Beyond GPA and MCAT

[greenvillegod]

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Harvard, worlds premier medical school
Looks for more than GPA and MCAT.

But what exactly does it look for 😕
Volunteer service
Research experience
Personal Skills



But is it possible to make it harvard with out the above and just GPA and MCAT

 

[Brickhouse]

Maybe those things don't matter directly if you have high numbers, but my question to you would be - how equipped to practice medicine are you without these experiences/skills? i.e. if you never volunteered how do you know you like the clinical environment; if you never did research, how are you supposed to be competitive in medical research against others who have; if you don't have personal skills, then really, what the heck are you going into medicine for, unless it's just for research, but you don't have research exp....you get the point.

Just do those things. It's part of the process. You're supposed to want to do those sciencey things (yeah I realize that's not a word). If you want to go to Harvard, put forth a little extra effort, eh?

 

[bearpaw]

honestly, i only think the best schools, and not even all of them, pay attention to things other than gpa and mcat. harvard definately does, but most places seem to accept nearly straight by the numbers, based on previous matriculants. Of course, they look to see you have SOME ec's but i doubt they really use them to distinguish between applicants significantly. Basically, if you meet a GPA and MCAT cut off, you will get the interview, and depending on the place, your EC's may or may not be a factor that gets you in. All interviewees are not equal, better stats, schools, and gpa's help you out. Until i see asian kids talking about going to penn with a 32 and a 3.7, i stick to my story.

What i don't get is why schools sometimes interview someone with lower or typical numbers for the school, and then after the kid has a great interview, the kid just gets rejection/ waitlist. why even bother?

being well rounded doesn't help, in my opinion, at top schools, as nearly everyone is well rounded. it does not take much to say you've volunteered, played some sport, did something medical, and something cultural. its being exceptional at a particular thing that is rare, not being "pretty good" at lots of things that everyone else can do too.

 

[10minutes]

Playing sports in college, serving as a class president, working as a TA, winning some kind of trophy, etc can be very helpful. You are also likely to get the awesome recommendations from these activities.

 

[10minutes]

honestly, i only think the best schools, and not even all of them, pay attention to things other than gpa and mcat. harvard definately does, but most places seem to accept nearly straight by the numbers, based on previous matriculants. Of course, they look to see you have SOME ec's but i doubt they really use them to distinguish between applicants significantly. Basically, if you meet a GPA and MCAT cut off, you will get the interview, and depending on the place, your EC's may or may not be a factor that gets you in. All interviewees are not equal, better stats, schools, and gpa's help you out. Until i see asian kids talking about going to penn with a 32 and a 3.7, i stick to my story.

What i don't get is why schools sometimes interview someone with lower or typical numbers for the school, and then after the kid has a great interview, the kid just gets rejection/ waitlist. why even bother?

being well rounded doesn't help, in my opinion, at top schools, as nearly everyone is well rounded. it does not take much to say you've volunteered, played some sport, did something medical, and something cultural. its being exceptional at a particular thing that is rare, not being "pretty good" at lots of things that everyone else can do too.

If they don't look at other things, their MCAT and GPA averages would be higher. In addition, the reason that med school admission is kinda random is because they look at other things. Otherwise, top students would get into everywhere. But in fact, it's not the case most of the time.

 

[BaseballFan]

Harvard, worlds premier medical school
Looks for more than GPA and MCAT.

But what exactly does it look for 😕
Volunteer service
Research experience
Personal Skills



But is it possible to make it harvard with out the above and just GPA and MCAT

Look on their website, and talk to their admissions people.

They'll say that they're looking for the same "things" as every other school.

There is no exact formula for admissions in this process. You can be accepted to one of the most selective schools and rejected post-primary from another which is not ranked in the top 100. Sometimes it has nothing to do with MCATs or GPA.

To see what I mean, do some searches on the mdapplicants website and you'll see how random it can be at times.

Just give it your best shot, and things will turn out for the best.

Good luck!

 

[Alexander99]

At places like Harvard, there's also a lot of "Ivy Leage inbreeding" going on which means that it helps a lot if you come from a top private university vs a public one.

 

[bearpaw]

If they don't look at other things, their MCAT and GPA averages would be higher. In addition, the reason that med school admission is kinda random is because they look at other things. Otherwise, top students would get into everywhere. But in fact, it's not the case most of the time.

i made a careful post. i said based on previous matriculants. schools don't expect 3.9's and 36's unless they make up a typical proportion of the class. if you have a 38, kiss jefferson goodbye, everyone knows you're not going. i did say harvard looks at EC's, but look at who gets interviewed...that goes simply by the numbers. whether or not they decide to take the kid with 3.85 or 3.95 is meaningless at the interview stage, but johnnie comeback with his 3.65 and frosh year 3.0 isn't coming back to cambridge any time soon.

no one goes strictly by numbers for admission, but interviews pretty much go that way and better numbered applicants WILL get into more prestigious places provided everything else is normal.

of course, washu and and columbia reveal what happens when you go by 95% numbers.