people who went to top 20 universities, what was your mcat score compared to gpa

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Raryn said:
Don't you know? *Everyone* on SDN says that they went to a top (20/50/83.2) school that has massive grade deflation. In the end, its meaningless.
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... unless you actually went to a top 20 school instead of the TTTs most people on this board go/went to
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is it true that some universities have classes that are curved so that the average is a B+?
 
top 20 uni cgpa 2.9 ( was never expecting to go to med school, didn't care about grades)
post-bacc non top 20 cgpa 3.9
amcas cgpa 3.3
MCAT 33M
 
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foodfood said:
is it true that some universities have classes that are curved so that the average is a B+?
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I've been in honors classes where the average was an A (up to 96% once :p), but the group of people in those classes isn't exactly one that ever has anyone fail. Most classes at my university (nowhere near top 20) have an average thats in the low C range.
 
Raryn said:
I've been in honors classes where the average was an A (up to 96% once :p), but the group of people in those classes isn't exactly one that ever has anyone fail. Most classes at my university (nowhere near top 20) have an average thats in the low C range.
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So if it's ok for some honors classes at a midtier school to have an A average, then why is not ok for a school in the top 3/5/10/20 to have some class where the average is a B or a B+? I would think the people in these two situations would be kind of similar.
 
Yeah so what about schools that do grade deflation? My entire undergrad was at an institute (Canadian mid level) that enforced strict grading distributions. Some courses were particularly bad -- The average in my calculus class was 2.2 :/.
 
bearintraining said:
Yeah so what about schools that do grade deflation? My entire undergrad was at an institute (Canadian mid level) that enforced strict grading distributions. Some courses were particularly bad -- The average in my calculus class was 2.2 :/.
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Was this worth a 7-year bump? Or are you trying to not make a redundant thread? If the latter, props to you
 
And he was a Vandy undergrad...coincidence? I'll wager based on the massive number of II's that he had some serious interviewing problems/huge anxiety, and was saved at his alma mater by being known better by important peeps there
 
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At the risk of losing some anonymity, I went to Uchicago. 3.65/36.

I don't know how it's done at other schools, but our major science prerequisite classes are tiered, or at least they were when I attended.

Honors level science (B+ curve)
medium level science (B- curve)
low level science (B- curve?)

for the most part. These classes are SO different in difficulty level. I got As/A- in the medium level classes (easily beating the curve by 1sd) but B+s in the honors ones (average). The honors ones don't prepare you for the MCAT, either: they're targeted to future researchers, and assume you already know basic bio/chem/phys. Like in honors chem, lecture 1 was about Boltzmann entropy and statistical thermodynamics. Honors bio, first homework assignment was to critique a paper from Nature. Zero MCAT coverage. I didn't take honors ochem but their entire third quarter lab was spent on a single synthesis.
 
efle said:
And he was a Vandy undergrad...coincidence? I'll wager based on the massive number of II's that he had some serious interviewing problems/huge anxiety, and was saved at his alma mater by being known better by important peeps there
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So now we're picking apart applicants from last year's cycle? o_O How is this relevant to the thread?
 
avgn said:
Was this worth a 7-year bump? Or are you trying to not make a redundant thread? If the latter, props to you
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@avgn Sorry dude - I actually didn't notice the timestamp on the original post.. not sure how I ended up finding an old post like this.
 
Cyberdyne 101 said:
So now we're picking apart applicants from last year's cycle? o_O How is this relevant to the thread?
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Somebody pointed out he was 1/17 I thought it was interesting that 1 was his Alma mater and thought interviewing ability was a fitting explanation

Since when is there a real expectation for threads to hold a topic lol
 
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this thread demonstrates .... the MCAT is not that helpful
 
To distinguish between applicants from the above schools. The schools are all rigorous and people don't excel on accident.
MCAT just more expense, hassle.
 
If you have any questions about my application cycle, I'm more than happy to answer them. Speculation doesn't help us here at all, especially those who are fighting the good fight in the application cycle right now.
 
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WinterSoldier93 said:
If you have any questions about my application cycle, I'm more than happy to answer them. Speculation doesn't help us here at all, especially those who are fighting the good fight in the application cycle right now.
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Yo why u think out of a ton of IIs accept only at Alma mater?
 
1) Withdrew from a lot of schools after my acceptance, so the pool is < 17
2) Probably didn't interview as well as I thought I did
3) Never followed up w/ update letters
4) Fate, or God's will: pick whatever you want
 
WinterSoldier93 said:
1) Withdrew from a lot of schools after my acceptance, so the pool is < 17
2) Probably didn't interview as well as I thought I did
3) Never followed up w/ update letters
4) Fate, or God's will: pick whatever you want
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I'm going to pick 2)! Doubt it was coincidence that the one place to post-II straight accept you was the one place that knew you much better than an interview can show. And Congrats!
 
bearintraining said:
Yeah so what about schools that do grade deflation? My entire undergrad was at an institute (Canadian mid level) that enforced strict grading distributions. Some courses were particularly bad -- The average in my calculus class was 2.2 :/.
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I've never heard of anyone talking about tiers for Canadian schools. Some people say that UofT is the most competitive, but other than that I have no idea how you could distinguish a "mid" or "low" tier school. Americans are obsessed with rankings, we don't care :p

Also Canadian grades are completely different from American grades and cannot be directly compared. In Canada a 3.85 is borderline competitive for Ontario med schools, whereas a 3.85 is fantastic in the US. Different system.
 
efle said:
I'm going to pick 2)! Doubt it was coincidence that the one place to post-II straight accept you was the one place that knew you much better than an interview can show. And Congrats!
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What are your stats elfe?
 
NotASerialKiller said:
I've never heard of anyone talking about tiers for Canadian schools. Some people say that UofT is the most competitive, but other than that I have no idea how you could distinguish a "mid" or "low" tier school. Americans are obsessed with rankings, we don't care :p

Also Canadian grades are completely different from American grades and cannot be directly compared. In Canada a 3.85 is borderline competitive for Ontario med schools, whereas a 3.85 is fantastic in the US. Different system.
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Do you guys not have a standardized college entrance exam like the SAT or ACT?
 
efle said:
Do you guys not have a standardized college entrance exam like the SAT or ACT?
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Nope, we just get together in Ottawa and take turns putting on a hat that yells what university we should go to.
 
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I went to a large state school for undergrad followed by a Top 20 for Ph.D. While everyone says graduate courses are hella grade inflated, I did not find that to be the case. For one of my courses, there was 1 A in four years' worth of students. My year had no As, no A-s, and 2 B+s, of which I was not part of.

3.68 undergrad
3.40 graduate
37 MCAT
 
efle said:
I'm at the top 20 nobody has ever heard of
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Not as frustrating as reppin Penn and getting asked about Jerry Sandusky.
Many think Northwestern is in Seattle.
Rice and Notre Dame have quietly set up camp inside the Top 20 without anyone noticing.

Or Emory, which I swear is literally unknown in the Mid-Atlantic/Northeast by everyone w/o an MD.
 
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Ahhh WashU, where the minimum MCAT for pre-meds is 36, and even if you get below that, you still have a better shot at getting into med school than the majority of applicants across the US. :p (Source: gf went to WashU undergrad (not premed) but all her friends did outrageously well on the MCAT).
 
DrDorianTurkleton said:
Ahhh WashU, where the minimum MCAT for pre-meds is 36, and even if you get below that, you still have a better shot at getting into med school than the majority of applicants across the US. :p (Source: gf went to WashU undergrad (not premed) but all her friends did outrageously well on the MCAT).
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The numbers are only so impressive because they weed out 2/3 people before getting to the MCAT and application stage
 
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Most schools weed out 2/3 or more of the pre-meds through classes and other things. How does Wash U manage a 36 average amongst its applicants when my own Top 20 school in the South only manages a 30?
 
Doug Underhill said:
Most schools weed out 2/3 or more of the pre-meds through classes and other things. How does Wash U manage a 36 average amongst its applicants when my own Top 20 school in the South only manages a 30?
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WashU doesn't have a 36 average, that's just the requirement for the BS/MD candidates. The general premed population across five years had a median MCAT somewhere in the 33-35 bin. Can't really tell you why it is a few points higher than the likes of Vandy or Duke, other than perhaps the weedout having more emphasis on reasoning ability / high speed test taking ability > effort put in, which might explain how the third that gets through does better on the MCAT.
 
md-2020 said:
Not as frustrating as reppin Penn and getting asked about Jerry Sandusky.
Many think Northwestern is in Seattle.
Rice and Notre Dame have quietly set up camp inside the Top 20 without anyone noticing.

Or Emory, which I swear is literally unknown in the Mid-Atlantic/Northeast by everyone w/o an MD.
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The fact that academic quality is probably the last thing that comes up on many people's minds when they hear the word Notre Dame doesn't help either.
 
ivorypearls said:
I went to a top 20 with grade deflation. GPA: ~3.9, MCAT: 29-31 (sry, want to remain fairly anonymous)

...I feel like it should be the opposite but I'm not complaining lol
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You're a bit of an outlier if youre at the 29 end for sure. Did you ace all your prereqs? Study the usual amount for the MCAT?
 
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efle said:
You're a bit of an outlier if youre at the 29 end for sure. Did you ace all your prereqs? Study the usual amount for the MCAT?
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Yeah, my pre-req GPA was roughly the same as my cumulative. Don't know what the usual amount of studying is for the MCAT but I spent about 3-4 months... Not really intense studying though so it's probably my fault. Or maybe I'm just a ****ty standardized test taker haha
 
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