SMW, that's not right. I'm sorry you got rejected... but, I talked frankly about this to the director of Admissions at Pitt. She basically told me that she goes through *ALL* the primary AMCAS applications and from those decides to invite about 105 for interviews (before the secondary is even sent) and takes a significant amount and just rejects them right there. She expained that this INITIAL screening does not take into account Grades/GPA to a large extent (but, admitted that it was obviously a part). Rather, she looks for students who, as she said "Are not boring... aren't just the run-of-the-mill premeds, fake well-rounded like everything and do everything" type. She said she the school strives for diversity, but not ethnicity only, rather, life experiences.
I think compared to most schools, Pitt *REALLY* looks at the application and invites people and accepts them based on the things THEY think are important. Kids at pitt have a WIDE range of GPA's and MCATS - and that's why.
So, to answer your question... if you have something that you think will pique the Director's interest, you'll be fine. All the people I met at when I interviewed there really were unique... not just the average EMT, was interested in medicine since boyscouts, volunteered at a hospital. No... they were people who had Masters in Public health and 5 years work experience... people who lived in other countries for extended periods of time (1 year greater), people who interned in kosovo.... atheletes... musicians, did unique research, etc.
