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The average MCAT scores reported by medical schools have little statistical value without more information such as standard deviation, median, and range. Are there any resources that provide more information about these vital stats? One cannot make an accurate decision about which schools to apply to without having a better idea of what the "true" picture of what a school's adcom considers acceptable. I have only ever been able to find one reference to the range of a program's MCAT scores (Wash U.'s MD/PhD program 29-43). I fully understand that the adcom considers the "whole package" that an applicant brings to the table and not just the individual parts, but the truth is that there must be a low end cutoff for MCAT and GPA. I can see some issues that may cause adcoms to shy away from releasing a "minimum" score or cum required for consideration (such as different acceptable values amongst the many different URMs) but I think that at least the range of GPAs and MCAT scores of a typical class should be made available. I personally know of people that have been accepted with MCAT scores of anywhere from 23 to 30+, but you cannot access this information without an inside source. The lack of reporting of MCAT and GPA range is rather unfortunate because allot of applicants look at the average scores and arbitrarily decide not to apply to the school that they really want to attend based on the only numbers that are available to them.
I apologize for my ranting, but I think it shows a lack of respect to all applicants that these pertinent values are withheld. Once again, if anyone has a general source for this data, please pass it along. Thanks to all for your time.
I apologize for my ranting, but I think it shows a lack of respect to all applicants that these pertinent values are withheld. Once again, if anyone has a general source for this data, please pass it along. Thanks to all for your time.