Overqualified for schools?

[jordan789]

I'm wondering if you can be overqualified for a school. I'm going to give a more extreme hypothetical example than the numbers that I have to illustrate my point. Say a student has a 4.0, 40 MCAT and very good ECs. He applies to a school like Jefferson Medical College (Sidney Kimmel) that has ~3.7 and 32 MCAT average. Would Jefferson take him seriously? From the admissions point of view I would think they would assume this applicant is using their school as a back-up plan and doesn't actually want to go here. It seems like they would only want to interview/accept applicants that they think will actually end up going to their school. For some applicants, schools are competing against each other for these type of applicants and Jefferson would assume this applicant is applying to prestigious schools that they can't compete with, no? It's something that I don't think many applicants think about and should be discussed.

If this is somewhat true....how can you let a school know that you are actually interested in them?

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[baxt1412]

A school gets a good student and his/her money regardless of if it is a backup or not.

There are competitive people that apply to all schools. Unless there is a flag such as minimal secondary essays, etc I don't think most schools would screen out "over-qualified" applicants.

 

[Mad Jack]

No, there is no downside. Adcoms don't screen you for being "too good" lol, unless you've got zero reason to go to a place unless no one else accepts you and you make that clear in your secondary.

 

[baxt1412]

No, there is no downside. Adcoms don't screen you for being "too good" lol, unless you've got zero reason to go to a place unless no one else accepts you and you make that clear in your secondary.

This. There are people with 35+ that apply DO - a place where many MD applicants consider everyone to be applying DO because they are not "good enough" for MD. There are no high pass filters for applicants at any school.

 

[SpartanWolverine]

This. There are people with 35+ that apply DO - a place where many MD applicants consider everyone to be applying DO because they are not "good enough" for MD. There are no high pass filters for applicants at any school.

Agreed -- I went DO with a 36. No schools rejected me for a 'suspiciously high' MCAT.

Schools will take you seriously if you are serious about them (i.e., submit a thoughtful secondary, attend an interview, etc).

 

[el_duderino]

This. There are people with 35+ that apply DO - a place where many MD applicants consider everyone to be applying DO because they are not "good enough" for MD. There are no high pass filters for applicants at any school.

That would be a low pass filter

 

[baxt1412]

That would be a low pass filter

**** you're right lol.

it's a little backward from the names huh? i had to just think about the sound system in my truck for it to make sense.


i'll chalk it up to it being early... yeahhh that's it

 

[jordan789]

This. There are people with 35+ that apply DO - a place where many MD applicants consider everyone to be applying DO because they are not "good enough" for MD. There are no high pass filters for applicants at any school.

I personally think DO is a different consideration because this is a different approach to medicine that some applicants are just more interested in. But yeah I was unsure about being overqualified for MD schools but I think the consensus seems to be they do not screen out overqualified applicants. I should note that the reason I am asking this question is because my premedical advisor told me this was true to an extent and that I should try to let schools know that I am actually interested in them.

 

[el_duderino]

**** you're right lol.

it's a little backward from the names huh? i had to just think about the sound system in my truck for it to make sense.


i'll chalk it up to it being early... yeahhh that's it

Low pass filter = low passes through but high does not.

Then again, I've had my coffee.

 

[el_duderino]

I personally think DO is a different consideration because this is a different approach to medicine

Yeah? How so?

 

[baxt1412]

Yeah? How so?

Different letters, duh.

Plus additional training. Totally different worlds dude. There is no way a DO could ever work side by side with an MD.... oh wait.............

 

[jordan789]

Different letters, duh.

Plus additional training. Totally different worlds dude. There is no way a DO could ever work side by side with an MD.... oh wait.............

That's not what I'm saying at all. But if you think allopathic medicine and osteopathic medicine are exactly the same then you are indeed wrong. Not saying one is better than the other or that they are incapable of working together.

 

[jordan789]

Yeah? How so?

The point of this thread was to talk about my question. I'm not interested in explaining the differences between allopathic and osteopathic medicine. If you would like to know the differences then a quick google search will inform you.

 

[Promethean]

There really is no such thing as too good for a school.

Also, bear in mind that an average implies that there will be people with stats above and below the mean. There are always outliers. Even when you talk about ranges, those are usually set at 10%/90%.

 

[CannedPineapple]

Actually, the advisors on campus told me not to even bother applying to GWU or BU because they would have screened me out (with a low pass filter). I think these two schools come to mind because they have like 10,000 applications, so it is more efficient and less administratively costly to invite the students they think will realistically come.

I can't think of it being a universal thing though. I've heard that schools might not think you would come based on a lack of geographic ties (such as to the midwest), and in my experience, that's turned out to be true (all of my interviews have been on the coasts, where I have ties. My only rejection so far has been in the midwest). But that's n = 1, so.

 

[Goro]

This has been beaten to death in previous posts. Do a search

I'm wondering if you can be overqualified for a school. I'm going to give a more extreme hypothetical example than the numbers that I have to illustrate my point. Say a student has a 4.0, 40 MCAT and very good ECs. He applies to a school like Jefferson Medical College (Sidney Kimmel) that has ~3.7 and 32 MCAT average. Would Jefferson take him seriously? From the admissions point of view I would think they would assume this applicant is using their school as a back-up plan and doesn't actually want to go here. It seems like they would only want to interview/accept applicants that they think will actually end up going to their school. For some applicants, schools are competing against each other for these type of applicants and Jefferson would assume this applicant is applying to prestigious schools that they can't compete with, no? It's something that I don't think many applicants think about and should be discussed.

If this is somewhat true....how can you let a school know that you are actually interested in them?

 

[el_duderino]

The point of this thread was to talk about my question. I'm not interested in explaining the differences between allopathic and osteopathic medicine. If you would like to know the differences then a quick google search will inform you.

You would think so, but it really doesn't. The reason is because there is no actual difference. You learn the exact same stuff in the same manner under the same philosophy at essentially every medical school regardless of the degree granted. The silly buzzwords DO programs use like "holistic" or "patient-centered" or whatever are meaningless.

 

[gyngyn]

If a particular school knows that they will only matriculate 10% of their applicants with MCAT scores of 40+, they will choose the best applicants in this range that also seem to have a reason to want to attend. No one has the desire (or budget) to do 10 interviews to matriculate 1 student.

In reality, the pool for each school differs, as does the yield in each MCAT stratum. This is how the admissions algorithm is derived.