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hmmm....what if i had a 3.9 overall gpa, 4.0 science gpa, 30 mcat could i possibly be accepted on these numbers alone?
gpa and mcat alone = acceptance?
- Thread starter tae1703
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no. There are people with great numbers who don't get into med school. There is more involved than numbers. Although numbers are increadibly important.
E
Eraserhead
you would need more than a 30 mcat and you'd just get an interview automatically, not an acceptance...
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That is ridiculous. Look in MSAR and count the number of people with 40 MCATs who get rejected. The very very few people with 40 MCATs who get rejected often get rejected because they have very low GPAs (<3.0) or applied late to mostly elite schools. ECs are the most overrated part of the admissions process. Adcoms like to talk a lot about ECs to make their job seem mysterious and important. Simple statistical analysis would show that there is a very strong correlation between GPA/MCAT and probability of acceptance. Since those with high GPA/MCAT do not necessarily have better ECs than those with low GPA/MCAT, this means GPA/MCAT is far far far more important than all other criteria.
The only way a person with a 3.9/40 and no ECs would not get in is if s/he applies to only top 10 schools or applies very late. Less than 0.5% of applicants have 3.9+/40 so most non-elite schools are not going to turn them down just because they lack ECs.
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I agree with the above posters.
NO, GPA and MCAT does not alone give you acceptance!!!
GPA=Work Ethic
MCAT=Intelligence, Reasoning Abiliity
ADCOMs have 3 criteria for a medical student.
1. Is this person motivated to work hard in medical school.
2. Is this person capable of medical school academically.
3. Do I want this person to be my doctor and/or colleague.
The third criteria is found by personal statement and INTERVIEW. The 1st two criteria is via GPA, and MCAT respectively.
Believe it or not, many people get turned down even though they have Strong Stats.
NO, GPA and MCAT does not alone give you acceptance!!!
GPA=Work Ethic
MCAT=Intelligence, Reasoning Abiliity
ADCOMs have 3 criteria for a medical student.
1. Is this person motivated to work hard in medical school.
2. Is this person capable of medical school academically.
3. Do I want this person to be my doctor and/or colleague.
The third criteria is found by personal statement and INTERVIEW. The 1st two criteria is via GPA, and MCAT respectively.
Believe it or not, many people get turned down even though they have Strong Stats.
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That depends on what you call "strong stats." If we are to believe the MSAR book(and there is no reason not to), 99+% of all those with 40 MCATs get accepted. Given the fact that there aren't that many applicants with 40 MCAT, <1% of them cannot be "many" or can it?
Gbemi: I'm actually pretty sure everyone with a 39 or above on the MCATs got in. But if the person has crap LoR's, personal statement, interview, and ECs, I still don't think a 40 is special enough. I'm sure there are a couple of hundred people who got 40 or better.
And I am sure that all those 40's that did get into med school did not have crap for the rest of their application
And I am sure that all those 40's that did get into med school did not have crap for the rest of their application
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This is the best explanation. No one wants a butthole jerk-off at their school, so you can blow it in the interview even if your stats are stellar.
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Strong stats in my mind are 3.75+ gpa AND 33+mcat(preferably 11s across)..if one section is not a double digit i.e. verbal is a 9. Than, I would consider a 35+ mcat very strong (i.e 9, 13, 13).
Tae......No...
Your stats show that you are capable of medical school, and will hard at medical school. Your success will not be questioned. Still, JUST BECAUSE you are capable of succeeding in medical school doesn't mean you should be given a chance.
Medicine above all else is a social science i.e you will be working with people. Thus, social skills and people skills will ALWAYS be a part of the ADCOM process.
Even a pathologist will work with people i.e med techs, phlebotomists, other physicians.
Also, other factors include integrity and character. Even a malevolent person can have strong stats, however I think we can all agree that these people should not be given a chance to become a physician.
Tae......No...
Your stats show that you are capable of medical school, and will hard at medical school. Your success will not be questioned. Still, JUST BECAUSE you are capable of succeeding in medical school doesn't mean you should be given a chance.
Medicine above all else is a social science i.e you will be working with people. Thus, social skills and people skills will ALWAYS be a part of the ADCOM process.
Even a pathologist will work with people i.e med techs, phlebotomists, other physicians.
Also, other factors include integrity and character. Even a malevolent person can have strong stats, however I think we can all agree that these people should not be given a chance to become a physician.
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Actually, there are not a "couple of hundred" applicants with 40+ MCAT scores. There are <200. Also, I was talking about ECs, not LORs, personal statements and interviews. If EVERYTHING non-academic about a "superstar" applicant is very negative, s/he might be rejected because it would suggest that something is amiss. However, such applicants are very rare. What is not very rare are students with 40+/3.8+ and average LORs, personal statements, interview scores and mediocre ECs. These students have ~100% acceptance rates. I deduced this by noting that MSAR reports an approximately 100% acceptance rate for those with 39+ MCATs. This is very telling since a significant number of these applicants have <3.5 GPAs.
Academic "superstars" only need spectacular ECs to be competitive at top 10 schools. Casually reading through profiles on MDapplicants.com should convince you of that fact.
"This is very telling since a significant number of these applicants have <3.5 GPAs." Do you have a source for this? I haven't seen any stats correlating high MCATs with their respective scores.
Edit:
I found the link I was looking for. Almost 200 people got 40 or better. around 400 if you include those who got 39's. Here's the thread:
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?s=&threadid=45362&highlight=statistics+MCAT
Edit:
I found the link I was looking for. Almost 200 people got 40 or better. around 400 if you include those who got 39's. Here's the thread:
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?s=&threadid=45362&highlight=statistics+MCAT
oh, and I do agree with you for the most part. average everything else plus a 39+ should get you in. But I still don't think that GPA + MCAT by themselves can get people in without a look at their interview and LoR unless they're around 40, and even then it's not a 100% guarantee
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I refuse to post on this thread... ... ... 🙄
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I'd like to ask what the point is of all this asking "will I get into med school or not" crap when NONE of you ACTUALLY can really speculate on whether this person has a chance. Are you on the med admissions committe? NOOO! Do you have any real world experience pertaining to admissions committee decisions or have any pull on the committee, very unlikely. If not, then please, don't comment on this poor applicant's chances cuz you'll most likely confuse him, give him false hope, or discourage him needlessly. Stop it unless you are actually ON the admissions committee of the school to which he is applying! 
😱
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Blah, blah, blah.🙄
A non-privileged applicant (non-legacy, non-AA) will not get into a US allopathic school based only on GPA and MCAT. You DO need some EC/volunteering, you DO need a good LOR (at least 1) and you DO need to make a good impression at the interview.
I submit that a person w/o EC/volunteering won't even get an interview
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Originally posted by TravellinDoc
I'd like to ask what the point is of all this asking "will I get into med school or not" crap when NONE of you ACTUALLY can really speculate on whether this person has a chance. Are you on the med admissions committe? NOOO! Do you have any real world experience pertaining to admissions committee decisions or have any pull on the committee, very unlikely. If not, then please, don't comment on this poor applicant's chances cuz you'll most likely confuse him, give him false hope, or discourage him needlessly. Stop it unless you are actually ON the admissions committee of the school to which he is applying!
it was just a question. i never said that these are my numbers even though they could be but im not saying if they r or not. actually i asked my premed advisor and she said she does know that ppl have been accepted on gpa and mcat alone.
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maybe they had a club or two and of course at least some sort of ec's. i never heard of anyone applying who has no ec's. i have ec's but i was only asking about numbers right now. of course i wanted speculation. thats the fun in it. its fun to ask these sorta q's.
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Definitely no. I have a 4.0, 4.0 a 43 MCAT score and was wait listed at Hopkins.
It will get you interviews, no doubt. Will it get you interviews at UPenn and schools like that, well, probably not, what about state U? Probably. GPA is a lot less important that people think. Consult the MSAR, everyone has 4.0s.
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From what I hear, a low GPA/high MCAT score combo looks a lot better to an adcom than vice versa (high GPA/low MCAT). Adcoms need a way to level the playing field between the students at MIT and the students at Fresno State...and that's why the MCAT is so vital in this process. Personally, I know I'm a cynic...but I really do believe that numbers are the PRIMARY players in the admissions game. I think adcoms and schools just like to play lip service to ECs, volunteering, etc...but I think they look at numbers MOST heavily. All the websites for the top med schools brag about having the following in their incoming MSI class: an Olympic gold medalist in sacrinized swimming, a former police officer, a former air force pilot who flew reconnaisance missions over Iraq in a stealth bomber and/or F-16, a former ski instructor, a former investment banker from J.P. Morgan, etc. Honestly, how many applicants can boast of such a background? Probably just a handful across the country. I think practically EVERYONE else was admitted primarily based on their GPA, MCAT, course selection, and degrees earned (BS, MPH, MS, etc). I know this is a pretty bleak look at admissions...but unfortunately, I think this is what really matters. Your essay and LOR won't even be READ by anyone unless you get past the initial GPA/MCAT screen. And even if you do get past that screen, the essay is probably just skimmed over by a student adcom to see..."How much does this essay resemble the 7,000 other essays we have? How trite is it?"
