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" 4.0 from MIT, 525 MCAT and three papers, should I just apply DO or try my luck with my state MD too? "
-our children on SDN, probably
Trends in LizzyM Scores Over Time
Started by Lawpy
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-our children on SDN, probably
not really a surprise honestly
nice work with this, although i'm a bit unsure with the GPA and MCAT percentiles you used in the calculations.
i think a major inherent problem regardless is limited data.
Good point, I'd love to find some solid data of the GPA distribution of the overall applicant pool.
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This is somewhat relevant to the thread, much longer term info for percent admitted:
In the very long term view, looks like people right now have it rough, mid 1990s had it even worse, and late 1980s/early 2000s were very lucky!
In the very long term view, looks like people right now have it rough, mid 1990s had it even worse, and late 1980s/early 2000s were very lucky!
This is somewhat relevant to the thread, much longer term info for percent admitted:
In the very long term view, looks like people right now have it rough, mid 1990s had it even worse, and late 1980s/early 2000s were very lucky!
Any access to GPA and MCAT data over this time period? I'm curious whether the trends are linear or cyclical.
It was in the old print versions of the MSAR I think. Don't have mine and def couldn't post it even if I did 🙁
I work at a "top" academic medical center and I see some medical students that look like complete weirdos, but in my head I figure they scored 525s.
Then again I've gone on interviews at mid tiers and seen weird applicants there as well.
But generally speaking the most intelligent people who score 525+ lose an edge when it comes to being personable. Obviously there are exceptions
Yeah there's not much data about SDs for GPAs and MCATs over the years, so it's definitely possible that some of the values I used aren't quite right. Would be fun to do these "competitiveness" calculations with a lot more data and over a much longer time period, but it's probably not in the cards 🙁
In my interview experience throughout this cycle, the smartest people I've met at interviews (or at least the interviewees at the "top-tier" med schools) have also been the most personable by far, N = ~50 interviewees
I actually need all this data driven brain power to focus on more pertinent questions now. Usmle scores, what the cv's of matriculants at top residency programs look like and what I have to do to perform well enough to land those residencies. So if I could have all the data folks on here help out with that , that would be great.
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This is somewhat relevant to the thread, much longer term info for percent admitted:
In the very long term view, looks like people right now have it rough, mid 1990s had it even worse, and late 1980s/early 2000s were very lucky!
That rate of increase between 90' and 97 is wild, even by today's measure. Almost 3,000 apps per year! Since 2012, we've only increased ~1,000 apps/year.
Forgive me for not knowing too much about healthcare of the early 90's - but I read a post here, which I can't recall, that mentioned that the profession around that time wasn't highly revered. I wonder what influenced that big of a spike in apps?
I think the steep slope is mostly 1990-1995, and I think that period was a recession in the US. I'm too young to be quoted on that though!
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I'm sorry to say this but you aren't getting the best candidates. You reward people who get high numbers by taking the easiest path through undergraduate school and then BS their way through an invalid and unreliable interview process. Your "joie de vivre" nonsense in another post sums it up perfectly. This whole process is a happy hunting ground for sociopaths.
Why don't you look for people who are hard workers who are willing to take on tough challenges? Why don't you give priority to people who major in the physical sciences or engineering at colleges with tough admission standards? You just might end up with medical school classes that aren't chock full of whiners.
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I can sympathize with this sentiment, but I wouldn't go around telling adcoms who it is they are actually selecting for. Boring gunner sociopaths with LowestPathOfResistance transcripts might *exist* but they are just not going to be a large part of the pool.
Not caring about what you study is one of the best parts about medical school admissions imo. It would be a nightmare if premeds all had to do only a handful of majors, especially something like engineering.
I think the emphasis on stats is regrettable. In fact, I've said many times on this forum that it would be better for schools to use hard cut off screening and then wipe numbers from an app. That would be *actual* holistic review. The truth, however, is that getting into medical school is fairly formulaic and such a change would highlight how arbitrary most admissions decisions are.
Not sure that would help lower stat people. I'll echo what was mentioned previously: the brightest people I've met these past 6 months were all sociable and very well accomplished people, albeit with varying degrees in sense of humour.
A person's qualities aren't zero sum. That is, someone with a 100th percentile MCAT didn't need to sacrifice personal or empathetic fluency to achieve that. T10 schools are packed with really bright, personable people. They aren't that rare.
Would it be possible to add standard error bars to each year on the first graph (MCAT and GPA vs Year), and see if we have any overlap? I'm curious to see if we're "within error," or if there is a slow creep.
Also, the "connect the dots" thing is sort of suggesting a correlation that may not exist, but I think that's just me being pedantic--there probably is a correlation anyway.
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