How Closely is Your Application Read?

[biophysicianai]

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Simple question: How closely do adcoms read your transcript, etc.?

I searched this, and there are a few (old or very old) posts about it. One of them featured a response from an former adcom who said that he/she read transcripts very carefully. The rest of the posts were mostly anecdotes from student X about how they "know a guy who..."

I'm guessing that there is much variation between schools, but I'd like to know if anyone knows anything (facts!) that would better inform me about the matter.

I ask because I have good (not great) stats that are much more flattering for me when interpreted a certain way. What do I mean by this? Well, we have to report ALL of our grades from college-level classes on our app. I took college classes in high school (multivariable calculus, differential equations, number theory - I like math), after exhausting my high school's A.P. curriculum. I did well, but not pre-med-well (if ya know what I mean 😉).

I also placed into a VERY accelerated year-long course during my freshman year. I did poorly during in my first semester of it (i.e., during my first semester at college). I realized why i performed poorly, and got an A during the second semester. Due to the nature of averages, a single bad grade hurts a good GPA more than additional good grades help it.

Basically, science GPA = 3.5ish, all things considered - so decent, not superb. But, Science GPA = 3.8 when you ignore high school / advanced course taken my 1st semester whose second half I aced.

Long. Sorry. Thoughts? Thanks e'rybody.

 

[J ROD]

they read close enough to make sure all the i's are dotted and the t's crossed!!! 😀

 

[flip26]

Simple question: How closely do adcoms read your transcript, etc.?

I searched this, and there are a few (old or very old) posts about it. One of them featured a response from an former adcom who said that he/she read transcripts very carefully. The rest of the posts were mostly anecdotes from student X about how they "know a guy who..."

I'm guessing that there is much variation between schools, but I'd like to know if anyone knows anything (facts!) that would better inform me about the matter.

I ask because I have good (not great) stats that are much more flattering for me when interpreted a certain way. What do I mean by this? Well, we have to report ALL of our grades from college-level classes on our app. I took college classes in high school (multivariable calculus, differential equations, number theory - I like math), after exhausting my high school's A.P. curriculum. I did well, but not pre-med-well (if ya know what I mean 😉).

I also placed into a VERY accelerated year-long course during my freshman year. I did poorly during in my first semester of it (i.e., during my first semester at college). I realized why i performed poorly, and got an A during the second semester. Due to the nature of averages, a single bad grade hurts a good GPA more than additional good grades help it.

Basically, science GPA = 3.5ish, all things considered - so decent, not superb. But, Science GPA = 3.8 when you ignore high school / advanced course taken my 1st semester whose second half I aced.

Long. Sorry. Thoughts? Thanks e'rybody.

Have you applied yet? If not, get a look at the way AMCAS presents your GPA in a grid that shows each year from high school to graduate school, and GPA broken down by BCPM, All Other, and cumulative total for each year.

Thus someone looking at that chart would see that you have your lowest science grades on college level course work taken in high school...

 

[biophysicianai]

Thanks fellas. This is reassuring.

Grade issues aside, all I have left to do is convince the adcom's that I'm as special as mama told me I am 😀

 

[red10]

I'm sure they read them very closely. How else do you decide between 1000 kids with 3.8s 30+ MCATs and lots of clinical experience?

 

[biophysicianai]

I hope so.

But, I've also heard an the equally convincing argument that "with 2000 applications, they can't read them all closely. You have to have high numbers to even get to the point where they begin to pay attention to your app."

Another question, if i may (and, I believe, I may indeed 😀):

How much do grade trends matter? We know that an upward trend is a good thing - but how big of an affect does it have? For that matter, how negatively does a downward trend affect you?

I'm guessing that consistency is probably a good thing, so what about someone whose four years in school looked like this: 4.0 first, then 3.0 second, then 4.0 third, then 3.0 fourth. They'd have a 3.5, which is the average for the admitted, but they'd also have a strange looking performance record.

 

[FluffyRabbit]

I'm sure they read them very closely. How else do you decide between 1000 kids with 3.8s 30+ MCATs and lots of clinical experience?

Throw darts. 🙂

Of course they don't actually do that, but sometimes to those of us who are applying, being quite blind to the process, it almost seems like that.

 

[apumic]

I hope so.

But, I've also heard an the equally convincing argument that "with 2000 applications, they can't read them all closely. You have to have high numbers to even get to the point where they begin to pay attention to your app."

Another question, if i may (and, I believe, I may indeed 😀):

How much do grade trends matter? We know that an upward trend is a good thing - but how big of an affect does it have? For that matter, how negatively does a downward trend affect you?

I'm guessing that consistency is probably a good thing, so what about someone whose four years in school looked like this: 4.0 first, then 3.0 second, then 4.0 third, then 3.0 fourth. They'd have a 3.5, which is the average for the admitted, but they'd also have a strange looking performance record.

3.5 is actually quite a bit below the average matriculant's GPA, which is 3.65. And yes, a 3.0/4.0 alternating semesters would be a bit of a red flag. I don't think one or two weaker semesters (i.e., mid-3.x) amongst a series of high 3.x (e.g., 3.8, 3.8, 3.7, 3.8 3.5,3.7, 3.6, 3.8) would hurt you, though, since the rest are quite strong and the dip is pretty small. A dip to <3.0 OTOH could cause some questions, though, and would likely need a good explanation.

 

[LizzyM]

At my school there are more than 2 dozen faculty and medical students who read applications. Some read an average of 10 per week and really get into them deeply. Additional faculty review the work of the readers and read a little less deeply but try to check out anything that is worrisome or that bolsters a recommendation to interview.

The first thing we see is the total gpa, science gpa, non-science gpa, and gpa by year. Seeing a gpa by year that rises over time, or that has a bumpy trajectory, will lead me directly to the transcript where I'll look whether the classes were tagged as "honors", where they were taken (sometimes people take classes at schools other than their own), what the courses were and the exact grade. Having nothing lower than a B is a different situation than having Cs later balanced with As. Having poor grades in the pre-reqs is different than having those same grades in math and science classes far removed from medical science or the pre-reqs.

A saw tooth pattern with better performance in freshman & junior yrs is typical of students who have a hard time in organic chemistry (sophomore year) and who slack off a little in senior year (maybe due to interviews). A J curve with the dip and rise is another common pattern. We never look at gpas by semester or quarter, only by year. If there is a very bad year in college (<3.0 or a >0.6 drop) we might look for something in the application (LOR, essay) that provides an explanation (personal illness, family catastrophy). Don't stretch this with something bogus like "my 99 year old great grandfather died in his sleep in October of my junior year and I found it hard to concentrate when my mind kept turning back to how I might have saved him. Consequently my grades suffered."

 

[redsquareblack]

Don't stretch this with something bogus like "my 99 year old great grandfather died in his sleep in October of my junior year and I found it hard to concentrate when my mind kept turning back to how I might have saved him. Consequently my grades suffered."

Well, there goes that idea.