Where is there a noticeable difference in GPA numbers?

[Anathema]

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Where does the line between a 3.5 vs 3.6 or a 3.7 vs 3.8 begin? Is it at the 3.55 and 3.75 mark respectively?

For anyone that's at an adcom, where do you begin to look at other parts of the applicant when comparing people with similar numbers?

 

[image187]

umm.... what?

I would try to make a guess at this second question, but I dont think I get it. "Where" would they look (as in,"where in the people's applications")? or llike... "at what point" would they start looking to other areas of the application? Trying to contribute at least something in this response, I would say that I think they always take in to account more than a person's GPA when assessing their applications. I think people may be ruled OUT (as in, the med school uses a cutoff point) with a certain gpa, but never automatically ruled IN as better than someone else on the basis of only their gpa. Does this help at all??

 

[MedPR]

Where does the line between a 3.5 vs 3.6 or a 3.7 vs 3.8 begin? Is it at the 3.55 and 3.75 mark respectively?

For anyone that's at an adcom, where do you begin to look at other parts of the applicant when comparing people with similar numbers?

Does it matter?

 

[Irish Football]

lol

 

[circulus vitios]

Are you trying to project your GPA? Just do as well as you can and stop worrying about it.

 

[RCPreMD]

i seriously doubt there is one number that anyone could give you, too many other factors.

 

[Mako555]

all adcoms at all schools (MD & DO) sort gpa's in groups of 4.00-3.91, 3.90-3.81, 3.80-3.71, etc...

any difference at all within those groups means nothing to anyone anywhere.

question answered?

 

[Dires]

 

[Anathema]

umm.... what?

I would try to make a guess at this second question, but I dont think I get it. "Where" would they look (as in,"where in the people's applications")? or llike... "at what point" would they start looking to other areas of the application? Trying to contribute at least something in this response, I would say that I think they always take in to account more than a person's GPA when assessing their applications. I think people may be ruled OUT (as in, the med school uses a cutoff point) with a certain gpa, but never automatically ruled IN as better than someone else on the basis of only their gpa. Does this help at all??

Kind of, better than the others. I know GPA and MCAT aren't the entire application, but they're definitely a large part of it.

I'm thinking hypothetically as an adcom, where would the GPAs between two competing applicants be similar enough to warrant a look at the rest of their app more closely.

I guess nobody here agrees that a person with a 3.4/28 is in an uphill battle against someone with a 3.8/31. But I'm asking how similar do GPAs have to be before ECs and such are looked at more closely?

EDIT:

I guess I'll just go with whatever happens. It's obviously not an important question, just something I've been wondering with admissions.

 

[MedPR]

Kind of, better than the others. I know GPA and MCAT aren't the entire application, but they're definitely a large part of it.

I'm thinking hypothetically as an adcom, where would the GPAs between two competing applicants be similar enough to warrant a look at the rest of their app more closely.

I guess nobody here agrees that a person with a 3.4/28 is in an uphill battle against someone with a 3.8/31. But I'm asking how similar do GPAs have to be before ECs and such are looked at more closely?

Everyone above minimum threshold gets their whole application looked at. If you understood that GPA/MCAT aren't the entire application, you would realize that the 3.4/28 is likely not being compared to the 3.8/31 unless they have the exact same ECs.

 

[Anathema]

Everyone above minimum threshold gets their whole application looked at. If you understood that GPA/MCAT aren't the entire application, you would realize that the 3.4/28 is likely not being compared to the 3.8/31 unless they have the exact same ECs.

I wasn't sure if people were put into certain piles based on GPA and MCAT alone (that would make my hypo situation more hypo I know) but if you're right about everyone being looked equally after a threshold then that's news to me.

 

[MedPR]

I wasn't sure if people were put into certain piles based on GPA and MCAT alone (that would make my hypo situation more hypo I know) but if you're right about everyone being looked equally after a threshold then that's news to me.

This is how I imagine the process works.

Start: Download AMCAS, send secondaries, receive secondaries, download LORs
Result: One huge pile of all completed applications.

Step 1: Weed out low numbers.
Result: One less-huge pile of all numbers above 3.3/28 (arbitrary stats).

Step 2: Weed out people with inadequate ECs who are below a certain stat threshold
Result: One moderately sized pile of people ranging from 3.3/28 with good ECs to 4.0/43 with crap ECs

Step 3: Review what the dean and other adcom members want the class to look like and cut accordingly
Result: Smaller pile of the same range as before

Step 4: Interview/Reject
Result: Tiny pile

Step 5: Accept
Result: Pile 2-3x the size of what you plan on matriculating

Step 6: May 15