<p>well, you misinterpreted it correctly, lol. I meant the first, but also the second: a student with a 3.4 GPA and a 40 on the MCAT stands a very good shot at any med school if he shows passion towards the field of medicine.
...do you think that's true?</p>
<p>Your question, to me, retains the original ambiguity.</p>
<p>If you mean, "He stands a good chance at every medical school", the answer is: no way. Not even close. Anybody technically has a shot, but a 3.4, 40 is not a good one for a school that many would consider to be top-tier. (For the record, a 3.7, 37 would be much better off, I think.) I'll PM you with more details to make this clear.</p>
<p>If you mean, "He should get in at least somewhere", the answer is yes, my guess is that (assuming he applies broadly enough), there will be several medical schools eager to admit him.</p>
<p>
[quote]
well, you misinterpreted it correctly, lol. I meant the first, but also the second: a student with a 3.4 GPA and a 40 on the MCAT stands a very good shot at any med school if he shows passion towards the field of medicine.
...do you think that's true?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I have to agree with bluedevilmike and say that the answer is No. After all, think about what you're talking about it. Having statistics like that aren't going to make you likely to get into places like Harvard Medical, Johns Hopkins, and those kinds of med-schools. Heck, even if you had perfect stats, you would still find it difficult to get into those kinds of med-schools. That's just the nature of the competitiveness to get into that level of medical school. </p>
<p>You can surf over to Mdapplicants and see that even applicants with killer stats and a killer resume will still get dinged at the high-end med-schools. For example, I see that there is one profile of a guy from Berkeley with a 3.93 GPA, a 40 MCAT, and several years of volunteer experience, who nevertheless got rejected from Harvard Med, Stanford Med, and Johns Hopkins, although he did get into UCSF.</p>
<p>couldn't that be cause of the interview though? I'm sure his stats got him passed the first round right? but maybe he just didnt show enough devotion to medicine or somethin and didnt make it....right? lol</p>
<p>umar, based on what I can see, I wouldn't necessarily assume that. Schools can make very arbitrary decisions, and sometimes these come as early as the interview stage.</p>
<p>
[quote]
couldn't that be cause of the interview though? I'm sure his stats got him passed the first round right? but maybe he just didnt show enough devotion to medicine or somethin and didnt make it....right? lol
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Well, first of all, no. If you go to that other site, you will see plenty of people with excellent stats who nevertheless were never even invited to an interview at certain schools. </p>
<p>Secondly, it's a bit convenient to attempt to blame a rejection on a lack of devotion to medicine. Think of it this way. The person that I used as an example got into UCSF Med, certainly no scrub med-school. In fact, it's probably the best public med-school in the country. So I think it's safe to say that he had quite good devotion (for otherwise, he would never have gotten into UCSF). Yet the fact is, he still was rejected by a number of other top med-schools. </p>
<p>As an another example, I found on mdapplicants one woman from MIT with a 3.75/4 GPA and a 40 MCAT. She got into a number of medical schools, including Harvard Medical and UPenn Medical. But check this out - she didn't even get an interview at Yale Medical and Mayo Medical. Yep, got rejected pre-interview.</p>
<p>So I agree with bluedevilmike that the process can be really quite arbitrary. You may find yourself not even getting interviews at certain schools for which your stats are clearly competitive. Furthermore, there are always those unlucky people who probably should have gotten in somewhere but who, by bad luck of the draw, get rejected by every med-school they apply to.</p>
<p>There are times I'm almost tempted to post a retrospective "chances" thread, just to see what people would say.</p>
<p>The process certainly is arbitrary, but if you apply broadly enough, things should work out approximately right.</p>
<p>We need more doctors. We cannot simply keep importing doctors from abroad. The level of selectivity at our medical schools is ridiculous. And when was the last time you heard of a new medical school opening up?
You've probably heard the old joke:
Q: What do you call someone who graduates last in their medical school class?
A: Doctor.
But the truth is that there are far more people who would produce fine doctors than are admitted to medical school, especially the top medical schools. If they would admit even a slightly higher proportion, it would make quite a difference. It is appalling that hardworking, intelligent students whose life dream has been to become doctors may never have the chance. It's absurd to think that someone who has prepared for so long and is willing to go through so much more (esp. residency=indentured servitude) wouldn't make a good doctor. It's kind of silly that you call someone with a Ph.D. "doctor", as if the term actually indicated even a remote similarity to the work that goes into getting an M.D. and what comes after. And comparing a law to medical degree? Please.
Who's up for guessing why we aren't making more doctors?
So far, we've heard supply and demand driving prices up, which makes a lot of sense, IMO. Other theories?</p>
<p>Florida State's medical school just opened in 2000. There was a recent bill in Florida to open medical schools (I think w/i the decade) at Fl Atlantic and Fla International. But welcome to the thread.</p>
<p>That's the weird thing, BRM, because in Health Economics we're taught that no medical schools have opened since Reagan's term... I believe in 1981 or so, but I might be off by as many as five years in either direction.</p>
<p>A number of medical schools are expanding their classes somewhat, and medical school acceptance is less competitive than it was ~10 years ago. </p>
<p>However, at the most highly sought after places, as discussed earler in this thread, it is painful and embarrassing to see the qualifications of people who are denied. A place like Harvard might get 1000 applications from people who are simply unbelievable, but be able to offer admission to only 250 or so. The rest of the superstars, along with the merely outstanding, and the normal people, are rejected. </p>
<p>But GOOD grades and GOOD MCATs will get you into medical school. Not into Hopkins, but into medical school. "There are no bad medical schools"</p>
<p>Exactly. Medical school is medical school.</p>
<p><a href="http://med.fsu.edu/AboutCOM/history.asp%5B/url%5D">http://med.fsu.edu/AboutCOM/history.asp</a> </p>
<p>Just below the picture of the dean: </p>
<p>
[quote]
The College of Medicine welcomed its first 30 students, the Class of 2005, in May 2001. A second class of 38 students, the Class of 2006, was admitted in May 2002, a third class of 47 students, Class of 2007 was admitted in May 2003, and a fourth class of 58 students, the Class of 2008, was admitted in 2004.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Again, it's contrary to what I was taught... which means I was taught wrongly. When you're right, you're right.</p>
<p>And actually...from the June 1st edition of the AMA eVoice came this headline:</p>
<p>3) New medical school proposed for California
The University of California, Riverside is seeking to build the state's first research-based medical school in nearly 40 years to address a "severe shortage" of physicians and nurses.</p>
<p>sure it’d be easier if they were nicer and helped you through it, but if they held your hand, you wouldn’t learn to be strong.</p>