Is this an accurate resource

[DaiCa86]

How accurate is this website http://www.studentdoc.com/medfind.html

Was this a good indicator of where to apply?

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[TMP-SMX]

How accurate is this website http://www.studentdoc.com/medfind.html

Was this a good indicator of where to apply?

Well I just put in my info for the hell out of it. WSU, the school I am going to I have a 0.00 for it. So take that as you will. Of course I don't think the data is fully up to date.

I think the general consensus is to apply only to schools your GPA is within 0.2 of the median GPA at the school along with your MCAT being within 2 although the MCAT has a little more leeway. If one is lower the other should be higher.

 

[crazy_cavalier]

The admission process is not as strictly formulaic as this resource would have you believe.

Here's a little bit of advice that you might not have heard... if your undergrad has a premed advisor/committee or a pro-professional career counseling service, go down to their office and review the available data on prior applicants from your university. Some schools will list, year by year, how many of their students applied, how many were accepted, and perhaps most importantly, WHERE students from your school have been accepted to in previous years.

 

[BeanerMD]

Princeton Review online also has a search like this. I, too, agree that simply plugging in numbers to an electronic search function may not yield the most accurate results. Instead, I'd recommend buying MSAR, listing some priorities you have in selecting a medical school (i.e. academic compatability, PBL versus lecture, cost/year, # students matriculating with graduate degrees, etc.) and seeing how every school holds up against your list. I spent some quality time doing this last year, had to weedle down my list from an initial 50 good matches (to 22- the number of programs to which I applied), and low and behold, I'll be matriculating this fall

Just a suggestion- but I hope it's as helpful for you as it was for me

 

[Depakote]

That tool is not very useful. I've been rejected by plenty of the schools where I'm "very competitive" or "competitive" and given serious consideration by schools where my point score was negative.

It's more complicated than GPA, MCAT and residency...

They'll score your LORs, your PS and your Interview too and give them point value when making their decision.

 

[Law2Doc]

The admission process is not as strictly formulaic as this resource would have you believe.

Agreed. That resource would not have led me to any of the schools I actually had interviews at. Don't rely on it to any extent IMHO. Your application is more than just your numbers.

 

[UMP]

woah... I was competitive at Harvard and Hopkins? Why didn't I apply there? That thing over-emphasizes the MCAT

 

[Doctor~Detroit]

How accurate is this website http://www.studentdoc.com/medfind.html

Was this a good indicator of where to apply?

i don't know. i'm color-blind, so i can't tell the difference between my most- and least-competitive schools. way to go, website.

 

[DaiCa86]

i don't know. i'm color-blind, so i can't tell the difference between my most- and least-competitive schools. way to go, website.

HAHA clever

 

[SupergreenMnM]

That tool sucks, it doesn't even list all the medical schools...it seems to think that MN has none, and my scores are above those of the avg cornell student yet it only lists me as 'competitive -.4' for them

 

[TMP-SMX]

MSAR is what you should look at. Toss the schools that don't accept a lot of out of state students. If you are an average applicant with about a 29-30 and 3.4-3.6 there's no reason to apply to any school with an out of state percentage of less than 25-30%. That removes a majority of the public schools.

 

[gary5]

The tool is OK as a very rough guideline, but is missing some schools. Note that you can be competitive at a school, but if you interview poorly, that's enough to prevent an acceptance. I was accepted at schools where my score was about a 2.0 or greater.