But wait, there's more! What could be more important in determining who will be a quality physician than GPA and MCAT you ask? Since many seem to think I'm co-conspiring with the AMA, AAMC, NIH, and Congress to create the illusion that ethnic/racial diversity is important in medicine, I'll list different qualities sought after by medical admissions committees.
Empathy:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/...d&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=12047665&query_hl=3
ONTEXT: Empathy is a major component of a satisfactory doctor-patient relationship and the cultivation of empathy is a learning objective proposed by the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) for all American medical schools. Therefore, it is important to address the measurement of empathy, its development and its correlates in medical schools. OBJECTIVES: We designed this study to test two hypotheses: firstly, that medical students with higher empathy scores would obtain higher ratings of clinical competence in core clinical clerkships; and secondly, that women would obtain higher empathy scores than men. MATERIALS AND SUBJECTS: A 20-item empathy scale developed by the authors (Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy) was completed by 371 third-year medical students (198 men, 173 women). METHODS: Associations between empathy scores and ratings of clinical competence in six core clerkships, gender, and performance on objective examinations were studied by using t-test, analysis of variance, chi-square and correlation coefficients. RESULTS: Both research hypotheses were confirmed. Empathy scores were associated with ratings of clinical competence and gender, but not with performance in objective examinations such as the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT), and Steps 1 and 2 of the US Medical Licensing Examinations (USMLE). CONCLUSIONS: Empathy scores are associated with ratings of clinical competence and gender. The operational measure of empathy used in this study provides opportunities to further examine educational and clinical correlates of empathy, as well as stability and changes in empathy at different stages of undergraduate and graduate medical education.
Other qualifications include "fundamental proficiencies such as accurate recording of observations, communicating ideas well, dealing with human emotions and becoming sensitive to human frailties, learning to listen and respond appropriately, learning to make sound judgments, and cultivating empathy and compassion."
For more of these non-MCAT and GPA related criteria, check out
http://www.naahp.org/abstract_threeflat.htm
From reading this, I found out that
"The findings that 74 percent of the variance in graduation categories was not accounted for by the traditional preadmissions data for students in Group I and that more than 60 percent of the students in Group II are doing better than predicted by the discriminant model emphasizes the limitations of using traditional admissions variables in predicting progress of nontraditional students. "
WHAT?! 74% of the variance not accounted for by the traditional preadmissions data
??? I guess there goes the idea that those with highest MCATS and GPAS should always have the "spots" and under qualified URMs with lower scores bump those people from "their spots". Maybe Admissions committees find it necessary to consider other, non-numerical factors.
