Adcom Advice

[Youngm2194]

The other day I had the opportunity to talk to an MD who was part of an top 10 med school admissions committee for 10+ years (not part of it anymore). I just wanted to share some of their thoughts as it was interesting and I compared it to a lot of the SDN advice I see on here.

• They seemed to put a lot of weight on recommendation letters- even more so if they were from the same institution (I think people at the med school not undergrad)
• They explained GPA as an evaluation of "how hard you can study and work" and the MCAT as "how much you know and can apply it"
• They said MCAT had a threshold for the particular school where at some point (prob 95%ile and higher) the scores didn't really matter as much since they were so close
• They thought volunteering didn't matter as much (this is only one adcoms opinion so take it with a grain of salt). This is for a top school though so I'm not sure how much top 20s etc. value volunteering compared to research etc.
• In my particular case I had 2500 hrs of research with one pub, they said this is more than the average applicant at this particular school
• Also for me specifically- I did poorly my first two years, had 3.7 sGPA my final two years to have a 3.32cGPA and 3.24sGPA with a 515 MCAT (128/128/131/128). I was planning on taking additional classes to get As (maybe 3-5 classes)...They thought I already proved myself and the MCAT helps support that and that the extra classes "wouldn't do much." (Maybe they meant for proving I can do well vs. just making my GPA higher?)
• They also said essays obviously are very important, especially with those who have upward trends and did poorly

These were just random things I remembered but I thought it would be interesting to share since I always receive good advice here

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[Goro]

Concerning the bold, while I have seen that some SDNers have gotten into the likes of Case, UCSF, Duke, and Columbia via reinvention, my sense of the Top Schools is that they get so many high caliber applicants that they can afford to simply write off reinventors (and a lot of other qualified candidates as well).

If you have been paying attention to the learned LizzyM in these fora, you'll get the sense that at her school (which is also up in the stratosphere), they like people with service to others less fortunate than yourself.

The other day I had the opportunity to talk to an MD who was part of an top 10 med school admissions committee for 10+ years (not part of it anymore). I just wanted to share some of their thoughts as it was interesting and I compared it to a lot of the SDN advice I see on here.

• They seemed to put a lot of weight on recommendation letters- even more so if they were from the same institution (I think people at the med school not undergrad)
• They explained GPA as an evaluation of "how hard you can study and work" and the MCAT as "how much you know and can apply it"
• They said MCAT had a threshold for the particular school where at some point (prob 95%ile and higher) the scores didn't really matter as much since they were so close
• They thought volunteering didn't matter as much (this is only one adcoms opinion so take it with a grain of salt). This is for a top school though so I'm not sure how much top 20s etc. value volunteering compared to research etc.
• In my particular case I had 2500 hrs of research with one pub, they said this is more than the average applicant at this particular school
• Also for me specifically- I did poorly my first two years, had 3.7 sGPA my final two years to have a 3.32cGPA and 3.24sGPA with a 515 MCAT (128/128/131/128). I was planning on taking additional classes to get As (maybe 3-5 classes)...They thought I already proved myself and the MCAT helps support that and that the extra classes "wouldn't do much." (Maybe they meant for proving I can do well vs. just making my GPA higher?)
• They also said essays obviously are very important, especially with those who have upward trends and did poorly

These were just random things I remembered but I thought it would be interesting to share since I always receive good advice here

 

[artist27]

Concerning the bold, while I have seen that some SDNers have gotten into the likes of Case, UCSF, Duke, and Columbia via reinvention, my sense of the Top Schools is that they get so many high caliber applicants that they can afford to simply write off reinventors (and a lot of other qualified candidates as well).

If you have been paying attention to the learned LizzyM in these fora, you'll get the sense that at her school (which is also up in the stratosphere), they like people with service to others less fortunate than yourself.

Do you adcoms know eachother in real life/ know which schools you're from?

 

[Goro]

Do you adcoms know eachother in real life/ know which schools you're from?

Nope