schools only look so far past numbers. heres something id like schools to publish--mean and median MCAT, as well as standard deviation. it would make chances so much easier to assess. hmm maybe ill pursue that. but you can make inferences on that based on the distribution of mcat scores, if that makes sense.
i dunno why my words caused such an uproar. mcat scores do have meaning, you know, otherwise the test would be out of business. the aamc itself creates and administers it, so it must be important for something. its supposed to be a predictive test, like all standardized tests. its one test but its not like a test in school. its created scientifically to determine certain abilities, theres a lot that goes into it, not like a prof slapping something together at the last minute. i think its actually called
psychometrics
when youre in the 30 range and giving or taking a couple of points, it makes a big difference in percentile. and its not about whether mcat
should hold you back. the reality is that it can and often does hold people back. btw interviews are meaningless, only acceptances, and dartmouth isnt considered a top tier med school and brown similarly. +thats one friend you cited, compared to the hundreds of applicants with similar or better numbers who were rejected. schools need some way to reduce 5000 applicants to a class size of 150, and its not by reading 5000 essays. also the diff between 27 and 30 (avg matriculant mcat) is somewhat sizeable in percentile--its really all stat
carn311 i see what you mean about constructive criticism. ive faced the same situation myself for something and got pissed off at the person for it. i guess i thought the question itself was slightly outrageous, and maybe even fake, so i gave an extreme response.
