Pre-meds face an early and harrowing medical school admissions experience--they will compile a first round of applications, then a second including the dreaded personal statement, and finally will suffer through a season of interviews. Costs of the expensive process--from application fees to plane tickets--add up.
One part of this process is the Medical College Admissions Test (MCAT), which is typically taken in spring of the junior year and is required by most medical schools.
In recent years, many students have prepared for the eight-hour exam by taking commercial review courses, which can add more than $1,000 to the costs of applying to medical school.
Thanks to the Harvard-Radcliffe Student Committees on Premedical Education (SCOPE), students planning on taking the MCAT have another option. This semester, SCOPE is offering a low-cost MCAT prep course taught by students who have just taken the test themselves and have succeeded.
Students like Eam Man '00, who doesn't "have $1,200 lying around," can join the course for a mere $20 fee.
"I originally planned to not take a prep course because of the ridiculous amounts that the programs cost, especially for me with limited resources," Man wrote in an e-mail message.
This semester's two SCOPE classes are part of a pilot project subsidized by the College. The classes aim to teach students material they can expect to see on the MCAT, which covers basic college science courses.
"I came up with this idea last fall after becoming concerned with the inroads commercial preparatory programs have been making on this campus," review session founder Brian J. Chan '99 wrote in an e-mail message.
SCOPE offers two review classes, Biological Sciences 15 and Physical Sciences 15, "which correspond to the two sections of the MCAT in which students need the most help," added Chan, who is SCOPE's co-president.
Chan and other SCOPE organizers say they hope students enroll in the course because it costs a mere $20 and can be charged to students' term bills.
The Bureau of Study Counsel has assisted SCOPE with financial transactions, according to Chan.
According to SCOPE MCAT Review Program Director Halla Yang '00, commercial review programs often cost more than $1,000.
Despite the lower costs, SCOPE organizers say their course prepares students well. Students who have just taken the test and done well teach the course.
Michael Chen '00, who instructs the biological sciences class, scored a 14 on the biological sciences potion of his MCAT.
Yang, who scored 15 on the physical sciences portion of the test, teaches the physical sciences class.
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