Looking at an average for all schools is slightly pointless. If you consider the fact that you have med schools that don't accept anyone with less than a 38 (possibly a slight exaggeration) and you have schools that will accept people with a 26, of course you're going to end up with an average somewhere in between.
Without a list of specific schools, looking at an overall average is in fact a viable option. Very few schools lie at either end of the spectrum (having very very high MCAT averages or very very low ones) and thus the majority of schools are somewhere in the middle. For this majority of schools, the MCAT score ranges can be approximated by an average across all schools.
Telling someone with a 28 that they can't get in anywhere is completely inaccurate.
Who said anything like this? In fact, such a statement would be
refuted by considering the matriculant average of ~31.
If you look at the big picture, averages really mean very little
The funny thing about
this is that if you really believed it, I'm not sure why you would have mentioned an applicant average earlier at all...
And a 31 mcat is average for matriculants and above average for mcat test takers. The fact that it's an above average score is why people get into med school. Average scores don't get in, above average ones do.
Indeed, the average for test takers is about 24-25.
Calling a 31 an average score isnt an accurate statement,
Calling a 31 an average score, both in relation to matriculants
and in the context of competitiveness for medical school, is indeed an accurate statement. Averages are all relative to the population being examined, so while a 27 is an above-average score for test takers, this fact is irrelevant to a prospective applicant because that population is not the one the person is to be compared against.
a 28 is average for people that apply, people get accepted with an average of a 31 because those people are ABOVE average
In the same way, saying that a 29 is an above average score for applicants (for which the total population average is 28) is true but also irrelevant, because a prospective applicant wants to be in the minority of the population that actually get in. For this minority, the average score is a 31.
Consider it like this: If I score a 28 on the MCAT, I am an average applicant in this respect. The average applicant does not get accepted to medical school. Because of this, comparison of myself to the applicant pool at large is useless.
With limited seats, the competition is such that an applicant's score is effectively compared only against those other applicants that are seriously considered for acceptance.
Comparing one's score against a population not representative of the group one will be compared against is flawed. A 31 is average in the context of admissions. End of story.
