Relative Weight of Stats

[Falconclaw]

---

Members do not see this ad.

Hey, I have a feeling that this question won't be very popular, but I was wondering how you'd rank the following three things, in terms of importance: MCAT, GPA, EC's, and LOR.

I guess I can make this into a poll too.

 

[Frazier]

MCAT
GPA
LOR's
EC's

You can't weigh them against each other really since something like a negative LOR can sink an otherwise outstanding app. Example, at Harvard, my faculty interviewer told me about an applicant that he interviewed with awesome numbers but very troubling letters -- he said with a smirk, "that student will not be here next year".

 

[Radon XP]

Disclaimer: I'm a rising sophomore in college, so this is hardly an expert opinion.


I would think that the MCAT would be slightly more important than GPA because it is standardized.

I voted MCAT, GPA, and then EC's

Additionally, although the MCAT is a difficult test that demands serious attention, I feel that raising your MCAT score is a bit more straightforward than raising your GPA; at the very least, you could theoretically do it in a matter of months, whereas depending on how bad your GPA is, you might be in serious trouble.

 

[Falconclaw]

MCAT
GPA
LOR's
EC's

Really? LOR before EC's? Wasn't expecting that.

 

[Frazier]

Really? LOR before EC's? Wasn't expecting that.

Read my edit.

Lor's can break you. On the other hand, unless you list some outrageous/controversial EC, they won't sink you alone.

 

[jaksmith]

https://www.aamc.org/download/261106/data

Answers the question I believe.

 

[Falconclaw]

MCAT
GPA
LOR's
EC's

You can't weigh them against each other really since something like a negative LOR can sink an otherwise outstanding app. Example, at Harvard, my faculty interviewer told me about an applicant that he interviewed with awesome numbers but very troubling letters -- he said with a smirk, "that student will not be here next year".

Hmmm, I would hope that if I asked someone for a letter, and they didn't have a high opinion of me, they would just refuse to write it, rather than writing a bad one.

In terms of EC's, what if all someone had was a summer of volunteering at a hospital, and say 10 hours of shadowing physicians?

 

[Mt Kilimanjaro]

https://www.aamc.org/download/261106/data

Answers the question I believe.

This is useful, thanks. I've seen a similar ranking for the match, but I'm not sure how much you can draw from this since they all fall into a very narrow range of the scale.

 

[Falconclaw]

https://www.aamc.org/download/261106/data

Answers the question I believe.

It's okay. Things like "Completion of Pre-Medical Requirements" is placed toward the bottom, when in reality if you don't have that, you'll NEVER get an interview.

 

[mehc012]

This is useful, thanks. I've seen a similar ranking for the match, but I'm not sure how much you can draw from this since they all fall into a very narrow range of the scale.

They do fall into a narrow range, but it's compiled from a lot of adcoms.
At any rate, I found it more intriguing that they care more about sGPA than cGPA. Lucky me!

 

[mehc012]

It's okay. Things like "Completion of Pre-Medical Requirements" is placed toward the bottom, when in reality if you don't have that, you'll NEVER get an interview.

Not true...if you haven't completed ANY, sure, no interview. But if you're missing one or two and you can take them before matriculation? You can get in. Quite a few students apply while taking their last prereqs (missing from transcript) and some apply with the intent of taking the last course *at some point* before becoming a med student.

I'm personally going for a GPA repair, so I'm going to try and pack in as many 3-credit courses as I can before applying and then sneak the 2 labs I'm missing in as/after the app is completed.

 

[NickRiviera MD]

https://www.aamc.org/download/261106/data

Answers the question I believe.

no, it doesn't. a standard deviation of .9 - 1.7 means these data are essentially worthless

 

[plumhill]

I think it depends. For GPA, MCAT, ECs, LORS, etc, there can be variations. For example, a 3.5 with a strong upward trend (say, 4.0's the last two years) is not the same as a consistent 3.5, or a 3.5 with a downward trend. For MCAT, a 10/10/10 is not the same as a 14/10/6. Within ECs, someone could have consistently volunteered 3-4 hours a week at a free clinic for 4 years and gotten 400 hours of clinical experience, or someone could've volunteered full-time in a busy ED the summer before applying and also gotten 400 hours. And similar arguments can be made for all of the other components of an application. So at the end of the day, you need to convince adcoms that you have the 1. ability and 2. desire/passion to go into medicine. How you choose to do that is up to you, and whether or not your application is convincing is up to them.

 

[NickRiviera MD]

It's okay. Things like "Completion of Pre-Medical Requirements" is placed toward the bottom, when in reality if you don't have that, you'll NEVER get an interview.

this is just flat out wrong. you only need to complete the requirements before matriculation. they will want to see strong performance in the prereqs that you haven taken up to that point though

 

[I Love Cats]

What you all need to do is just google "Using MCAT data in medical student selection", click the first link and then go to Table 1. This will answer your question, OP.

Edit: seriously. It ranks everything including your mother in terms of adcom perceptions of importance.

Edit:

https://www.aamc.org/students/download/267622/data/mcatstudentselectionguide.pdf

 

[yehhhboiii]

GPA first because it shows that you can perform at a high academic level over the course of years. Then the MCAT second because it shows that you can study and do well on a standardized test with the added bonus of giving adcoms a method for comparing applicants with different majors at different institutions. LORs come next because people want to know that you are the kind of person that they would send their family to as their doctor. Then ECs to show that you are someone who actually cares about others and can manage to have a life outside of school.

 

[music2doc]

Since the AAMC has actually published articles on this topic, I'm not really sure why this thread exists, but I'll bite:

It depends....

• Schools vary individually (e.g., to WashU MCAT + GPA >>>> everything else; most other schools are far more balanced in their approach; my own Dean of Admissions has stated they give points for uniqueness and outstanding accomplishments -- e.g., being an Olympian -- can make up for a solid 5-7 points on the MCAT)
• Different criteria are considered or weighted differently at various points in the process

A common scheme would be:

Pre-Secondary -- MCAT/GPA +++, PS/ECs +, LORs +
Pre-Interview -- MCAT/GPA +++, Secondary Essays ++, PS/ECs +, LORs +
Post-Interview -- Interview ++++, Secondary +++, LORS ++, PS/ECs +, MCAT/GPA +/0

 

[Falconclaw]

this is just flat out wrong. you only need to complete the requirements before matriculation. they will want to see strong performance in the prereqs that you haven taken up to that point though

Yeah, this is true, I stand corrected. It's hard to take the MCAT without taking the pre-reqs, though. The only pre-req that I have to take that may not help me with the MCAT is orgo lab.