Can high stats hurt your chances?

Started by smoodle
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smoodle

Full Member
10+ Year Member
Simply out of curiosity, I know for undergrad admissions they would take students at a specific point in the bell curve for GPA and SAT score for where the school would be ranked. In that case if you were applying to a good school, but not one of the top they would not accept people with very high statistics. As the thought process would be they would be accepted and go else where and this would be a wasted acceptance.

I am wondering if osteopathic schools do the same? Since I know they have technically lower average statistics than most allopathic schools, do they not accept persons with very high GPA and MCAT?
 
No, every school is out to get the best students they can. What will get you rejected is having high stats and a d-bag attitude to go with it.
 
smoodle said:
Simply out of curiosity, I know for undergrad admissions they would take students at a specific point in the bell curve for GPA and SAT score for where the school would be ranked. In that case if you were applying to a good school, but not one of the top they would not accept people with very high statistics. As the thought process would be they would be accepted and go else where and this would be a wasted acceptance.

I am wondering if osteopathic schools do the same? Since I know they have technically lower average statistics than most allopathic schools, do they not accept persons with very high GPA and MCAT?
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Well I don't think schools have a limited number of acceptances they can give out. So, I don't think the bolded is true.
 
smoodle said:
Well they do try to accept the right amount of applicants so that their class size is not more than they can handle...
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True. But for DO schools, we (the students) only get 2 weeks or a month or so to tell the school of our decision of whether to take their acceptance or not.

So, I don't think the school really loses that much if they accept somebody and find out just 2 weeks later this student is not going to take his acceptance.
 
lkthlttr said:
How high is high?
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What is the point of this question? It's not like D.O. schools start rejecting people once they reach a certain score on their MCAT.

Believe me, any D.O. school would be THRILLED to have a 38 MCAT 3.9 student, provided they are a solid applicant in other respects.
 
theone1979 said:
What is the point of this question? It's not like D.O. schools start rejecting people once they reach a certain score on their MCAT.

Believe me, any D.O. school would be THRILLED to have a 38 MCAT 3.9 student, provided they are a solid applicant in other respects.
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I don't claim to have any insight into the admissions process at osteopathic schools, I'm just an interested observer as I'm probably going to apply this year as well (and with highish stats too). And I was just wondering whether the OP was applying with a 3.9 39 or a 3.3 35. I guess it doesn't matter either way, I was just interested.
 
lkthlttr said:
I don't claim to have any insight into the admissions process at osteopathic schools, I'm just an interested observer as I'm probably going to apply this year as well (and with highish stats too). And I was just wondering whether the OP was applying with a 3.9 39 or a 3.3 35. I guess it doesn't matter either way, I was just interested.
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The latter are not high stats.. Anyway, to the OP - No, I don't think having high steps would make any school think the candidate was "too good" for the school or "likely to go elsewhere." If you applied, your interested, and the school is out to get the best future physicians and surgeons it can.
 
I once dreamt to achieve 4.0gpa with 45S mcat (S only cuz i didn't want to seem too cocky 😀) and hoped to find cure for HIV during my undergrad.

Oh the cruel reality!
 
Kuba said:
The latter are not high stats.. Anyway, to the OP - No, I don't think having high steps would make any school think the candidate was "too good" for the school or "likely to go elsewhere." If you applied, your interested, and the school is out to get the best future physicians and surgeons it can.
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Well, that is why I was asking...
 
More and more people are applying to osteopathic medical schools, so the average stats of matriculants are getting higher. With that said, having high stats won't hurt you if you have a genuine interest in becoming a DO. I believe all schools are looking to take the best of the best students that fit their program with students having high scores, lots of compassion, genuine interest in osteopathic medicine, and lots of volunteering.

So no, high scores won't hurt you, but will do exactly the opposite. But like what someone else said, don't be a D-bag and I'm sure you'll be competitive.
 
Kliffmeister said:
I once dreamt to achieve 4.0gpa with 45S mcat (S only cuz i didn't want to seem too cocky 😀) and hoped to find cure for HIV during my undergrad.

Oh the cruel reality!
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word.

My stats are not what I had dreamed of like Kliffmeister, this was more of a curiosity than anything else.
 
If you have high stats, the only thing that can hurt your chances is the interview. Keep in mind that admissions committees do not admit students who know nothing about the school or are uninformed about osteopathic medicine.

Be sure to peruse the school's website and know a little about the town that its in. Come up with good questions to ask them that are not addressed by the recruitment materials or website. Visit the AOA website and read the materials about what it means to be an osteopathic physician. The best applicants fit in with the people at the school and feel that the osteopathic philosophy personifies them.
 
I received interviews at multiple schools and was accepted with a gpa around 3.5 and upper 30s MCAT. So I don't think it hurts anything. They're probably happy to have people dragging the averages up a bit.
 
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