no no im not saying that MCAT will go P/F
Will the MCAT hold less weight for adcoms during med school apps
No. The main difference in selecting medical students over medical residents is one of applicant pool size and the differing weight ofet the factors in consideration.
In medical student selection, you have an:
-extremely large pool of applicants
-being looked at for rather broad characteristics of academic ability and traits for being a physician
-with a large swath of majors and background
-from a wide variety of colleges
-with vast differences in rigor
-major differences even within and across majors
-with no standardization of grading or academic evaluation
-extremely uneven and wide variation in letters of evaluations that emphasis only the student
-extremely wide variation of professors and evaluators a large web of connections make personal connections much less important
-this large pool of applicants going into a large class (100+) makes this process a large group dynamic
All this makes the MCAT the single standard measure across all this variation
In medical resident selection
-you have a much smaller pool of applicants
-with extremely well-defined and specific requirements of knowledge, ability and teamwork
-from a very narrow and well-defined curriculum
-from a small array of medical schools with closely similar educational missions
-with a similar standards of rigor closely overseen by accrediting bodies
-with similar grading in that all students must show achievement in virtually the same curriculum
-with evaluations from a very similar pool of evaluators (all with MD and board certification in narrow, well defined fields where reputation of the evaluator is as important as the student. That is, an evaluator will not recommend students to a residency that isnt is a good fit, They need to preserve the reputation themselves in this process
-Personal connections and networking are nearly as important as any other factors
-this small pool of very similar applicants into a very small number of residents being evaluated and recommended by people of extremely similar backgrounds makes this process a small group dynamic
All this makes the STEP I less important as a factor
