Which schools weigh MCAT most heavily?

[banannie]

I know this shouldn't be a criteria for picking schools to apply to, but I was just wondering if anyone knew of:

a) Med schools that weigh MCAT heavily, so that a good MCAT will help offset the damage of a lowish undergrad GPA.
OR
b) Med schools that really only care about GPA and will automatically disqualify a lowish GPA, regardless of a good MCAT

Just interested in hearing others' input based on either personal experience or pure rumor.

Thanks!

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[m2006]

Bump...

Ah, Banannie..that depends what lowish is. If you're aced the MCAT (say in the 40's), I wouldn't worry too much especially from a strong undergrad school (top 5). But just in case, have you thought of the Caribbean schools? I hear Ross is nice, albeit isolated...

Seriously, can't someone out there help this poor girl??

 

[aquapants]

Using the 2003 US News rankings Excel spreadsheet posted a while back, I threw in some numbers and found out that, in general among the top 50 research schools, higher ranked schools disproportionately consider MCAT over GPA.

Most weighted toward MCAT:

1. Wash U.
2. Duke
3. Columbia
4. U Penn
5. Case Western
6. Northwestern
7. Michigan
8. Yale
9. Harvard
10. Cornell

Most weighted toward GPA:

1. U Alabama
2. Indiana
3. U. Iowa
4. U. Wisconson
5. U. Florida
6. Maryland
7. U. Utah
8. Colorado
9. Oregon
10. Wake Forest

I know this doesn't answer your question, but it's interesting anyways.

 

[medicine2006]

There's a med school for everybody and every situation. It's just that people with low anything, either MCAT, GPA, or ECs have to pick up the crumbs left over after all the highly qualified people chose where they want to go. You always hear of someone that got in somewhere with a 25 MCAT or someone getting in somewhere with a 2.7 GPA but don't expect that to happen to a lot of people there are only a few spots like that.

Myself I had lowish GPA(3.2) and decent MCAT 31R (decent but not great) and got into a couple of schools. I am very fortunate!

 

[gobears]

Aquapants, how did you get your ranking? It looks like the MCAT ranking is just the list of schools in order of highest avg MCAT scores, but what's up with the GPA ranking? It's definitely not in order of avg GPA.

 

[Peter Parker]

According to coop, UChicago tends to look past the numbers.

 

[sandflea]

pritzker will look past the numbers but you still need to have very solid stats to be considered--it still is a top school.

tulane is another school that is more forgiving of lower stats.

but i agree no one can really answer your question, banannie, unless we know how 'lowish' your GPA really is. if it's too low, no school out there will be willing to overlook it, regardless of how high your MCAT score is or what other things you have accomplished outside of the classroom.

 

[Asclepius]

My wife got into a PhD program at the University Chicago (she's going to be a real doctor :wink: ), so I'm obviously interested in Pritzker. Could you tell me a little bit more about what you mean by they "look past the numbers." Are intent, EC's, etc. above average weight there?

 

[ValleyGal]

Here is a little secret about pritzker that no one will tell you. they are heavily into academic medicine, which means, drumroll please./......you need lots of research!!! And you should also take biochem. they don't want those community service loving, child hugging dogooder types. they want the very academic and intellectually oriented, and will not take you haven't done research. so sign yourself up in a lab. my numbers were significantly higher than their averages, and they rejected my fairly quickly because i don't do research. just my opinion

 

[A. Caveman]

my dime:

you can't rely too much on this info up here. who knows, for example, how tulane "forgives more" than others? look at their averages..what does that tell you? that for every dude who's 3.0 was forgiven, many many many more with 3.8's were TURNED AWAY. so judging from averages, tulane ISNT all that forgiving.

now MCPHU has ~3.4 gpa and 29 mcat average. i'd say they forgive A LOT, wouldn't you? that's why they're cool.
find other schools with "lowish" gpas and/or mcats. they're all right there in one of those books (ie. Baron's). i also noted that the schools i interviewed at were pretty impressed with my mcat. maybe cuz i improved it a decent amount, or maybe just for the fact that it's a good score in and of itself (not compared to my other one). my point is (although it's no better than the rest of the subjective stuff written above) is that the "lower" (say it to my face and i'll kill you :wink: ) schools are pretty impressed by a nice mcat which will raise their average a lot, so they might not care as much about your gpa, while other schools want the whole package. as for the Top Schools weighing mcat more than gpa, that point is basically useless (me thinks) because the people they even consider ALREADY have high gpas. so what if they like you for your 40 mcat when your gpa is a 3.5. that's not lowly...that's not your scenario (am i right?..or are you "shooting" for those Top Schools?)

 

[dastri]

There's a med school for everybody and every situation. It's just that people with low anything, either MCAT, GPA, or ECs have to pick up the crumbs left over after all the highly qualified people chose where they want to go. You always hear of someone that got in somewhere with a 25 MCAT or someone getting in somewhere with a 2.7 GPA but don't expect that to happen to a lot of people there are only a few spots like that.

Myself I had lowish GPA(3.2) and decent MCAT 31R (decent but not great) and got into a couple of schools. I am very fortunate!

Just curious - I have similar stats (just slightly higher) - what medical schools did you get into?

 

[WedgeDawg]

This is a 14 year old thread bump and I will be locking the thread. Please do not necrobump old threads without an extremely good reason.