Who is the admissions committee?

[chubbyostrich]

Hello members of the SDN!

I am filling in my work and experiences section for the AMCAS and I am trying to explain my research focus and it got me thinking... what kind of people are on the admissions committee? Do they have a science background? Do they have PHDs, are they MD, clinicians scientists..etc? I think this would really help me frame my PS as well in terms of wording.

Last question - do med schools keep the previous year's application on file? Do they compare repeat applicants with the previous year to see improvement?

Thanks for your help!

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[Dr. Stalker]

The admissions committee is composed with MDs, PhDs, and those involved with the school of medicine, sometimes including medical students.

Your PS shouldn't be too science-y or medicine-y based on who the audience. I know, easier said than done, but remember the purpose of the personal statement as a guideline for what to write.

Yes, they keep old files on record and compare the two of them.

Disclaimer: Not on an admissions committee, just another premed applying.

 

[gyngyn]

LCME requires that the majority of members be faculty of the school of medicine (Standard 10.2).

 

[LizzyM]

Even among the MDs, it is possible to be reviewed by committee members who graduated from medical school 10 years ago or 50 years ago (some professors emeritus have all the time in the world to review applications and they enjoy doing it. We had one faculty member who was doing interviews at age 90. And you can be reviewed by PhDs in the social sciences, natural sciences, and the humanities (e.g. history of medicine, bioethics, narrative medicine, etc).

 

[Yorick]

Even among the MDs, it is possible to be reviewed by committee members who graduated from medical school 10 years ago or 50 years ago (some professors emeritus have all the time in the world to review applications and they enjoy doing it. We had one faculty member who was doing interviews at age 90. And you can be reviewed by PhDs in the social sciences, natural sciences, and the humanities (e.g. history of medicine, bioethics, narrative medicine, etc).

That reminds me, I was interviewed by this nice old guy early in the cycle then a few months later I found out he died of cancer and must've had it for a long time, crazy.

 

[gyngyn]

Does that ratio change for MSTP admissions? Just wondering because my old PI was an adcom for an MSTP and only a PhD.

PhD's can be faculty.

 

[ecko126]

Lots of PhDs are faculty as they teach the basic sciences. My first "position" as a student clerk for an adcom (in the days when applications were paper based and you need copious hands to deal with it), the co-chairs were PhDs . Additionally, since now everyone who is involved in the admissions process officially part of the adcom, some medical schools have huge numbers such as University of Colorado with 165 members, Emory has 78 members, while other schools such as UVA have about 30

I'm honestly amazed that that a school with 5000+ applications like UVA has only 30 people involved with admissions. Especially considering they are doing this on top of their jobs. How do they get through all that stuff? Do they have some people do things like checking the references for ECs, reading activity descriptions, etc? Or is it just not as labor intensive as I'm thinking?

 

[Chris07]

I'm honestly amazed that that a school with 5000+ applications like UVA has only 30 people involved with admissions. Especially considering they are doing this on top of their jobs. How do they get through all that stuff? Do they have some people do things like checking the references for ECs, reading activity descriptions, etc? Or is it just not as labor intensive as I'm thinking?

Add on top of that the thousands of emails and phone calls they get from over-neurotic premeds and you can see why it takes them months sometimes to get back to you about your application.

 

[Yorick]

BTW, the appendix I for the Dean's Charge to the Admissions Committee of Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth will give you at least one model of how an adcom processes applications

https://geiselmed.dartmouth.edu/faculty/pdf/admissions_committee_charge.pdf

They were really quite useful and interesting to read, especially for students in college for understanding how the process works and what to work on and do for their application. Here are UVA's and Michigans (may be old)

https://med.virginia.edu/admissions...icine_Policies_Procedures_updated_8.16.16.pdf

http://med.umich.edu/medschool/admissions/apply/Admissions-Policies-Procedures.pdf

 

[libertyyne]

 

[3member]

I'm honestly amazed that that a school with 5000+ applications like UVA has only 30 people involved with admissions. Especially considering they are doing this on top of their jobs. How do they get through all that stuff? Do they have some people do things like checking the references for ECs, reading activity descriptions, etc? Or is it just not as labor intensive as I'm thinking?

so that's why i turned all pruney in the pool..

 

[libertyyne]

I'm honestly amazed that that a school with 5000+ applications like UVA has only 30 people involved with admissions. Especially considering they are doing this on top of their jobs. How do they get through all that stuff? Do they have some people do things like checking the references for ECs, reading activity descriptions, etc? Or is it just not as labor intensive as I'm thinking?

You set up an auto screen to throw out anyone below a 3.3 , or below a 510. This probably reduces the number of apps to 500. Then you run another screen to throw out oos applicants below a 3.5 and 514. Now you have 400 people left. Then you run an auto screen and throw out people with IA and people with felonies /misdemeanors . You invite the rest of the pool to interview. You read the application of the people who accept interviews . You interview and you end up accepting the people with the highest LizzyM combos post interview first and then you go down the wait-list after traffic day.

The 30 people are just to process income students, make sure they have college degrees pass the health stuff, pass the background check , basically beurocratic stuff post decisions are made. And to make sure you schedule enough people to interview , etc etc.

 

[LizzyM]

You set up an auto screen to throw out anyone below a 3.3 , or below a 510. This probably reduces the number of apps to 500. Then you run another screen to throw out oos applicants below a 3.5 and 514. Now you have 400 people left. Then you run an auto screen and throw out people with IA and people with felonies /misdemeanors . You invite the rest of the pool to interview. You read the application of the people who accept interviews . You interview and you end up accepting the people with the highest LizzyM combos post interview first and then you go down the wait-list after traffic day.

The 30 people are just to process income students, make sure they have college degrees pass the health stuff, pass the background check , basically beurocratic stuff post decisions are made. And to make sure you schedule enough people to interview , etc etc.

There is the office staff and the admissions committee. Separate peeps. The admissions committee can generally review (thoroughly review) about 200 applications each during the season. So, 30 members can process about 6,000 applications. Or you might have a two tier system where 25 members each do 200 (5000 applications) and 5 senior members each review 1,000 pre-reviewed applications (to play devil's advocate and/or futher cull the herd). Screening judiciously can reduce the number of applications to be reviewed to match the number of committee members and their capacity to review applications (when I was a first reviewer, I couldn't do more than 2 in a sitting as things would start to blend together). The office staff schedules interviewers and applicants, handles criminal background checks, collects original transcripts and medical forms pre-matriculation, etc.

 

[libertyyne]

There is the office staff and the admissions committee. Separate peeps. The admissions committee can generally review (thoroughly review) about 200 applications each during the season. So, 30 members can process about 6,000 applications. Or you might have a two tier system where 25 members each do 200 (5000 applications) and 5 senior members each review 1,000 pre-reviewed applications (to play devil's advocate and/or futher cull the herd). Screening judiciously can reduce the number of applications to be reviewed to match the number of committee members and their capacity to review applications (when I was a first reviewer, I couldn't do more than 2 in a sitting as things would start to blend together). The office staff schedules interviewers and applicants, handles criminal background checks, collects original transcripts and medical forms pre-matriculation, etc.

Thank you for the insight. Do the adcom's see the apps pre-screen or do adcoms decide on what the screens should be and then go through the apps remaining?

 

[LizzyM]

Thank you for the insight. Do the adcom's see the apps pre-screen or do adcoms decide on what the screens should be and then go through the apps remaining?

At my school there is a GPA screen. Some "special" applications are pushed forward without screening, sometimes resulting in a courtesy interview. The time of the adcom is not wasted with applications that have not been pre-screened. This happened once and their were howls of anger at being asked to review applications with GPA of 2.72, etc.

There has been a "police committee" (not the official name) that pre-screened applications with IA and/or misdemeanor/felony. (Not sure if my school is still doing this; I haven't been on the "police committee" in awhile.) If an application passes the police committee then it is treated going forward as if there were no IA. (In other words, IA and crimes are either deal breakers or inconsequential). Other schools may handle this differently.

 

[kopftonmd]

Not to derail the thread, but when I first read the title, I imagined it would be filled with adcoms posting, "I am the admissions committee!" à la Spartacus...

 

[Detective SnowBucket]

Not to derail the thread, but when I first read the title, I imagined it would be filled with adcoms posting, "I am the admissions committee!" à la Spartacus...

 

[DameJulie]

There has been a "police committee" (not the official name) that pre-screened applications with IA and/or misdemeanor/felony.

Would an IA due to one semester of low GPA but quickly recovered and removed from IA the following semester pass the police committee screening?

 

[libertyyne]

Would an IA due to one semester of low GPA but quickly recovered and removed from IA the following semester pass the police committee screening?

Thats not a police committee issue, thats an academic issue.

 

[de Ribas]

We are so fortunate to have ADCOMs on this forum. It would be a lot different without them.

 

[LizzyM]

Thats not a police committee issue, thats an academic issue.

Correct. That is not a criminal issue and there would be no repercussions for a school to admit someone who had a GPA < 2.0 and ended up on academic probation.

That said, the bigger concern would be what caused that problematic semester and could whatever it was be a problem in medical school.

 

[Dr. Scribe]

Do you guys think that the students who are there on interview day have any say in the admissions process? Like the ones who give tours and talk to you at pre-interview dinners?

 

[LizzyM]

Do you guys think that the students who are there on interview day have any say in the admissions process? Like the ones who give tours and talk to you at pre-interview dinners?

The majority of decision makers must be med school faculty members. That said, student interviewers do get to write up their impressions for consideration by the committee. Some schools might have a few senior students who read applications and make recommendations and/or score applications.

Anyone you interact with including tour guides and office staff can report misconduct to the admissions boss. Being rude, racist, disrespectful will be reported by anyone who witnesses it so behave accordingly from the moment you arrive on campus until you leave.

 

[Pagan FutureDoc]

A shadowy cabal that will determine your fate

 

[Dr. Scribe]

The majority of decision makers must be med school faculty members. That said, student interviewers do get to write up their impressions for consideration by the committee. Some schools might have a few senior students who read applications and make recommendations and/or score applications.

Anyone you interact with including tour guides and office staff can report misconduct to the admissions boss. Being rude, racist, disrespectful will be reported by anyone who witnesses it so behave accordingly from the moment you arrive on campus until you leave.

I understand reporting misconduct, but do you think MS2’s who aren’t interviewing you give their impressions to the adcom?

 

[Lannister]

I understand reporting misconduct, but do you think MS2’s who aren’t interviewing you give their impressions to the adcom?

No. But the admissions employees who run interview days sit in on committee, and they sometimes comment on an interviewee's behavior during the day.

 

[kopftonmd]

Now there is a dated reference ! completely trivial is a story of Kirk Douglas's son in regard to this famous line which some consider the best heckle of the comic ever. If you dont know the original movie, this story is meaningless

Got quite a chuckle out of those!

 

[21Rush12]

@Dr. Jay Student interviewer evaluations in MMI are often considered equally with faculty.

Your lunch Q and A students aren’t involved in your decision whatsoever, they are there to help answer your questions and give their own insights about the school. Any crazy red flag behavior will be reported, but that’s kinda obvious.