Have averages been increasing over the years?

[Blondnuttyboy]

Hey all..

if you look at an avg. mcat/avg. gpa chart for med schools from say 2001-2003, they seem a little low. Nowaday, I feel like you're pretty much done unless you have a 3.7, 30+ but back then a 3.5,28-30 seemed fine.

Is there an increase in applicant talent or what?

I'm just a little spooked as I need to retake the mcat and my 3.6 gpa is getting hit with a 3.2 second semester, senior year gpa : )

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[Spathi]

I like to think that a 3.6 and a 32 is kind of a competitive score. Then again maybe not..

 

[emaj1n]

I like to think that a 3.6 and a 32 is kind of a competitive score. Then again maybe not..

If you score above a 27 on the MCAT and have the standard 3.6, you have a chance to make what will be an tough uphill climb. I know people who have made it with less, but barely.

 

[AnEyeLikeMars]

Hey all..

if you look at an avg. mcat/avg. gpa chart for med schools from say 2001-2003, they seem a little low. Nowaday, I feel like you're pretty much done unless you have a 3.7, 30+ but back then a 3.5,28-30 seemed fine.

Is there an increase in applicant talent or what?

I'm just a little spooked as I need to retake the mcat and my 3.6 gpa is getting hit with a 3.2 second semester, senior year gpa : )

Maybe there's an increase in focus on numbers. The average MCAT is certainly not increasing because it's standardized, but the average matriculant MCAT is increasing. So, schools are accepting students with higher MCATs on average then before.

The same could apply for GPA, or maybe it has something to do with grade inflation.


Your GPA is sufficient, but not stellar. Try to do as well as you can on the MCAT. And remember, just because numbers are important, that doesn't mean that they're the only thing that's important. You'll need excellent LORs, essays, ECs or the like to separate yourself from the pack. Good luck

 

[Law2Doc]

Maybe there's an increase in focus on numbers. The average MCAT is certainly not increasing because it's standardized, but the average matriculant MCAT is increasing. So, schools are accepting students with higher MCATs on average then before.

The same could apply for GPA, or maybe it has something to do with grade inflation.

Actually more people are retaking these days than in the past, something that will increase with the added number of MCAT offerings. So the average MCAT of applicants in fact probably is going up. (i.e. each MCAT is standardized but the folks in the applicant pool these days represent the high end of multiple MCATs).

Med school is becoming more competitive of late and so the average scores of matriculants has risen each of the last few years. But I actually think that at the same time the focus isn't as much on the numbers as it was a while back. These days schools want well rounded applicants, with clinical experience, maybe some research, and something unique that distinguished them. A few decades back just having high scores would have been adequate by itself.

 

[Spathi]

Well in the case of GPA, I wonder if it keeps up with the GPA inflation at colleges.

 

[joj884]

Well overall the number of applicants increases far faster than does the # of med school seats and thus if you take roughly the same # each year from a continually increasing pool the GPA/MCATS of the accepted will be higher.

Take the MCAT for example the scores are percentiles of those who took that test. So someone who got a 30 in 1985 was in the 75th-80th percentile of a smaler group of people than someone who gets a 30 today. Conversely the raw number of people (not percentage wise just number) scoring 30+ increases as the overall number of testakers increases and so these averages just seem to creep up.

 

[cleothecat]

There is a larger pool of applicants compared with previous years, so we can assume that there is a greater absolute number of individuals with higher GPA's and MCAT scores .

Schools can become very picky as a result.

 

[shantster]

There is a larger pool of applicants compared with previous years, so we can assume that there is a greater absolute number of individuals with higher GPA's and MCAT scores .

Schools can become very picky as a result.

My thoughts exactly. I remember when I entered college the acceptance rate was ~50%. Now four years later it's ~45%.