Weight of Primary on Final Decision

[MaxPlancker]

Question for the adcoms on here...

Since many schools seem to place a big emphasis on the secondary and it usually requires repeating information from AMCAS such as EC's, do schools only (or primarily) look at the secondary post-interview when making decisions or do they still utilize the secondary?

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[hoihaie]

Your primary has your grades and mcat so they do look at it

 

[mimelim]

We look at everything. You can assume that if you interview somewhere that your MCAT/GPA is strong enough to be considered for a spot in that class, but when it comes to decision time, everything is put together and considered.

 

[Catalystik]

We take both into consideration, before and after the interview.

 

[MaxPlancker]

Coooolio! Thanks everyone!

 

[LizzyM]

I do suspect that some schools that ask you to repeat ECs, etc on the secondary so that they can blind reviewers and/or interviewers to your grades & scores while still allowing access to your ECs, etc.

 

[Goro]

100% agree.

It's rare that a PS will affect the final outcome one way or another. We occasionally have an interviewee where an Adcom member will say "wonderful essay", and about the same numbers for someone who get's ultimately rejected for writing a bad essay. One of the worst sins I see is someone writing "and that's why I want to attend [X]COM" where X isn't my school!

Everything is literally on the table. AMCAS, GPA Grid, PS, MCAT, EC, readers review and evals of the all the previous, all the secondaries, the interview eval and all the rest. It can get down to the nitty gritty so assume everything matters. Part of the unknown and chance is how the many members of the adcom will have differing perceptions, unintended bias/favoritism usually from their own professional background, and just the social dynamics of any particular adcom at any particular cycle or meeting.