Someone make this

[VillageShaman]

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Okay heres something I want to see made. An MCAT vs GPA curve where being above the line means accepted. Since we can't answer mcat vs gpa as an outright question we can generalize that having a 3.2 with a 39 mcat is better than having a 3.8 with a 24 mcat. Use statistics.
I am new to SDN so I cant figure out where to get good data

 

[Misc]

You mean something like this, except for med school?
http://harvard.lawschoolnumbers.com/stats

Good idea. You should make it.

 

[MilkmanAl]

That chart with the percentage accepted bins is about as close as you're going to get. It's available on the AAMC site somewhere. Excelsius did a brief analysis awhile ago showing that MCAT blows GPA away in terms of importance (regardless of what surveys may say). In short, though, it's impossible to predict outcomes for people with split stats since there are too many variables at play.

 

[MiniMoo]

Good idea. You should make it.

This reminds me of watching 3rd year med students just starting clerkships at my old workplace. Anytime a student brings up a question, 2 out of 3 times the attending will just respond with, "That's a great question. Why don't you look it up and be ready to present a response to the team tomorrow." The 4th year students seem to know better and just keep their mouths shut.

 

[Misc]

That chart with the percentage accepted bins is about as close as you're going to get. It's available on the AAMC site somewhere. Excelsius did a brief analysis awhile ago showing that MCAT blows GPA away in terms of importance (regardless of what surveys may say). In short, though, it's impossible to predict outcomes for people with split stats since there are too many variables at play.

Wow, really? That's fairly encouraging if true.

 

[bannie22]

You mean something like this, except for med school?
http://harvard.lawschoolnumbers.com/stats

Good idea. You should make it.

Oh gosh. Look at that outlier who barely passed his courses (LDSAS GPA of 3.0) and barely passed LSAT 150?

Hahaha... did he donate some money? =P


Anyway, OP. make that table. sounds easy enough and if you want it so bad anyway....

remember to share.

 

[apumic]

There are graphs out there using the AMCAS data.... You can also find ones for regular and URM applicants in the med school spreadsheet. Those data are in the program and have been cleaned up a bit (as in obvious outliers were eliminated from the data to make it usable instead of having random n=1 2.5/25 examples of applicants getting in create "islands of acceptance" in the middle of an obvious "sea of no acceptances").


As for the MCAT vs GPA debate. I ran an analysis on the AMCAS data as well and the MCAT is consistently more important, although the values are close to a 50/50 split between the medians for applicants and matriculants (~3.4-3.6 and ~28-31). Beyond those, we see a shift toward the MCAT being more important.

 

[bannie22]

There are graphs out there using the AMCAS data.... You can also find ones for regular and URM applicants in the med school spreadsheet. Those data are in the program and have been cleaned up a bit (as in obvious outliers were eliminated from the data to make it usable instead of having random n=1 2.5/25 examples of applicants getting in create "islands of acceptance" in the middle of an obvious "sea of no acceptances").


As for the MCAT vs GPA debate. I ran an analysis on the AMCAS data as well and the MCAT is consistently more important, although the values are close to a 50/50 split between the medians for applicants and matriculants (~3.4-3.6 and ~28-31). Beyond those, we see a shift toward the MCAT being more important.

apmunic can i see?

 

[Narmerguy]

Graphs are fun to look at when they're made well. So much can be expressed in one glimpse.

 

[red10]

The premed advisor at my school made something like that. I was a plot of GPA on one axis, MCAT on the other and the bigger the dot was, the more people with that score. Accepted studentswere green dots, and people without any acceptances were red. There was actually someone with a 3.9, 38 who was rejected everywhere. It scared the hell outta all the little pre-med freshmen. haha

 

[MsTaco]

Something like this?

(I would give credit to whoever originally made this except I honestly can't remember where I found it... I just know it's compiled from the AAMC data Milkman Al was talking about)

Have fun. This significantly aided my neurosis going into this application season.

 

[randombetch]

As for GPA vs MCAT - I think it depends on the availability of the other pieces of information (such as what school that person went to, what type of classes he or she took, extenuating circumstances, etc.). If there are no other pieces of information, the admissions committee would probably choose the MCAT to go by.

In terms of raw scores, MCAT has a higher beta value in the regression, but if the admissions officer had to choose which (between MCAT and GPA) to be deleted from the applicants' file, that admissions officer would likely choose the MCAT to be deleted. I think this is why most admissions officers put GPA as the most important factor - because they're assuming they have all the pieces of information so that they can see the GPA in it's most indicative context.

 

[MilkmanAl]

I really doubt that's the case. The MCAT is the only thing that is truly comparable across all applicants (well, sort of, but let's not get into the merits and validity of standardized tests). Why would an admissions team want to get rid of it? If anything, they should want to scrap GPA since it varies so ridiculously by everything right down to which professors the applicant had. I think they need both measures, but it's pretty clear to me why GPA turns out to be the less important of the two.

 

[WoWdoc]

A decent MCAT and good GPA arent everything though. I went in to my state school (UAMS milkman) last year with a 31 and a 3.9, and blew the interview. Didn't get in so I'm trying again. Gonna hear back in a couple of weeks.

 

[MilkmanAl]

Yep, good point. You've got to have it all, or you're not in good shape.

 

[bannie22]

I prefer a school by school graph analysis tho. Anyone up for it?

 

[Mackey]

Neat, I had a 30% chance to get accepted. I like when odds work out.

 

[MsTaco]

I prefer a school by school graph analysis tho. Anyone up for it?

Whoever takes this on has a serious lack of social life. Although not gonna lie, I'd read it if anyone ever did...

Neat, I had a 30% chance to get accepted. I like when odds work out.

That just means you were cooler than 70% of people with your stats, cuz you must have blown them away with your interviews. Kind of a compliment to your personality 🙂

I found this graph the ultimate tool in strategical slacking. In studying for the MCAT, I discovered that, with my GPA, the difference between scoring a 33 and a 38 was like 2.5% in terms of chances of acceptance. So I quit studying as soon as I consistently scored a 33 on my practice exams (which was like, 2 weeks). Hey, I was working full time...the 38 would have been pretty and maybe even possible but screw it, I just wanted to get in, and not kill myself in the meantime. It really put things into perspective...I think the pre-med gunner in me is getting old.

 

[insane]

The aamc released a chart of something similar http://www.aamc.org/data/facts/applicantmatriculant/table24-mcatgpa-grid-3yrs-app-accpt.htm its a pain in the a** to make a 3 axis graph on excel and i don't feel like leaving my room to go to the computer lab to load up graphing software to make it. But I don't think you need pretty pictures, the data seems to suggest that the MCAT is more important than the GPA by a lot, unless your at either extreme. but in the middle range the MCAT>GPA

 

[bannie22]

Whoever takes this on has a serious lack of social life. Although not gonna lie, I'd read it if anyone ever did...



That just means you were cooler than 70% of people with your stats, cuz you must have blown them away with your interviews. Kind of a compliment to your personality 🙂

I found this graph the ultimate tool in strategical slacking. In studying for the MCAT, I discovered that, with my GPA, the difference between scoring a 33 and a 38 was like 2.5% in terms of chances of acceptance. So I quit studying as soon as I consistently scored a 33 on my practice exams (which was like, 2 weeks). Hey, I was working full time...the 38 would have been pretty and maybe even possible but screw it, I just wanted to get in, and not kill myself in the meantime. It really put things into perspective...I think the pre-med gunner in me is getting old.

^ But it also depends on where you wanna go for med school.
33 might get you in with almost as much probability as a 38, but WHERE peeps get in differs slightly 😛

Thats why I want that school by school analysis... =p

but now that you commented that such people would have no life, even the geeks here wont do it anymore 😛

 

[MsTaco]

Yeah for sure, that was a personal choice for me that I just wanted an MD and would be happy to go wherever. I wanted to enjoy my pre-med school life as well, and it just wasn't worth it to me to kill myself trying to get a 38, esp when my GPA would have killed most top-tier schools for me anyways.

And sorry about that...that actually occurred to me after I posted it. In any case, I would say the school selector spreadsheet is the closest your going to get to that information on a school-by-school basis. There just isn't a magical GPA/MCAT that will get you a 100% chance of acceptance even at Podunk School of Medicine. But checking bottom 10th percentile/median/top 10th percentile for GPA/MCAT at each school will tell you a lot. That thing is all over this forum but if you like I can post it...since I killed your dreams of a school-by-school graphical analysis 😛

 

[bannie22]

Yeah for sure, that was a personal choice for me that I just wanted an MD and would be happy to go wherever. I wanted to enjoy my pre-med school life as well, and it just wasn't worth it to me to kill myself trying to get a 38, esp when my GPA would have killed most top-tier schools for me anyways.

And sorry about that...that actually occurred to me after I posted it. In any case, I would say the school selector spreadsheet is the closest your going to get to that information on a school-by-school basis. There just isn't a magical GPA/MCAT that will get you a 100% chance of acceptance even at Podunk School of Medicine. But checking bottom 10th percentile/median/top 10th percentile for GPA/MCAT at each school will tell you a lot. That thing is all over this forum but if you like I can post it...since I killed your dreams of a school-by-school graphical analysis 😛

I'll take that 😀

I'm just too lazy to use the search function.

Congratulations on your acceptance tho 😉

 

[MsTaco]

No prob...clearly I am a data ***** 🙂. But this thing is freaking useful.

 

[MsTaco]

Oops. Now I am an incompetent data *****. File is too big to attach...does anyone know how to attach files >200kb?

Edit: Problem solved. Download here: http://www.mediafire.com/file/domggje5yy4/School_Selector_2010-2011.xls

 

[Mackey]

That just means you were cooler than 70% of people with your stats, cuz you must have blown them away with your interviews. Kind of a compliment to your personality 🙂

Now ain't you just a bit on sunshine in the middle of the night!