Who actually read the applications?

[BerlinDude]

When adcom members review your application they see your gpa and MCAT. They see the gpa cut at least 12 different ways as well as your entire transcript and every subscore of every MCAT you've ever taken. Adcom members certainly evaluate those numbers in addition to all the other information in the file (AMCAS, supplemental, LORs).

I think that adcom members know the average for current matriculants and they may have a minimum floor below which they fear for a student's ability to manage the material. That gets factored in along with whatever else the adcom values (which varies by school and may include undergrad institution, volunteer service, work experience/non-trad, research, clinical exposure, interest in primary care/rural medicine, etc).

It is easier now than it used to be to cherry pick the high scores because we can search electronically. Your application may move to the top of the stack if you have a high MCAT but at another school it may be strictly in the order in which they are received. Adcoms may be a lot like hospitals. We're all doing the same thing but each place has its own unique manual of operations.

So when the committee members look over your GPA and MCAT, are they solely interested in your ability to complete a med school curriculum or do they care about those numbers in and of themselves?

Suppose hypothetically, that someone's AMCAS GPA was incorrectly entered and was calculated as a 3.0, whereas his GPA should have been a 4.0 (and there was no way to correct this). Would anyone care about the AMCAS GPA then?

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[MSSM2013]

Wash U evidently fears that student with a MCAT below 35 and GPA below 3.9 cannot manage its materal.

 

[LizzyM]

So when the committee members look over your GPA and MCAT, are they solely interested in your ability to complete a med school curriculum or do they care about those numbers in and of themselves?

Suppose hypothetically, that someone's AMCAS GPA was incorrectly entered and was calculated as a 3.0, whereas his GPA should have been a 4.0 (and there was no way to correct this). Would anyone care about the AMCAS GPA then?

Certainly, every school is concerned with students being able to master the material. US allopathic schools are not in the business of flunking people out. The intention is that every student who matriculates will graduate.

So, every school wants to be sure that every person taking a space will be able to complete the course of academic study. They also want to be sure that the applicant has the maturity and good sense to be successful in the clincal training and has made an informed decision to study medicine and has every intention to practice medicine (Some State schools in particular want their tax dollars well spent in training docs who will serve the people of that state).

On the other hand, MCAT and gpa have a small impact on US News ranking. If that matters to a school (and some don't seem to care), then the absolute numbers may be very important to them.

A LizzyM score is useful only in determining whether you are average, below average or above average in comparison to the current M1 students at a specfic medical school and by extrapolation, where you might have a good, poor or excellent chance of being invited for interview, based on stats alone. Clearly someone with a LizzyM score of 85 is above the average at every school and would not be shut out of any school due to poor stats. Not so for someone with a LizzyM score of 60.

 

[vballninnie]

Applications with very low stats are read only by the dean who determines if there is something out of the ordinary about the applicant that merits passing the application along for the usual review.

LizzyM, I fit into this category and based on your post, I assume the dean made the sole decision to invite me for an interview. I was wondering if the odds are high that my interviewer will be also be the dean? Would this be a fairly accurate conclusion?

 

[LizzyM]

LizzyM, I fit into this category and based on your post, I assume the dean made the sole decision to invite me for an interview. I was wondering if the odds are high that my interviewer will be also be the dean? Would this be a fairly accurate conclusion?

Not at all. In fact, in some instances the decisions are spread around so that if someone reviews the file pre-interview and recommends interview then someone else reviews the file and does the interview.

Keep in mind, too, that different schools do things differently and a given school may change the way things are done from year to year.

 

[onthetopo]

Anyone wants to share more knowledge on the compostion of adcom and how it works?
I really wonder who sit as reviewers at each school, if you have inside knowledge, one faculty+ one 4th year med student at X school and 1 secretary+1 faculty at Y school.

I am more curious about if they sit on the board as volunteers or they are doing a required service. If they volunteered to review the applications, then they might bias toward the socially active type of applicants while frown up the quiet type, might even frown upon those people who had super stats.

 

[LizzyM]

Anyone wants to share more knowledge on the compostion of adcom and how it works?
I really wonder who sit as reviewers at each school, if you have inside knowledge, one faculty+ one 4th year med student at X school and 1 secretary+1 faculty at Y school.

I am more curious about if they sit on the board as volunteers or they are doing a required service. If they volunteered to review the applications, then they might bias toward the socially active type of applicants while frown up the quiet type, might even frown upon those people who had super stats.

The actual admit/don't admit decisions must be made by members of the medical school faculty. This is required for accreditation of the medical school. Staff members (usually with masters degrees in some academic or counseling field) and medical students might be assigned to help review files or interview applicants. With the exception of full-time employees of the medical school admissions office (usually just a few) all of the adcom people who handle your file are volunteers who do it as "good citizenship" of the academic community. Everyone asks the same question. Is this applicant a good fit with our school? (look at the school's mission statement) Does this student have what it takes to succeed here as demonstrated by past academic achievement? Is this applicant a future leader in medicine?(some schools might ask "if this a future primary care doc in one of our underserved areas?")