what does "average" mcats/gpa really mean?

[bulldog]

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this cycle's done for me. although i'm satisfied w/ the schools i've gotten in (one of which i never thought would accept me cuz i'm below their averages), i'm disatisfied w/ the cali schools like uci/davis who have stats below mine and didn't even offer me an interview. i know that stats aren't everything, but it just stings that a few top 30 schhools would take one person, and several unranked cali schools wouldn't even bother to offer them an interview. so i thought...what does "average stats" really mean? in another thread, i saw aamc's data for accepted applicants in 2001.

based on: http://www.aamc.org/publications/detailedtables.pdf

For mcats,
v p b total mcat % of avg mcat
black 7.9 7.7 8.2 23.8 0.875
mexican 8.5 8.1 8.7 25.3 0.930147059
white 9.8 9.6 10.1 29.5 1.084558824
asian 9.5 10.3 10.4 30.2 1.110294118

avg Four races 8.925 8.925 9.35 27.2

so on average, an urm applicant would score on his/her mcat 10% below the mean, while a regular applicant would score 10% above the mean... i.e. an average of 33 equates to a 30 and 36.

similary, for gpa, it's:

gpa
white 3.37 0.962857143
black 3.33 0.951428571
mexican 3.66 1.045714286
asian 3.64 1.04

avg Four races 3.5

among urm, there's a 4% gpa below average while a 4% above average. for 3.5, it's something like a 3.4 vs. a 3.6.

i think everything balances out at the end. still, couldn't we all be judged in the same way?

 

[Street Philosopher]

I hear what you're saying about the averages. Whites and asians can't really look at the averages and take it at face value. Since admissions criteria are different, they need to raise the averages a bit to get an idea of what they're up against.

However, I think it's a mistake to generalize this specific issue to other issues. If anything your issue should be with USNews or the AAMC book for not reporting averages separated by race. Affirmative action and the admissions criteria at UCs are separate issues, in my opinion.

Additionally, although I'm in a similar situation (being shut out at the UCs), I don't really blame affirmative action per se. There are white/asian applicants who have had unusual success at UCs compared to out-of-state schools, and vice versa. We just happen to be in the latter group. Honestly, I have no idea what they are looking for, but I'm not going to blame AA for the UC's screwed up admissions criteria.

 

[AlternateSome1]

Did you consider that there are different percentages of each race admitted? To be PC I am going to switch to aliens here:

Say the Martians scored an average of 10 on the MCAT,
while the Mercurians scored an average of 4. If the average of each group were taken, one might mistakenly say that the class average is 10+4/2 = 7. Now, if only 1% of the class is Mercurian, than the actual average is 4 + (99*10) / 100 = 9.94, a number significantly higher than 7.

I didn't really check your math, so if you took this into account, I'm sorry.

~AS1~

PS - I in no way meant to signify that the Mercurian test takers are inferior to the Martian test takers. They might make equally fantastic physicians and their patients might love them.

 

[phenolphthalein]

To assuage your concerns about the havoc that AA is wrekaing on med. school admissions, let me refer you to the latest edition of the MSAR. Pages 33 and 34 contain data from the entering class of 2002. It is as follows:

Ethnic Desc. Applicant Number Accepted Number Accept %
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
White 21,631 11,766 54.39
Asian 6,632 3,565 53.75
URM 4,427 2,066 46.66

If anything, relative to the size of their applicant pool, fewer URMs get into medical school than Whites. It?s just that the White pool is so much larger. With ~10,000 White applicants who are not going to get in anywhere, there will be plenty who are convinced that they lost their spot to an URM.

More data:
Page 35, Charts 5-T and 5-U. AAMC breaks down the URM applicants/accepted by URM ethnic description. The majority of URMs are Black. Their numbers are: applied 2978 and accepted 1339 which gives an accept rate of 44.96%. That is almost 10% lower than the White accept rate (see above). This is consistent with URMs slightly, not dramatically, lower stats. Nothing terribly unfair is happening here.

 

[bulldog]

for a weighted mcat avg,

v p b total mcat % of avg mcat % of students # of students
black 7.9 7.7 8.2 23.8 0.817553795 0.076132706 1230
mexican 8.5 8.1 8.7 25.3 0.869080294 0.024944293 403
white 9.8 9.6 10.1 29.5 1.013354493 0.684699183 11062
asian 9.5 10.3 10.4 30.2 1.037400193 0.214223818 3461

weighted mcat avg 29.11123422 16156

so
for weighted mcat, blacks would score .812 of 29.1, hispanics 869, whites 1.01, and asians 1.04.

gpa % of students # of students
black 3.37 0.929551211 0.076132706 1230
mexican 3.33 0.918517962 0.024944293 403
white 3.66 1.009542265 0.684699183 11062
asian 3.64 1.00402564 0.214223818 3461

weighted avg gpa 3.625405422 16156

for weighted average of gpa, blacks would score .930 of 3.63, hispanics .919, whites 1.01, and aisians 1.00.

for predicted mcat and gpa based on weighted averages,

mcat gpa
black 23.79999655 3.369623139
mexican 25.29999634 3.329627612
white 29.49999573 3.659590709
asian 30.19999563 3.639592946
29.11123 3.625

again, this is all numbers and doesn't mean much since the ratio of different races differ in each school, so the weighted averages for each would differ. i was pretty much trying to explore what the term "average" means in relation to mcat/gpa. issues such as socioeconomic background, research, lors, ec's, interviews, etc. also play a large role in shaping the chances of an applicant getting in.

btw, i could be totally off on the math/analysis....been awhile since stats. 😀