How accurate is a school's mission statement?

[musicalfeet]

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So I recently talked to a friend of mine who goes to one of my top choice med schools, and she mentioned that although her school seems to be heavily emphasizing a certain mission statement, the student population doesn't really seem to reflect the mission statement. That is, the school claims to be very underserved/primary care oriented, which really interested me and made me think I would be a good fit for the school. According to her though, less than half of her classmates want to go into primary care, and almost very few are actually from the area/want to work in the underserved areas.

She also says she doesn't think the MSAR does a good job in reflecting the school's characteristics because it reports a lower MCAT than what she has heard from her classmates and who they've accepted in the past.

So my question is, could this school be touting a specific mission, but actually looking for something completely different?? I thought it'd be a good fit because I wasn't really looking for a huge research institution or anything, and was more interested in schools with a primary care focus...but maybe I'm not. Also, a lot of schools seem to write that they're interested in the community and primary care in the mission statement, but obviously not all of them are.?

 

[gyngyn]

So I recently talked to a friend of mine who goes to one of my top choice med schools, and she mentioned that although her school seems to be heavily emphasizing a certain mission statement, the student population doesn't really seem to reflect the mission statement. That is, the school claims to be very underserved/primary care oriented, which really interested me and made me think I would be a good fit for the school. According to her though, less than half of her classmates want to go into primary care, and almost very few are actually from the area/want to work in the underserved areas.

She also says she doesn't think the MSAR does a good job in reflecting the school's characteristics because it reports a lower MCAT than what she has heard from her classmates and who they've accepted in the past.

So my question is, could this school be touting a specific mission, but actually looking for something completely different?? I thought it'd be a good fit because I wasn't really looking for a huge research institution or anything, and was more interested in schools with a primary care focus...but maybe I'm not. Also, a lot of schools seem to write that they're interested in the community and primary care in the mission statement, but obviously not all of them are.?

Even if 40% chose primary care this would be a substantial proportion!
Data from the MSAR is directly from AMCAS. It is not reported by the school and is the most reliable data available.

 

[Willy38]

Not sure about how well schools follow their mission statement but as gyngyn mentioned; MSAR is reported directly from AMCAS and is calculated based on all acceptances given out by a school. The MSAR data actually reflects higher stats/scores because those with multiple acceptances are counted multiple times. (e.g. A student with a 40 MCAT that is accepted at UVA, Harvard, and Penn is counted in each of these respective schools' admissions data. The 40 MCAT is factored into each of these schools mean/median accepted MCAT even though they can only matriculate at one school)

 

[darkjedi]

I'm not entirely sure what my school's mission statement even is. Most of it seems to be intended as marketing more than anything else.

Honestly the best way to get an idea how what a school is like is to talk to the students and faculty there. They will have the more familiarity with what the school likes to focus on, and what things tends to be ignored. You should be able to get a sense of what different schools are proud of about their institutions, and those should be the things you focus on.

 

[WillburCobb]

My school's mission statement is part of the state century code - they seem to take it fairly seriously...