How does the MMI factor into post-interview decisions?

[langwang3]

Suppose Johnny Premed did his MMI at a top place like NYU or Duke, and now the admissions committee is meeting to decide whether to accept him. What information do they receive about his MMI? Does the committee just get a number, like 6.4/10, or do they also get comments? Are all stations equally important, or do some stations carry more weight, e.g. the traditional interview station? Let's say Johnny Premed did not raise any red flags during his MMI.

And how much does this information play a role in his acceptance decision? I understand that the admissions committee would review the entire application after the interview, so how much weight does the MMI really carry?

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[Davidfromcali]

A few years back (2015 to be exact), I got to sit in on a presentation by an adcom who works in the admissions office at Stanford.
He actually explained how the MMI is incorporated into the overall application. What happens is that you given a final score from the MMI. He didn’t say what that score was out of , or if a station gets dropped at the end. You get a total score though. Then, all the MMI scores of all the applicants are combined to figure out the average among the groups. After that, standard deviation is calculated, which will compare your performance to the average of all the applicants. Naturally, the further you from the mean, in a positive sense, the better. Once that data is obtained, it is placed into your file and reviewed by adcom.

that’s all that was said. He never said that a average performance can kill your chances. It seems like many factors are taken into account. However, this was at Stanford, so other places may do things very differently. This was five years ago so the process may have changed as well

 

[marcosma]

I don’t think anybody can give you a good answer on this, but, speaking from anecdotal evidence, I honestly do not think that MMI performance is that important. I rocked the NYU MMI (in my own opinion of course) and got waitlisted, and struggled through Duke’s and got accepted.

there is also a podcast out there with Duke’s dean of admissions (I think) where they just say that they are looking for applicants to “pass” the MMI

edit: see above post!

 

[langwang3]

A few years back (2015 to be exact), I got to sit in on a presentation by an adcom who works in the admissions office at Stanford.
He actually explained how the MMI is incorporated into the overall application. What happens is that you given a final score from the MMI. He didn’t say what that score was out of , or if a station gets dropped at the end. You get a total score though. Then, all the MMI scores of all the applicants are combined to figure out the average among the groups. After that, standard deviation is calculated, which will compare your performance to the average of all the applicants. Naturally, the further you from the mean, in a positive sense, the better. Once that data is obtained, it is placed into your file and reviewed by adcom.

that’s all that was said. He never said that a average performance can kill your chances. It seems like many factors are taken into account. However, this was at Stanford, so other places may do things very differently. This was five years ago so the process may have changed as well

thanks for the info, I had no idea adcoms give these kinds of presentations. I thought they sit in a secret lair and do their thing in complete secrecy

 

[langwang3]

I don’t think anybody can give you a good answer on this, but, speaking from anecdotal evidence, I honestly do not think that MMI performance is that important. I rocked the NYU MMI (in my own opinion of course) and got waitlisted, and struggled through Duke’s and got accepted.

there is also a podcast out there with Duke’s dean of admissions (I think) where they just say that they are looking for applicants to “pass” the MMI

edit: see above post!

I've kinda felt this way from my experience as well, which is why i made the post. I think it's mostly a way for med school faculty to save time and energy. It's much less effort to let the applicant do all the talking and give a simple 1-10 rating than to actually read up on their app and have a real conversation. Or even better, let med students or actors do the rating

 

[_Cloud9]

i personally think the interview performance matters a lot - of course it depends on EVERY other component of your application as well. but once you get to the interview stage they've already taken into account all those other factors, that's why you got invited to the interview. so that's the last obstacle to clear lol. especially if your stats are not as competitive to other interviewees. take no risks and prepare for every component of the application like it's the last chance you'll get for med school lol. also found this video on how mmi is scored if that helps

 

[DHoang3]

I think it is very much school dependent. At my school, they gave us the breakdown of admission decision during our meeting after the MMI and they stated that the MMI would be 50% of the decision!