528 is the highest MCAT score possible, which corresponds to the 100th percentile. Anything above a 524 is also a 100th percentile score, and a 522 or 523 is a 99th percentile score.
Alright, that’s enough about the MCAT’s scoring details. Let’s move on to the two questions you’re here to have answered:
What is a good MCAT score?
What MCAT score do you need to get into medical school?
Looking for MCAT practice questions? Check out our proprietary MCAT Question Bank for sample questions and practice exams.
Gain instant access to 3,000+ representative MCAT questions across all four sections to identify your weaknesses, bolster your strengths, and maximize your score. Subscribe today to lock in the current investments, which will be increasing in the future for new subscribers.
Part 3: What is a good MCAT score?
Like so many other aspects of the medical school admissions process, the true answer to this question is: “It depends.”
Admissions committees practice “holistic review” when evaluating applicants, which means that they consider all of your medical school requirements when deciding whether or not to invite you for a medical school interview. These include:
Grades (including the undergraduate institution you attended)
Extracurricular activities and achievements (i.e., your AMCAS Work and Activities section)
Journey to medicine (via your personal statement)
Fit (via your secondary application essays)
And your MCAT scores
Moreover, each medical school receives applications from candidates with varying degrees of grades, MCAT scores, and experiences. Therefore, MCAT scores that may be competitive for one school may not be competitive at another school.
For example, depending on your GPA, a 514 MCAT score might be sufficient for, say, University of Florida College of Medicine (515 average MCAT score) and other medical schools in Florida, but not for NYU Medical School (523 average MCAT score).
Collectively, then, a “good MCAT score” will depend on the strength of the other pieces of your application, as well as the schools to which you intend to apply (e.g., top-25 only vs. top-50; MD only vs. DO only vs. MD and DO).
Nevertheless, let’s take a look at some telling average MCAT total scores for M.D. programs over the past few years, as reported by the AAMC:
| Academic Year | Medical School Applicants | Medical School Matriculants |
|---|---|---|
There are very important conclusions we can make based on this data. Although the mean total MCAT score among all applicants is 506.5, successful MD applicants typically achieve an MCAT total score at or above the 73rd percentile (i.e., 508+). Moreover, the average (i.e., mean) total MCAT score among successful applicants lands around the 83rd percentile (511.9) and continues to trend upwards.
Why has there been an upward trend in MCAT scores?
The data above paints a picture of ever-increasing MCAT scores among matriculants. Although there was a slight dip in 2023, the overall trend has been toward higher scores. What accounts for this situation and what does it mean when determining what is a good MCAT score?
A few factors may contribute to the gradual increase of the average MCAT score among successful med school hopefuls. For one, the total number of applicants each year has gone up a bit since 2014. There hasn’t been a dramatic increase but even a small uptick in the number of applicants means more competition for the limited number of seats at medical schools. The number of students medical schools can accommodate doesn’t rise as quickly as the applicant pool.
More MCAT prep materials and tutoring opportunities are available now than in 2014, which could also account for this trend as students are taking the exam better prepared than before.
Also, the MCAT has changed somewhat with the addition of the Psychological, Social, and Biological Foundations of Behavior section in 2015. It’s possible this could have a small impact by testing a different set of skills and knowledge which could result in higher scores for some students.
Whatever the reasons, this trend looks likely to continue, meaning a higher score may be required to remain competitive.
Now, that doesn’t mean your application to MD programs is doomed if you don’t achieve a 511–512+, or that success is guaranteed if you achieve, say, a 516+. Remember: your MCAT score will be evaluated in the context of your other achievements when making admissions decisions. Therefore, we must understand how various MCAT scores predict admissions success in the context of other variables, most notably GPA.
Let’s study the AAMC’s numbers:
| Total GPA | |||||||||||
| 3.80–4.00 | |||||||||||
| 3.60–3.79 | |||||||||||
| 3.40–3.59 | |||||||||||
| 3.20–3.39 | |||||||||||
| 3.00–3.19 | |||||||||||
| 2.80–2.99 | |||||||||||
| 2.60–2.79 | |||||||||||
| 2.40–2.59 | |||||||||||
| 2.20–2.39 | |||||||||||
| 2.00–2.19 | |||||||||||
| 0.00–1.99 | |||||||||||
| All Applicants | |||||||||||
This data allows us to make additional important (though somewhat unsurprising) conclusions about the relation of GPA to MCAT scores, as well as how these numbers collectively predict admissions success to MD programs, including:
GPA is positively associated with MCAT scores. In other words, students with a higher GPA tend to score higher on the MCAT, and students with a lower GPA tend to score lower on the MCAT.
Higher GPA and MCAT scores independently and collectively predict higher acceptance rates. In other words, students with higher GPAs and MCAT scores have a better chance of getting into medical school. On the other hand, it’s really difficult to get into medical school with a low GPA.
The lower the GPA, the higher the MCAT score needed to get into medical school, and vice-versa.
While these conclusions provide great information about your admissions odds based on numbers alone, there are two additional questions that we need to answer:
Where should you apply based on your numbers?
How should your stats impact the number of MD vs. DO programs you apply to?
----
Part 4: Where to apply to medical school based on your numbers
In another guide, we covered how to develop your medical school list to maximize admissions odds in depth.
The primary purpose of this section, therefore, is to discuss the relative percentages of MD vs. DO programs to apply to based on your GPA and MCAT scores to ensure medical school admission success.
Assuming a good cumulative GPA (i.e., 3.5+) and well-written application essays, we suggest the following rough program breakdowns depending on your MCAT total score:
511+: 100% MD programs; 0% DO programs
506–510: 75% MD programs, 25% DO programs
500–505: 25–50% MD programs; 50–75% DO programs
Below 500: 0–25% MD programs; 75–100% DO programs
Of course, you should shift these percentages depending on your GPA. Specifically, if your cumulative GPA is at or above a 3.7, you should generally apply to a higher percentage of MD programs. On the other hand, if your cumulative GPA is at or below a 3.4, you should generally apply to a higher percentage of DO programs.
These suggestions assume that you prefer to attend an MD program. If that assumption does not hold true for you, please modify these percentages accordingly.
According to the most recent (2022) AACOMAS applicant and matriculant profile summary, the average MCAT score for DO matriculants is 504.77. That is about a 7-point difference in averages when compared to MD matriculants. In general, DO programs have lower acceptance rates than MD programs, but the data indicates that applicants need higher MCAT scores for acceptance into MD programs than they do for DO programs.
Moreover, while MD programs are generally more competitive than DO programs with regard to GPA and MCAT scores, certain DO programs may have higher stats requirements than certain MD programs. If that is the case for schools on your list, you should also modify these suggested percentages accordingly. In summary, you should adjust the competitiveness of your overall school list depending on how conservative you want to be.
Final thoughts
Your MCAT score is a foundational piece of your medical school applications.
However, while higher MCAT scores are associated with higher rates of medical school admissions success, they are evaluated in the context of your GPA, extracurricular achievements, letters of recommendation, and essays when determining whether or not to invite you for an interview.
Still, understanding your admissions odds based on your MCAT score and taking an empirical approach to developing your school list is critical to maximizing your odds of getting in.
About the Author
Dr. Shirag Shemmassian is the Founder of Shemmassian Academic Consulting and one of the world's foremost experts on medical school admissions. For nearly 20 years, he and his team have helped thousands of students get into medical school using his exclusive approach.
----
Enjoyed this guide? Get the FREE guide we use to help over 90% of our students get into med school—the first time.
----
Appendix A: Frequently asked questions
Below is a list of the most frequently asked questions (FAQ) we receive about the MCAT that are not answered in this guide.
We encourage you to ask any other questions you have about the MCAT in the comments section below. We'll make sure to answer your questions within 24 hours and add some of them to this FAQ section to make it easier for other students to find this information.
Should I retake the MCAT?
As with any well-constructed standardized test, the MCAT was developed to be reliable, meaning that scores from different administrations are unlikely to meaningfully vary under consistent conditions.
In other words, your scores from two different test dates will probably be pretty close to one another unless the conditions under which you took the test change.
Some conditions that may meaningfully impact scores across different MCAT test dates include:
Barely studying for your first attempt but studying hard for 3 months for your second attempt
Experiencing a significant illness, panic attack, etc. during your first attempt but feeling healthy during your second attempt
Another consideration is significant variability in your section scores. Specifically, if you achieved a 129+ in three sections but a 124 or less in one section, you may want to retake your MCAT. However, if your practice test scores were about the same as the official exam’s 124 section, you may want to hold off.
(Further reading: Should I Retake the MCAT? and When Should You Take the MCAT?)
How many MCAT attempts are too many?
The right question to ask is not whether there is a certain number of attempts that is considered to be too many, but rather at what point you should stop retaking the MCAT.
Assuming you dedicated your best studying effort each time you took the test, it’s advisable to stop taking the MCAT if your scores did not change by more than 2–3 points across multiple administrations.
How does my MCAT section breakdown impact this guide’s recommendations?
Students commonly achieve MCAT scores with notable discrepancies across sections. The discrepancy we most routinely hear about is achieving a lower score on the CARS section relative to the others.
Whereas the AAMC offers data regarding mean MCAT section scores among all medical school applicants and matriculants (i.e., accepted students who enrolled), we unfortunately don’t have data on how section score discrepancies predict admission success.
That said, in our nearly 20 years of admissions experience, we’ve observed the trend that the MCAT total score carries more weight than any individual section score or score discrepancies, assuming no one section is too low (this number will vary depending on the medical school).
How do medical school admissions committees evaluate cumulative vs. science GPA?
Once again, we unfortunately do not have data from the AAMC regarding how well cumulative vs. science GPA predicts admissions success. However, we can anecdotally tell you that science GPA tends to be weighed more heavily than cumulative GPA.
Most medical school applicants will have achieved a higher cumulative GPA than science GPA because—let’s face it—undergraduate science classes are generally tougher than non-science classes. Therefore, don’t fret too much about this GPA difference unless your science GPA is super low (this number will vary depending on the medical school).
What role does my undergraduate institution play in medical school admissions?
The same GPA from two different universities may carry a very different meaning to admissions committees.
Although many institutions offer a very challenging premed curriculum, the prestige of your undergraduate institution matters. For instance, a 3.6 GPA from Princeton or another prestigious university will be seen as more impressive than a 3.6 GPA from a lesser-known state school. Whether or not this is fair is beyond the scope of this article, but we want to offer you the truth.
The MCAT’s primary goal is to serve as a common standard by which to judge applicants’ knowledge and skills in areas that medical schools deem important. Therefore, regardless of which undergraduate institution you attend(ed), doing well on the MCAT can raise your status among the applicant pool.
Is 2/3/4 hours of study a day enough for the MCAT?
It’s natural to want to break down your study schedule into exactly how much time is enough to obtain the highest score possible on the MCAT. You’re likely to have a host of other commitments on your plate and you’re probably thinking about how you can work your MCAT study around your hectic schedule most efficiently.
There are a few problems with this approach. For one, the question of “what is enough” carries within it the idea of a minimum amount of time to achieve a desired minimum result. Why would you work harder than you need to if you know you’re score is going to be good enough?
There are far too many variables when taking the MCAT that can throw a wrench into even the best-laid plans. Is this enough time to study taking into account your nerves on test day? Do you divide your study time equally amongst sections? If organic chemistry is your weakest subject, is 2/3/4 hours enough to ensure you overcome your knowledge deficit as well as your anxiety?
The real answer to this question depends on how long you have until test day. Two to three hours per day should be sufficient if you have three months or more to commit to study, but even then it would be wise to build in extra time for practice exams or even just in case.
----
Appendix B: MCAT percentiles for total and section scores
| MCAT Percentiles | MCAT Total Score | MCAT Bio/Biochem | MCAT Chem/Phys | MCAT CARS | MCAT Psych/Soc |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
