REAL stats for top 20

[pmarank]

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Alright guys there are a lot of stats thrown around this site about the grades needed to get into med school. It seems as though a 3.7 cGPA and a 35mcat, along with extracurriculars, would be the norm for getting into any decent med school, but i went on the NU med school site and found that the average gpa accepted there is a 3.7... I know a 35 MCAT is damn good but doesn't 3.7 seem kinda low especially for a school ranked as highly as Feinberg??

http://www.feinberg.northwestern.edu/admissions/md/about_feinberg.html

If thats the average for feinberg then shouldn't lower tier med schools have gpas around 3.4/3.5?

 

[Morzh]

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[BaronVonZ]

Factor in people who bombed their freshman year 15 years ago, URMs, feeder programs, and the candidates with incredible EC's and that average sounds pretty reasonable to me. There is more to this process than numbers - and once a school starts averaging in the ~3.7 range they know their applicants are classroom savvy and begin looking at other factors.

 

[235009]

thinking about med schools in term of "tiers" and being under the impression that only top 20 schools are "decent" is absolutely naive and ridiculous.

but to answer your question: high GPAs are a dime a dozen, MCAT is where it's at. You'll see why once you actually start studying for it. While you can pull off a pretty high GPA by taking easy classes, going to a less competitive school, grade grubbing, cheating, etc your MCAT score is not subject to all these variables.

 

[gettheleadout]

thinking about med schools in term of "tiers" and being under the impression that only top 20 schools are "decent" is absolutely naive and ridiculous.

but to answer your question: high GPAs are a dime a dozen, MCAT is where it's at. You'll see why once you actually start studying for it. While you can pull off a pretty high GPA by taking easy classes, going to a less competitive school, grade grubbing, cheating, etc your MCAT score is not subject to all these variables.

All of this. Particularly the bolded; every accredited US medical school is "decent."

 

[donttazemebro]

every adcom looks for something different. places like washington university dont mess around when it comes to gpa-mcat.

my friend went there from engineering with robotics club and a summer google intership as his only extraculiculars. that was the only place he got an interview at too, lulz.

 

[blh53]

I guess I should just look for another career since I couldn't even get into a "decent" med school....

 

[Jolt21]

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