Selection limit.

[bearforce]

Some people believe that as the 100m dash times continue to drop there is a human speed limit. I wonder if there is a limit to premed neurotic behavior.

It seems as i look through MSARs and websites, including AAMC there appears to be an upward trend in MCAT scores and GPAs of accepted students. I was wondering what people think about the limits...how far will this continue, if at all. In the future will more schools be like WashUs? Just something to think about as we all have tried to reach the premed dream of high numbers. Disclaimer... I realize there are other important factors that schools consider ie. LOR, PS, yadda yadda yadda, but the statistical trend still increases. PLease comment.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[mordounhas]

I'll bite.

Without an ever-increasing pool of applicants, numbers cannot continue to increase year after year unless the way grades are distributed or the manner in which the MCAT is scored change over time. Like many things in life, medical school admissions appear cyclical- in the early 2000s, the number of applicants were declining and they've been rising as of late. At some point, they will likely decline or stagnate. That being said, even with an increase in the number of people taking the MCAT, it's unlikely that there are enough individuals with 37+ MCAT scores out there to support too many schools with median MCAT scores like that found at Wash U.

There's always a chance a few other schools will approach those numbers before all is said and done, but there just aren't hordes of people out there with near 4.0 gpas and score in the 97%+ percentile scores on standardized tests, especially because anyone taking the MCAT is probably convinced that they have a shot at getting into medical school and many people have already weeded themselves out at that point.

Addition: This assumes that schools aren't just using a gpa/mcat matrix to do admissions. A matrix could de-value everything else, and might lead to further number increases.