"A school with an average student accepted score of 26 has accepted about the same amount of students with a 30 as students with a 22."--jlep2003
jlep2003, if the school cannot enroll enough candidates with scores of 30, then applicants with MCAT scores four points below the mean will not be admitted. Most applicants belong to the range of 24-28 and therefore admission would be highly improbable with a score of 22; the distribution can be quite thin just 2 points away from the mean. For example, MCAT scores of 21, 27, 27, 28, 29 will result in an average of "26.4." Notice that only the score of '21' is below the 26 average that you've mentioned. Furthermore, I think it's irresponsible not to prepare enough to score at least 24 on the MCAT if an applicant desires to pursue Medicine.
MSERMAN, study thoroughly enough to score "27+" on the MCAT (9v, 9p, 9b). With the growing interest in Osteopathic Medicine, the admissions criteria will only become more competitive every year. However, your "minimum MCAT score" should be 24.