Should the admissions committee take the MCAT?

[Sardinia]

@mistafab I think that a big error in view for pre-meds is that the stringent admissions process in schools is there to keep students out. When in fact, the admissions counsel is there to select the best students who are most likely to finish in four years and become good representatives for the school when they become attendings. In this sense, the headhunter analogy is correct. Medicine as a field maintains integrity and respect because of the acumen of the adcomcs to use the numbers and read in between them to make the best decision possible, if the people who score in the 80th percentile (top 20%) are able to score a 32/509 then it's hardly an exclusive MCAT club.

In addition the fact that almost all students are able to secure a residency position is also a rare occurrence that leads people into medicine as the job outlook for most schools is that procuring internship opportunities for students is hard and ensuring a job afterwards is even more unlikely. The fact that medicine tends to be more heavy on the selection process e.g. smaller group in but larger % out makes it a more ideal model for the students invested in the process over the general public who just see it as another job possibility with good pay and a long career track.

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[Lawpy]

as an aisde to this and another way to compare school type
US medical schools cut before admission, with about 40% making it in and almost all of them graduating and gaining residency (over 3/4 get one of top 3 programs)
Caribbean medical schools cut after admission with about 40%-45% actually graduating and gaining some residency slot (30% of placement of "left over" SOAP)

it all depends on the location of that filter. it just so happens that the filter being placed before medical school admission is the most efficient, which is expected.

 

[QofQuimica]

OP, serving on an adcom is a volunteer position for most of the members (as is interviewing med students applying for residency). Almost no one gets paid for serving on an adcom except for the admissions office staff. And all of the physician and med student adcoms obviously did take the MCAT. Even if the PhD members of the adcom have not, and therefore they "don't understand" how hard the test really is, so what? You need to focus your effort and your energy on what matters here, my friend. And by "what matters here," I definitely don't mean taking umbrage at some offhand comment by a PhD adcom. Seriously, if that's the most disheartening thing that anyone ever says to you in your whole life, then you've been enviably sheltered and lucky. Time to get over it, and get back to studying. :-/

 

[NonTrad16]

Selfishly, I am glad admissions members don't need to take the MCAT. In my dream future where I could be an academic physician lending my aid, the last thing I'd be interested in is looking at decade old material. Even as a pre-med, some aspects of the MCAT seem unnecessary, except in the role to help separate students. What good are optics equations or organic reactions to a physician? We only use that material because it's something we've all had some exposure to. The hopefully more relevant/practical material comes later. (Fingers crossed.)

 

[Crayola227]

I haven't seen anyone here mention that the non clinical PhDs take the GRE..... which isn't as hard as the MCAT, but still, it's not like they are totally ignorant of pre-admission tests

 

[QofQuimica]

I haven't seen anyone here mention that the non clinical PhDs take the GRE..... which isn't as hard as the MCAT, but still, it's not like they are totally ignorant of pre-admission tests

I would say the PhD qualifying exam is the biggest testing hurdle for PhDs, not the GRE. I didn't study for the GRE at all. Studying for my quals was more on par with studying for Step 1, because you can literally be tested on just about anything relevant to your field. And there were no multiple choice questions on the quals. :-/

 

[Jay.bee]

I think it's an interesting question. While I'm sure almost all adcoms understand the numerical significance of MCAT percentiles and all that goes along with those scores, I do wonder if their decisions might be better informed by being more familiar with exactly how the MCAT tests material. I wouldn't think they need better understanding of the stress, or the stakes involved, as they have certainly experienced these before.

So I wouldn't dismiss the idea completely out of hand, because I did get the impression at one point that some of the people I spoke to didn't really, fully get the type of reasoning emphasized by the MCAT. It should not be used as some sort of qualification or rite of passage however, because as people have said above, anyone on the committee is already qualified. Perhaps a solution would be a truncated test that isn't taken at a testing center, or one of the free practice tests, but again, I think requiring this of anyone would be overly burdensome and not especially beneficial.

 

[gyngyn]

I think it's an interesting question. While I'm sure almost all adcoms understand the numerical significance of MCAT percentiles and all that goes along with those scores, I do wonder if their decisions might be better informed by being more familiar with exactly how the MCAT tests material. I wouldn't think they need better understanding of the stress, or the stakes involved, as they have certainly experienced these before.

So I wouldn't dismiss the idea completely out of hand, because I did get the impression at one point that some of the people I spoke to didn't really, fully get the type of reasoning emphasized by the MCAT. It should not be used as some sort of qualification or rite of passage however, because as people have said above, anyone on the committee is already qualified. Perhaps a solution would be a truncated test that isn't taken at a testing center, or one of the free practice tests, but again, I think requiring this of anyone would be overly burdensome and not especially beneficial.

We have a hard enough time getting participation from the best faculty. They are in demand on all committees. Adding another layer of irrelevant foolishness would end whatever hope we had of getting them to volunteer.
Empathy has little to do with taking the MCAT (OP's objective).