Screening! someone please help me out!

[medballer2010]

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Can anyone tell me which of these schools screen?

Harvard
Boston U
Tufts
Johns Hopkins
Georgetown
George Washington
Stanford
UCLA
USC
NYU
Columbia
Cornell
Univ. of Michigan

 

[Mattabet]

I'd say use the search function, but there's a post on this very same topic not 10 spots down:

[thread]639602[/thread]

I don't think the data is out there. You'll get some hearsay and speculation, but that's about it.

And what do we really mean when we say they 'don't screen'? Do we expect them not to use the data? If I sent any of these schools an app. with a 20 MCAT and a 2.5 GPA, I wouldn't expect to be seriously considered. Am I technically 'screened out'? Maybe not, but I almost certainly am not getting in on those numbers.

 

[camaras2480]

Can anyone tell me which of these schools screen?

Harvard
Boston U
Tufts
Johns Hopkins
Georgetown
George Washington
Stanford
UCLA
USC
NYU
Columbia
Cornell
Univ. of Michigan

Mattabet said it right. Who screens, and what they screen for is tough to know for sure. That being said, most of the schools you mention do not screen. If this is the list of schools you are applying to, I wouldn't worry about being screened out. It seems your "safeties" are Georgetown and GWU, and maybe UMich.

 

[apumic]

Can anyone tell me which of these schools screen?

Harvard
Boston U
Tufts
Johns Hopkins
Georgetown
George Washington
Stanford
UCLA
USC
NYU
Columbia
Cornell
Univ. of Michigan

All of them. Whether officially or not, those schools get thousands of applications each year (e.g., Harvard gets over 5,000/year). As a result, they simply are not going to take a serious look at students below a given GPA & MCAT score, regardless of whether an institutional policy exists to create a formal cutoff. Considering the competitiveness of the schools you have listed, you probably won't get taken seriously if your GPA and MCAT are much below the 75th or 80th percentile (higher at some/most of those schools). If you are in the 80th or 90th percentile of applicants, I really don't get why you're asking about screening. At that point, I doubt there is much difference between a 3.8 and a 3.9 or a 35 vs. 37. Schools are going to be looking at other things at that point, because your academic strength can only be measured accurately to a certain extent using those measures and really is not that important to the school's success (i.e., training a physician who will represent them well). At that point, I'd be focusing on other things than meeting an estimated cutoff and build your CV up as that's what's really going to separate you from the rest of the 3.9/36+ applicants!

 

[monomania]

The UCs screen... most of the others listed do not screen, but I'm not certain about all of them. If you have a copy of MSAR, that's the most reliable way to find out.

 

[hewmanoid]

UCLA for sure.

 

[medballer2010]

Thanks for the replies guys. Those arent actually all the schools im applying to those are just the out -of-state schools, im an ohio resident and most of the in-state schools are my safeties. So just to be clear when i say screen I mean weed students out (based on GPA/MCAT) prior to giving out secondaries.

So i guess my real question is with these schools how do I know whether to wait for amcas to verify my app and the school to reply to me and say here is a secondary or do i just go to their website and start filling out a secondary? Ive heard people saying schools like hopkins and columbia, anyone can fill out the secondary and you should do so as soon as you can.

 

[JJMrK]

As far as I know UCLA is the only school on that list that screens secondaries.

 

[shemarty]

It was made clear 2 posts ago that the OP is using the word "screen" to mean "not give a secondary to everybody who submits a primary."

Not "screening" applicants based on GPA/MCAT cutoff.

The vast majority of schools give a secondary to everybody, so yes it is safe to fill out Columbia/Hopkins/etc's secondaries in advance.