What makes an adcom?

[byeh2004]

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I know some faculty, some deans, and I heard some medical students as well?

 

[blue2000]

Each school has a slightly different recipe for their ad com. In general, there is a dean of admissions, who is an MD or PhD and spends a significant chunk of their job organizing and overseeing the whole admissions process. Then, there are groups of people, usually practicing MDs, PhDs and often students, who are part of the committee and are responsible for reading the applications and deciding who to offer the interviews to. In the system I was in, each folder would be read by two readers who would independently decide whether to offer an interview. If the two agreed, the decision was made, if they disagreed the application went to a third reader who was a tie breaker.

In many situations, adcoms interview candidates, but not all interviewers are on the adcom. Again, on my committee, each candidate interviewed with someone on the committee, and an additional, non-adcom interviewer. As far as demographics, the committee I was on had a larger proportion of physicians who were late in their careers and had significantly cut back on their clinical or academic responsibilities, as this is a big job. I would say 50% were near or past retirement age, with the others being early or mid-career. Additionally, students often interview, but there there is variation as to how much weight the student interview and the student committee members opinions were given.

 

[LizzyM]

I know some faculty, some deans, and I heard some medical students as well?

There is the dean of admissions and there may be associate deans as well. These deans are employed full time in the admissions office.

Serving in a part-time capacity, often as "volunteers" are faculty, both basic science and clinical, some of the clinical faculty may be in private practice (i.e. not on the med school payroll) but with a "contributed service" faculty appointment. Medical students (usually 4th year) may serve as interviewers or application readers but I would be surprised if any schools include them in making final decisions.

 

[gujuDoc]

There is the dean of admissions and there may be associate deans as well. These deans are employed full time in the admissions office.

Serving in a part-time capacity, often as "volunteers" are faculty, both basic science and clinical, some of the clinical faculty may be in private practice (i.e. not on the med school payroll) but with a "contributed service" faculty appointment. Medical students (usually 4th year) may serve as interviewers or application readers but I would be surprised if any schools include them in making final decisions.

What she said corresponds with the way it is at USF. For instance, USF has one main Chairman of the committee that sits on the board every year, and the president of Diversity initiatives/med school biochem professor which also sits on it every year. Beyond that, who is on the committee varies from year to year but will consist primarily of MDs in the community, USF Faculty MDs, and Faculty PhD's and med students(for the roles pointed out by LizzyM).

Additionally, we have an admissions director who's job description includes the screening process for GPA/MCAT, overseeing that interview days go smoothly, updating applicants on status as rejected, waitlisted, accepted, or accepted off of waitlist, or rank on waitlist.

At Miami med school, there is an official ranking system as well. They rank you by assigning points in the following manner:

50 pts = MCAT +GPA
20 pts = direct patient contact
15 pts = letters of recommendation
15 pts = ECs
10 pts = significant adversity one had to overcome (i.e. for socieconomically disadvantaged people, or minorities, etc.)

3 people from the committee serve this role. Then they determine who they will give interviews with, and after interviews, the comittee works in the same manner as described before with USF. At least that is my understanding.

I know the point breakdown of Miami ranking system because Dr. Hinkley gave it to us at FSU and USF medical forums this year and explained how this phenomena worked.

As per USF, I've talked to REL many times. But he posts here as REL. So you might want to ask him how it works. Although, I'm pretty sure that LizzyM's description is completely on target.

 

[blue2000]

There is the dean of admissions and there may be associate deans as well. These deans are employed full time in the admissions office.

Serving in a part-time capacity, often as "volunteers" are faculty, both basic science and clinical, some of the clinical faculty may be in private practice (i.e. not on the med school payroll) but with a "contributed service" faculty appointment. Medical students (usually 4th year) may serve as interviewers or application readers but I would be surprised if any schools include them in making final decisions.

I was on an admissions committee as a student where there were two full-voting med students on the committees (the rank sheets we turned in at the end of each meeting were anonymous, so there was no way to tell whether the sheet came from the former dean of the med school or the student filled them out).

 

[REL]

I was on an admissions committee as a student where there were two full-voting med students on the committees (the rank sheets we turned in at the end of each meeting were anonymous, so there was no way to tell whether the sheet came from the former dean of the med school or the student filled them out).

The USF Medical Student Selection Committee is composed of 16 voting members which includes: the chair (MD), Diversity Office member, 2 4th year medical students, and a generally even mix of 12 MD and PhD faculty. Others present but non-voting includes Admissions leadership. The 12 faculty serve 3-year terms.