Crazy MCAT stats for students?

[Scaredddd]

---

Members do not see this ad.

I emailed a premed adviser and she sent me some stats that scare me...

The average science GPA of admitted students from my school is 3.5. Makes sense, school is somewhat deflating.
73% of applicants get in, 78% of which had above a 3.0, 21% of which had below a 3.0.

This gave my crappy GPA some hope, but the average MCAT of accepted students is 35.

Is this to make up for the lower GPAs?

I have no hope in getting in now.

 

[Lucca]

School specific stats are pretty useless. Go to SDN WAMC and click on the stickied graph of the historical chance of acceptance with MCAT/GPA combos. Find your GPA and your MCAT and that gives you a reasonable estimate. LizzyM score is only one part of your application.

 

[OneTwoThreeFour]

So many questions!
How many students?
Is that the mean or the median?
Last year alone, or several years in the past?
Students going straight from undergrad or all students combined?
What is your GPA?
What is your MCAT?

Premed advisors often have the school's best interest (rather than the individual student's) at heart, so they will make the school look as impressive as possible.

 

[Wasted Energy]

How big of an applicant pool does your school produce? A low sample size is almost always going to give you a skewed average and if it is school specific data, the sample size IS small no matter what school we're talking about.

 

[Lucca]

How big of an applicant pool does your school produce? A low sample size is almost always going to give you a skewed average and if it is school specific data, the sample size IS small no matter what school we're talking about.

Yup. My scholarship group has a 100% acceptance rate but only because only like 3-4 are premeds every year and you need a 3.75 to keep the money 😛

 

[boomshaketheroom]

See if they know the median

 

[Scaredddd]

School specific stats are pretty useless. Go to SDN WAMC and click on the stickied graph of the historical chance of acceptance with MCAT/GPA combos. Find your GPA and your MCAT and that gives you a reasonable estimate. LizzyM score is only one part of your application.

I don't necessarily agree. I've talked to two admissions counselors (one top tier and one low tier) and they both told me that school rigor has a role in admissions?

 

[Scaredddd]

So many questions!
How many students?
Is that the mean or the median?
Last year alone, or several years in the past?
Students going straight from undergrad or all students combined?
What is your GPA?
What is your MCAT?

Premed advisors often have the school's best interest (rather than the individual student's) at heart, so they will make the school look as impressive as possible.

No clue how many students, but I'll double check.
It is the mean.
Fall 2013 cycle, I'm assuming all students combined.

I'm a sophomore, no MCAT and low GPA.

 

[Wasted Energy]

Yup. My scholarship group has a 100% acceptance rate but only because only like 3-4 are premeds every year and you need a 3.75 to keep the money 😛

This brings up another good point, OP, and that is that you should look out for % accepted figures from premed advisers/committees. Many times (like at my school) they will quote % of "preferred" students accepted, which means students that applied with so and so stats had X % acceptance rate. Just be skeptical with figures of that sort.

 

[Scaredddd]

Question regarding the material she sent me. Can requirement classes (outside of science) be completed senior year, after applying?

 

[Reckoner]

I've talked to two admissions counselors (one top tier and one low tier) and they both told me that school rigor has a role in admissions?

That doesn't make school-specific statistics any more useful. As others have mentioned, the sample sizes are usually too small. There are all kinds of other voodoo magic pre-med committees can use to inflate their stats as well. What @Lucca means is that you need a large sample (i.e. the WAMC sticky) to have any real predictive power.

 

[Wasted Energy]

Question regarding the material she sent me. Can requirement classes (outside of science) be completed senior year, after applying?

Always check with the school, but generally yes. (I assume you means classes like English)

 

[Reckoner]

Question regarding the material she sent me. Can requirement classes (outside of science) be completed senior year, after applying?

Yes. As long as you complete them prior to matriculation you're fine.

 

[Scaredddd]

This brings up another good point, OP, and that is that you should look out for % accepted figures from premed advisers/committees. Many times (like at my school) they will quote % of "preferred" students accepted, which means students that applied with so and so stats had X % acceptance rate. Just be skeptical with figures of that sort.

Wait, I'm confused. If they didn't include people with low GPAs, wouldn't that increase the average GPA, 3.5 is below average for all schools.

 

[Scaredddd]

Always check with the school, but generally yes. (I assume you means classes like English)

Yes! My requirement courses, most of which I want to finish senior year.

 

[Wasted Energy]

Wait, I'm confused. If they didn't include people with low GPAs, wouldn't that increase the average GPA, 3.5 is below average for all schools.

It would, and a low GPA stat might be an indication that your school does not do what I mentioned in my earlier post. I'm just saying be careful. As stated above, Premed committees have some skin in the game when they release numbers like that.

 

[chenzt]

I emailed a premed adviser and she sent me some stats that scare me...

The average science GPA of admitted students from my school is 3.5. Makes sense, school is somewhat deflating.
73% of applicants get in, 78% of which had above a 3.0, 21% of which had below a 3.0.

This gave my crappy GPA some hope, but the average MCAT of accepted students is 35.

Is this to make up for the lower GPAs?

I have no hope in getting in now.

Average acceptance is 45% for everyone, so for a school to crank out 78% acceptance rate... Something has to be higher. In this case, the MCAT. Not really surprising. Even with a 3.5 GPA and 32 MCAT, your chance is still like ~40%. Check AAMC table 24

 

[Goro]

MSAR Online is also your friend. The avg MD acceptee has a GPA of 3.6 and an MCAT of 32. MD schools also have a seller's market, so they take people with high GPAs AND high MCATs.

DO schools are more forgiving and are OK with a high MCAT balancing out a lower GPA, and vice-versa. The avg DO acceptee has a 3.4 GPA and MCAT ~26. This will vary from school to school, naturally.

A little fear is a good thing.

I emailed a premed adviser and she sent me some stats that scare me...

The average science GPA of admitted students from my school is 3.5. Makes sense, school is somewhat deflating.
73% of applicants get in, 78% of which had above a 3.0, 21% of which had below a 3.0.

This gave my crappy GPA some hope, but the average MCAT of accepted students is 35.

Is this to make up for the lower GPAs?

I have no hope in getting in now.

 

[Scaredddd]

MSAR Online is also your friend. The avg MD acceptee has a GPA of 3.6 and an MCAT of 32. MD schools also have a seller's market, so they take people with high GPAs AND high MCATs.

DO schools are more forgiving and are OK with a high MCAT balancing out a lower GPA, and vice-versa. The avg DO acceptee has a 3.4 GPA and MCAT ~26. This will vary from school to school, naturally.

A little fear is a good thing.

Oh wow. I think it's about time for me to give up.

 

[moop]

Oh wow. I think it's about time for me to give up.

It's probably time for you to get off of these forums if you're keeping that mentality. If reading these things makes you paranoid, then it's not helping or exerting their intended effects, which are the exact opposite of what you're feeling. Just a thought..

It's easy to give up, but stats aren't everything.

 

[orangeman25]

MSAR Online is also your friend. The avg MD acceptee has a GPA of 3.6 and an MCAT of 32. MD schools also have a seller's market, so they take people with high GPAs AND high MCATs.

DO schools are more forgiving and are OK with a high MCAT balancing out a lower GPA, and vice-versa. The avg DO acceptee has a 3.4 GPA and MCAT ~26. This will vary from school to school, naturally.

A little fear is a good thing.

The difference between a 3.6 and a 3.4 doesn't seem that much, while the difference between a 26 and a 32 seems extremely substantial. Does this mean that DO schools value the gpa more?

 

[Goro]

It depends upon the school. I believe that user3 posted a table of the stats for the DO schools for the entering 2011 or 2012 classes. There are clearly schools that favor high GPA and tolerate a lower MCAT (ACOM, KYCOM), while others (like CCOM) want a high MCAT and tolerate a lower GPA.

Overall, the aveg COM has a requirement analogous to a low-tier MD school, or many of the mid-west or southern state MD schools. Naturally, the AACOMAS's grade replacement policy helps a lot!

I should have saved that table! Ahh, I did save it!

Touro-Ca: 3.44/3.37/29.5 (2016)
CCOM: 3.60/3.55/29
RVU: 3.6/3.57/28.33
DMU: 3.68/3.68/28.2
RowanSOM: 3.63/3.55/28
MSUCOM: 3.6/3.6/28
NYITCOM: 3.6/28
UNTHSC-TCOM: 3.57/3.46/28 (2016)
COMP: 3.56/3.51/28
COMP-NW: 3.55/3.49/28
AZCOM: 3.51/3.44/28
LECOM-B: 3.50/3.40/28
NSU: 3.49/3.40/28
PCOM: 3.46/3.37/28 (2016)
TUNCOM: ?/28
OU-HCOM: 3.65/27.40
KCOM: 3.56/3.47/27
UNECOM: 3.5+/3.45/27 (class of ?)
LECOM-E/SH: 3.48/3.35/27
ATSU-SOMA: 3.42/3.32/27 (2016)
PCOM-Ga: ?/27 (2015)
MUCOM: 3.57/26.25
OSU-COM: 3.61/3.54/26
KCUMB: 3.60/3.53/26
CUSOM: 3.55/3.23/26
WCU: 3.5/3.4/26
ACOM: 3.4-3.5/26
LMU: ?/26
PNWU: 3.41/3.30/25.86 (2016)
VCOM-CC: 3.61/3.55/25 (2015)
VCOM-VC: 3.59/3.52/25 (2015)
WVSOM: 3.4/3.4/25
KYCOM: 3.5/3.4/24
Touro-NY: ?

The difference between a 3.6 and a 3.4 doesn't seem that much, while the difference between a 26 and a 32 seems extremely substantial. Does this mean that DO schools value the gpa more?

 

[Goro]

I can't take credit for it...user3 compiled it, I believe.


Is this from an AACOM data trove or did you compile via each school's own reported stat's? Enquiring minds want to know.

 

[Microglia]

Oh wow. I think it's about time for me to give up.

At every stage of this career path there is some hurdle that appears at first insurmountable. All we can ever do is work towards transcending our limits and continue onward.