Question about admissions committees

[dweji16]

Are they required to look at each applicants whole application, regardless of their grade?



I know that there is a number cutoff, but at the same time, when you see those few people who get in with very low numbers, it seems like they actually do look at each person's applicant to assess who to give a chance to.

It seems to be odd that if schools automatically cut certain applicants for numbers, we would never ever see anyone getting into those schools who had bad numbers, which is not true and does happen, albeit not often.

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[absolute8]

Are they required to look at each applicants whole application, regardless of their grade?



I know that there is a number cutoff, but at the same time, when you see those few people who get in with very low numbers, it seems like they actually do look at each person's applicant to assess who to give a chance to.

It seems to be odd that if schools automatically cut certain applicants for numbers, we would never ever see anyone getting into those schools who had bad numbers, which is not true and does happen, albeit not often.

I don't think that they are required to look at all applicants- in fact, i don't think that that could be further from what happens. From my personal experience every school has a different way of looking at you, and it can seem a little random at time (and frustrating)!

 

[bamtuba]

Are they required to look at each applicants whole application, regardless of their grade?



I know that there is a number cutoff, but at the same time, when you see those few people who get in with very low numbers, it seems like they actually do look at each person's applicant to assess who to give a chance to.

It seems to be odd that if schools automatically cut certain applicants for numbers, we would never ever see anyone getting into those schools who had bad numbers, which is not true and does happen, albeit not often.

There are checks and balances to a point, I'm sure, but it's pretty easy to write someone off with low stats if you're in a hurry to "weed people out." Human nature, even if they do have the best of intentions.

 

[Droopy Snoopy]

Are they required to look at each applicants whole application, regardless of their grade?



I know that there is a number cutoff, but at the same time, when you see those few people who get in with very low numbers, it seems like they actually do look at each person's applicant to assess who to give a chance to.

It seems to be odd that if schools automatically cut certain applicants for numbers, we would never ever see anyone getting into those schools who had bad numbers, which is not true and does happen, albeit not often.

Like everything else it varies by school. Both the med school I graduated from and the one with which my current program is affilliated don't have computerized cutoffs for MCAT and GPA. Schools that get thousands and thousands of apps for example naturally have to impose some automatic cuts or no one would ever get admitted.

 

[rHinO1]

I spoke to a director of admissions one time that told me his school sent out automatic secondaries using a formula using MCAT score and GPA. Then later on they reviewed primary applications more carefully and sent out another ~1000 secondaries. This school had very high avg. stats btw. I'm sure several schools, especially the higher ranked do it in a similar way.

 

[dweji16]

I had assumed also that that was the case (automatic cutoffs)

I was just wondering how those few lucky people with low numbers manage to pull off getting accepted, if their apps should have been throw out automatically by a computer...

Weird...

 

[rHinO1]

I had assumed also that that was the case (automatic cutoffs)

I was just wondering how those few lucky people with low numbers manage to pull off getting accepted, if their apps should have been throw out automatically by a computer...

Weird...

It would be easy enough to screen people out then go back and review URM's and disadvantaged applicants. It is my theory that they compose a high portion of those "few lucky people" you are mentioning.

 

[hewmanoid]

Are they required to look at each applicants whole application, regardless of their grade?



I know that there is a number cutoff, but at the same time, when you see those few people who get in with very low numbers, it seems like they actually do look at each person's applicant to assess who to give a chance to.

It seems to be odd that if schools automatically cut certain applicants for numbers, we would never ever see anyone getting into those schools who had bad numbers, which is not true and does happen, albeit not often.

Well, the whole admission process is not as clear-cut as you would think. Most school use automatic cut-offs based on your numbers to some or substantial extent, but there are people with low numbers who still get in. These can be the cases where a person has extraoridinary non-academic achievements or some kind of discrepancy in their academic records (e.g. low GPAs but high MCATs). In these cases, the admission committee sometimes review your application manually and decide whether or not to grant you the privilege of secondary. But, once you're offered an interview, admission committees will focus much more on your "whole" package.

 

[combatwombat]

No, you can only guarantee they'll look at your application until they see something that takes you out of the running in their mind, and the criteria used by adcoms at different schools varies greatly.

I think entropy plays a much bigger part in the admissions process than we would all like to believe.

 

[Morsetlis]

I for one would be interested in how much of a role weather plays in medical school admission.

For example, in California, should I aim for a flood year, a wildfire year, an earthquake year, or a gay-marriage year?