i work in the surgery department at utsw, and i will have to agree with research being the main factor of getting into this school... Its a big part of the utsw culture, and most medical students participate in some type of research during their time here. One medical student that i work with told me that her experience in research was the only reason she got into this school. She applied to all of the schools in texas, and none of them offered her interviews except utsw. Thats actually very odd to me, because her stats would have made her a good candidate anywhere, but her research really pushed her forward for an acceptance.
Another thing i have heard is that every other year they seem to go heavy on wanting high numbers out of their accepted students. They want to keep their stats up and allow themselves to be perceived as a top school based on high numbers. By that i mean, they choose based on mcat and gpa for a year, then go back to picking people they think will be a good fit the next year (with a lot of experience but maybe not the highest numbers). That med student told me that she noticed this because she does all of the new student orientations, and can see that they do this based on the people she meets. she said every other year the class is a more capable bunch of students (have life experience) and then the next year its a bunch of young students that have no clue
but have great stats. Hahaha.
