Interesting!
I often wonder if you’re supposed to put in cum GPA or BCPM GPA
I was reading somewhere that the “powers that be” want med schools to consider a 500 on the new MCAT to be acceptable, and they don’t like the “old MCAT vs new MCAT” conversion because numbers like 500-504 would look 'low". However, when you play with the new LizzyM calculator, and put in those lowish numbers, the truth is that you’re going to see results like: 75% scored better, so…
My guess is the difference between average and low is that 100 people take the test. Mainly the top 50 apply to med school. 500 can be an average for the test takers, but it’s merely 25% for those who apply.
(Numbers simplified greatly, of course.)
I still think for the GPA that the coding needs to cap any increase at 4.0 rather than increasing the score if one puts in 4.2 or 4.5, etc, but that’s merely a nuts and bolts of the programming pet peeve. 
I see the issue with allowing 4.1s and 4.2s changing the total score. The tool was built with historical data until 2014. I think once they have more data for the new MCAT it will be more granular for the future test takers,
I think it’s important to remember that one shouldn’t be too crazed about one’s Lizzy score as Lizzy scores were only intended to give someone a very, very rough idea of where they might get an II, omit critical app aspects (eg ECs, LoRs, PS, actual interview performance) and are not known to be used by any med school.
^^^ Agreed. As for me, like I said, it’s mainly a toy I played with for a bit out of curiosity - math curiosity. I’m a parent. My kiddo is the one aiming at med school. I’m a cheerleader, not a guidance counselor for this.
I agree that the LizzyM score just gives a rough idea. It doesn’t take into account whether a school is an OOS public that accepts few OOS students.
I, too, was just playing with it out of curiousity. My son just started his 4th year of med school on Monday. Wow…that was fast!!
@mom2collegekids - Sounds like he is breezing through. Has he figured out what he wants to do?
I started exploring the page and find that they are building a lot of info under the school recommendations once you input your info. They provide actual numbers for MCAT and GPA for the schools, added interview inputs, school reviews and other information that one can find interesting.
The one thing I see missing is the actual data compiled in the LizzyM spreadsheet which provides interesting data in terms of number of people interviewed and how much of a bias can exist for in state schools (Texas is required to have 90%+ instate students except in Baylor which is at 75%).
Yes, he knows what specialty he wants. He has to do a year between though. I guess some specialties require that? This part I’m unfamiliar with.
If a med school applicant won’t get MCAT score back until mid June, can she go ahead and submit on June 1st ?
Will she get secondaries before the MCAT score is rec’d?
No one will get secondaries without a score. Most likely the app stays on hold until they enter a score.
What a lot of people do while waiting for their MCAT score is apply to one school (typically a reach or a school where they would never attend) in order to get verified. Then, when their score comes in, they add schools. AMCAS doesn’t send the applications to the schools until the end of June, so speeds up the process while keeping options open. DS attempted to do this, but a missing transcript tripped him up by a few days.
Anyone else (or their kids) get apps off earlier this week? My guy told me his were submitted Tuesday, so I suppose this means the waiting has begun.
How long does one typically have to wait before anything is heard? I know it’s a long way from acceptances yet, but for secondaries and/or interviews? (I could ask him, but he’s not home this summer.)
IIRC, the first applicant data dump to schools isn’t until the end of June/early July. Secondaries start go out within a few days afterwards.
(However, applications get processed by schools in batches so if the first data dump is H-U-G-E–which it typically is, then some random number of applications get pushed back to next batch processed. School site processing isn’t necessarily done on a first-come, first served basis. It’s often done in randomly selected chunks from each data dump. Also remember a number of schools still process applications manually. Someone [read: the clerical staff] has to do data entry before anything else can happen.)
The first IIs typically won’t go out until mid-August with interviews at some schools starting in very late August. Schools that do ED tend to start interviewing RD applicants later (often in mid-September) since they have to accommodate all ED applicants first since the deadline for rendering those decisions is Oct 1.
(The reason why IIs don’t go out earlier–the adcomm members are usually on vacation the first half of August. No IIs go out until the committee does a preliminary review of the applicant pool.)
^^^ Thanks!
I have seen schools send out secondaries because they can see that you are applying even though the application may not have reached them.
FWIW - my guy already has 7 secondaries in at the moment - all coming within the past week. He called last night needing his ACT scores… it’s been a few years. Glad we kept the specific scores on our computer!
Some of these we presume are automatic (hit submit, get secondary within hours), but others took a few days after verification so probably got looked at.
Since we’re on the cheerleading squad, we’re doing our job and cheering for him! We like the schools he’s heard from. Time will tell on interviews though…
Really surprise SOM still requires ACT at this point, it was taken 4 years ago right? would they ask for SAT then? since my DD never took ACT.
I don’t think all are requiring it, but some want it apparently or he wouldn’t have called. And yes, if he had taken the SAT (he didn’t), they’d have wanted that too (or instead). He said they didn’t need his PSAT.
He’s up to nine secondaries at the moment - no clue how many want scores. I didn’t ask. We just looked up the scores for him and offered our congratulations that he’s seeing progress.
Of course, we also told him that if he had choices of acceptances we’ll review them seeing where we want to visit, then make our selection… B-) (He’s well aware that we’re joking.)
I think I have seen Baylor and WashU ask for it among the schools D applied to. Some schools have determined that the standardized tests have a way to predict their Step scores.
If I remember correctly son got his first II last year end of July. He went to first interview sometime in August. He was done with most interviews by mid October with couple of late interviews in January.