Lowest accepted MCAT score for WashU

[keptium]

I was wondering if anybody knows what's the lowest MCAT score a normal applicant could have for WashU to accept them. With an avg of 36.6!!!!! I'm thinking it must be a 35? OY!

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[Jalby]

I heard 32. It was a down year last year.

 

[DW]

Originally posted by Jalby
I heard 32. It was a down year last year.

scary thing is, i'm not sure jalby is joking

 

[isidella]

I "heard" of a 29 acceptance. I can't recall from who or where. . .

 

[tBw]

Originally posted by isidella
I "heard" of a 29 acceptance. I can't recall from who or where. . .

I think the person that got a 29 was just allowed to serve coffee there though. I don't think they got into the medical school....

 

[tBw]

I still don't understand how a school can end up with a class average of 36.6

It does make me wonder a little about the relative weight of the selection criteria....

 

[isidella]

29=coffee? rat bastard. . .

Actually, I remember, the MCAT range for recent accepted washU MSTPers is 29 to 43. It says it on the MSTP website. Must have been showing some research colors. . .

 

[Katie]

baylor21 got in MD/PhD with a 31 to Wash U, but then again he is a super human and got in everywhere. No bitterness here in spite of my previous postings, yes, I wouldn't have minded going to Wash U, but with my 29 MCAT and without much of a publication record it would have been laughable for me to apply there. I bet the admissions committee would have found the first year of my academic record to be extremely entertaining and funny..

 

[Blitzkrieg]

Originally posted by the boy wonder
I think the person that got a 29 was just allowed to serve coffee there though. I don't think they got into the medical school....

 

[Blitzkrieg]

Originally posted by isidella
Must have been showing some research colors. . .

oooooooooooooh...........low blow..hahaha

 

[Andrew_Doan]

You have to look at the whole application package. The MCAT is only one factor, and I know that the top medical schools do not have rigid cut-off scores for rejection.

I was lucky when I applied because I had stronger elements in my application than the MCAT score. I had one bad score on my MCAT (Verbal) that brought my score down considerably; however, I had nearly all A's in my humanities and english courses.

I got a 7 and didn't want to take the test again so I applied to see if I could get in. I think by not taking the exam again, some of the admissions people wrote my bad score off as a fluke or that I had a bad day. It was my luck that they did!

I was also applying MD-PhD so I'm sure they were also interested in other aspects of my application rather than just the MCAT score.

I was able to gain admissions into Wash U, U of Wash, Hopkins, and Columbia so I know for a fact that a bad MCAT score will not SOLELY exclude you from medical schools.

Admissions committees know that there are more elements that make a good physician than a single test.

 

[jwin]

i go to wash u and a member of the admissions committe told us at a premed info session that a person was accepted with an MCAT of 25. the catch to this story is his grandmother died the morning of the MCAT so his score was incongruous with the school he attened, his grades, and his SAT score.

 

[Andrew_Doan]

Jwin,

Agreed. There's so much more to getting into medical schools than just the MCAT and GPA.

 

[katem]

i think it was wash u that also asked for sat scores on the application, which seemed a bit odd to me. i guess they are looking at as many standardized tests as possible to try to predict success on the usmle?

 

[Andrew_Doan]

Hopkins will also take the SAT or GRE. These are simply different measures of academic strengths and weaknesses. I don't think schools really try to predict if students do well on the USMLE. Your performance on the USMLE is another issue and related to your medical school and how you study.

Programs look for objective ways to evaluate students, and these other exams give them another tool to measure applicants by and compare them to each other.

 

[JScrusader]

I work with an ENT who got one of the full tuition scholarships there after going to MIT, so he is scary smart.

 

[jot]

Hopkins will also take the SAT or GRE

this practice has changed in the past few years - now they only accept the mcat. i'll be at hopkins to day and tommorrow - hope it goes well

 

[2badr]

I betcha if *I* didn't do well on the mcat..I wouldn't get in. Being accepted with a low MCAT seems to be the exception,not the rule.

 

[Andrew_Doan]

I betcha if *I* didn't do well on the mcat..I wouldn't get in. Being accepted with a low MCAT seems to be the exception,not the rule.

Yes, you're right that a low MCAT is the exception to the rule. We're just trying to emphasize that there's more to the selection process than just MCAT scores and GPA. There are other elements in your application that may make you stand out. If you don't have that extra boost, then all you have are the scores and GPA.

 

[Andrew_Doan]

Sorry for the misinformation posted by me. It was 10 years ago when I applied to Hopkins. At that time they accepted the SAT, GRE, and ACT. Hopkins was also non-AMCAS; but, they started accepting AMCAS in the late 90s.

Congrats on your interview to Hopkins. You'll like the program. There's not a lot of "cut throat" competition. That's a major misconception. You'll hate the area if you're not used to the Ghetto. Good luck!

 

[marq_bme]

ortho, your acceptances are impressive. I also have a sub-standard verbal score of 9, but with a 33 total. I was able to get MSTP interviews so far at vanderbilt and at case western, but have been thrown in the regular MD pool at duke(interview granted) and cornell. I was wondering...did your research experience clearly stand out as superior? Was there something else amazing in your application that helped you get into top schools? I am curious to know.

 

[keptium]

wow...i'm so happy to see that WashU even considers scores a couple standard deviations below their average. My admission committe lady told me that they only consider scores above a 35 (unless you are an URM or a EXTREMELY unique applicant) and I knew she had to be wrong. ...stupid lady....

 

[Andrew_Doan]

The one element that stood out the most was that I had 4 years of neuroscience research in the same lab. I was very lucky to be able to find a mentor who taught me well, and my 4 years of work lead to 5 publications with 1 being a first authored paper. I also had 5-6 abstracts and Society for Neuroscience presentations.

I did well in college, volunteered, organized service projects, played rugby, and setup blood drives at my college. I had a well rounded application. The only bad thing was the 7 verbal.