Application Assitant & LizzyM Scores :: Data/Statistical Questions

[To be MD]

Most people will have noticed today that there's an "Application Assistant" now that will calculate your LizzyM score and then put you on a "LizzyM Distribution Curve."

My question is, how in the world is the average (the middle of this normally distributed curve) LizzyM score of medical school applicants equivalent to 70?

If I have a 4.0 GPA & a 512 MCAT (87th %ile from the AAMC), then I get a LizzyM score of 71.8. The 'average' LizzyM score according to this graph is a 70.

Somehow having a perfect GPA and scoring in the 87th percentile for the MCAT is right alongside of an 'average' medical school applicant?

Maybe, I can see MCAT scores from people who have taken it multiple times skewing the data... but I imagine the best of those would be siphoned off by a round of acceptances. Is MDApplicants data that skewed?

From Kaplan 2014 article, "Well, the same AAMC report states that the average applicant in 2013 had an undergraduate GPA of 3.54 and a median MCAT score of 29." Shouldn't a number like that (a LizzyM score of 64.4) represent the middle of the curve for medical school applicants?

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[WildWing]

Most people will have noticed today that there's an "Application Assistant" now that will calculate your LizzyM score and then put you on a "LizzyM Distribution Curve."

My question is, how in the world is the average (the middle of this normally distributed curve) LizzyM score of medical school applicants equivalent to 70?

If I have a 4.0 GPA & a 512 MCAT (87th %ile from the AAMC), then I get a LizzyM score of 71.8. The 'average' LizzyM score according to this graph is a 70.

Somehow having a perfect GPA and scoring in the 87th percentile for the MCAT is right alongside of an 'average' medical school applicant?

Where does SDN get this data and how is the LizzyM score mean calculated? Maybe, I can see MCAT scores from people who have taken it multiple times skewing the data... but I imagine the best of those would be siphoned off by a round of acceptances.

From Kaplan 2014 article, "Well, the same AAMC report states that the average applicant in 2013 had an undergraduate GPA of 3.54 and a median MCAT score of 29." Shouldn't a number like that (a LizzyM score of 64.4) represent the middle of the curve for medical school applicants?

This is a great question. It is the average of MD Applicants data, as indicated below the graph.

There is definitely a selection bias at work - people who are lower quality applicants are not as likely to put their information into MD Applicants. If you look at the FACTS data from the AAMC (https://www.aamc.org/data/facts/), you can see that for the 2015-2016 year, the average applicant had an MCAT score of 28.3 and GPA of 3.55, giving a LizzyM of 63.8. The average matriculant had a total MCAT of 31.4 and GPA of 3.7, giving a LizzyM of 68.4.

Longer term, we hope to incorporate data that doesn't have this selection bias. We were limited to the data set from MD Applicants for the short term.

We'll add some clarification to the graph to indicate that the "Percent" is from MD Applicants and that this population is not necessarily representative of the entire applicant pool.

 

[To be MD]

Thank you for answering! While you were writing out your response, I was also editing my post to ask just that: just how skewed is MDApps?

The fact that the average matriculant had a LizzyM of ~68.4 makes things a lot more clear.

SDN continues to be my favorite resource (besides banging my head against TBR books) for becoming an excellent doctor. Thank you again .

 

[WildWing]

Glad I was able to help! And we'll be updating the application to make it clearer.

 

[Premedgirl27]

I am also confused about something that I noticed. How come it says Brown has an avg MCAT of 24....??

 

[7331poas]

Thank you for answering! While you were writing out your response, I was also editing my post to ask just that: just how skewed is MDApps?

The fact that the average matriculant had a LizzyM of ~68.4 makes things a lot more clear.

SDN continues to be my favorite resource (besides banging my head against TBR books) for becoming an excellent doctor. Thank you again .

I mean, MDApps is a esoteric web app which you would have to really look for to find. Then once you find it you would have to make the profile and update it.

I think people who have gone through and have done their research fair better than the actual average applicant.

 

[EverStriving]

I get very different LizzyM results when I put in my 2015 MCAT score (76.8), vs. the percentile-equivalent old MCAT score (80.8)....

 

[efle]

I get very different LizzyM results when I put in my 2015 MCAT score (76.8), vs. the percentile-equivalent old MCAT score (80.8)....

The conversion calculator being used is not good at the high end, it treats everything 523-528 as a 39.

 

[WildWing]

I am also confused about something that I noticed. How come it says Brown has an avg MCAT of 24....??

This data was entered incorrectly - it has been updated to 32.7, which is what Brown reports on its website.

 

[FutureD.O]

I am also confused about something that I noticed. How come it says Brown has an avg MCAT of 24....??

Probably a typo for 34

 

[WildWing]

The conversion table we used to generate the scores was this one:
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/thr...centile-comparison-conversion-tables.1143689/

We used a straight linear interpolation between the points. As an example, if you got 511 on the new MCAT, your conversion score would be 31.33.

The data is probably skewed at the far ends. But if you have an MCAT score of 523+, you probably don't need an application to tell you you're going to get into medical school.

 

[starspells]

The data is probably skewed at the far ends. But if you have an MCAT score of 523+, you probably don't need an application to tell you you're going to get into medical school.

haha!

 

[efle]

Hah, that's my table!

But yeah when you have a 80 or so you can apply wherever you want

 

[EverStriving]

Haha yes I was just mentioning it in case there was some bug in the circuits.

 

[AirplaneFruit]

So when you click "View all Schools" then what exactly is Average MCAT/GPA taken from? All applicants, all matriculants, MDApps applicants, MDApps matriculants?