MSAR and Med School sites have significant conflicting admissions data. Input?

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trojanMD

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After researching a few schools, I have come to notice that MSAR admissions data and data from med school websites (incoming class profile stats) are significantly different. For example, Northwestern Feinberg's website states the incoming class avg gpa overall is 3.71 and science 3.65 while the MSAR says the avg gpa overall for Feinberg is 3.80 and science 3.79. Those are pretty big differences in admissions standards if you ask me. Obviously, i would think the data put up by schools is more accurate, but then again AMCAS should be a very reliable source as they handle medical school apps. Any input into these admissions disparities???😕
 
This is because the med schools' websites have data for people who have not just been accepted, but actually matriculated - and MSAR has the stats for accepted people. Many people who get accepted end up turning down the offer in favor of another school, and this particularly skews the data for mid- and low-tier schools, as they may accept people with very high stats, but these people will often gain admission at more competitive schools and end up going elsewhere. In this example, a person who got admitted to Northwestern will often have stats enough for WashU or some other school like that, and may refuse NW's offer to go to WashU for the purpose of rankings.
 
At least last year (i'm not sure about this year), the MSAR posted the median data which in a skewed sample is going to be different than the mean.
 
MSAR still publishes medians of accepted students. The median should give you a more realistic picture of the "average" student because it decreases the impact of distant outliers. For MCAT scores, the outliers most often fall on the high end of the scale (at a school with a median MCAT of 30, there probably are more 34+ people than <26 people). For example, if a school accepts 9 students with the following mcat scores:

28,29,29,30,31,32,36,39,42

The mean of these scores is ~32.9. The median is 31, which is more representative of this group of students as a whole.

However, you also have to consider that the MSAR lists accepted student scores, not matriculating student scores. As a previous poster noted, this can lead to inflated averages, especially at schools where high-scoring students are likely to decline an acceptance. Using the example above, the median of accepted students is 31. If, for one reason or another, the students who scored 39 and 42 declined their acceptances and all the other students accepted, the median of matriculating students would be 30.
 
After researching a few schools, I have come to notice that MSAR admissions data and data from med school websites (incoming class profile stats) are significantly different. For example, Northwestern Feinberg's website states the incoming class avg gpa overall is 3.71 and science 3.65 while the MSAR says the avg gpa overall for Feinberg is 3.80 and science 3.79. Those are pretty big differences in admissions standards if you ask me. Obviously, i would think the data put up by schools is more accurate, but then again AMCAS should be a very reliable source as they handle medical school apps. Any input into these admissions disparities???😕

Also bear in mind that different systems can require different info to be reported. For example someone with an advanced degree has an undergraduate GPA as well as a cumulative GPA. Some schools find ways to use whichever works out higher when giving info out to ranking organizations. Also sometimes schools calculate preliminary data which doesn't yet reflect changes from waitlists etc. But then this data/websites etc don't necessarilly get updated before schools use it.
 
Even for NYU, the MSAR median gpa is 3.83 and MCAT is 35, while stats of the matriculating class on NYU's website says the avg gpa is 3.7 and MCAT 32. I understand MSAR data is inflated due to many high stat applicants turning schools down, so wouldnt it be more prudent to consider the schools matriculant data as a more accurate guage of their admissions standards? After all, it is the data of the actual class attending the school and therefore representatibe of what they are looking for rather than the MSAR inflated data from over qualified applicants. I for one, would definately like to put more weight on the schools data. It makes me feel better about myself😎
 
i talked to an adcomm and he told me medschools bump up a few points when releasing info to MSAR. Take what the MSAR with a grain of salt....and bump down the numbers a few points to get a more "realistic" score.
 
Adding up the median section scores is also dangerous. Not every person has a balanced score.


lol got a kick out of that word choice :laugh: 👍

This, is, serious
We could make you delirious
You should have a healthy fear of us
Cause too much of us is dangerous
So dangerous, we so dangerous
My Flipmode Squad is dangerous
So dangerous, we so dangerous
My whole entire unit is dangerous
 
lol got a kick out of that word choice :laugh: 👍

This, is, serious
We could make you delirious
You should have a healthy fear of us
Cause too much of us is dangerous
So dangerous, we so dangerous
My Flipmode Squad is dangerous
So dangerous, we so dangerous
My whole entire unit is dangerous
Pre-allo is dangerous. Its the Thunderdome.
 
After researching a few schools, I have come to notice that MSAR admissions data and data from med school websites (incoming class profile stats) are significantly different. For example, Northwestern Feinberg's website states the incoming class avg gpa overall is 3.71 and science 3.65 while the MSAR says the avg gpa overall for Feinberg is 3.80 and science 3.79. Those are pretty big differences in admissions standards if you ask me. Obviously, i would think the data put up by schools is more accurate, but then again AMCAS should be a very reliable source as they handle medical school apps. Any input into these admissions disparities???😕

also make sure you are comparing stats from the same year
 
lol got a kick out of that word choice :laugh: 👍

This, is, serious
We could make you delirious
You should have a healthy fear of us
Cause too much of us is dangerous
So dangerous, we so dangerous
My Flipmode Squad is dangerous
So dangerous, we so dangerous
My whole entire unit is dangerous

😆😆
 
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