<p>I've read that if an applicant's GPA and MCAT score are only middle of the pack, then the ECs must be great. That is, lots of clinical, volunteering, research, and the like. </p>
<p>Is the opposite true? If the GPA and MCAT are in the top 10% do the ECs have to be as impressive?</p>
<p>I've also read that there are schools that place a higher value on stats than ECs, the so-called score wh0res. But other than WUSTL, I haven't seen any opinions or data on which ones those are.</p>
<p>It bothers me that they don’t put any standard deviations on these numbers but I guess it’s better than nothing:</p>
<p><a href=“https://www.aamc.org/download/261106/data[/url]”>https://www.aamc.org/download/261106/data</a></p>
<p>Oops, it’s in the supplemental data: <a href=“https://www.aamc.org/download/261108/data/aibvol11_no6-supplemental.pdf[/url]”>https://www.aamc.org/download/261108/data/aibvol11_no6-supplemental.pdf</a>
Well this is some BS. They only give you the first page of the supplement which doesn’t have the table with the St. Devs of the ratings</p>
<p>I believe, that GPA and MCAT are much more important. The EC’s do not need to make you “stand out” as many point out. I think, based on D’s experience, that if you work hard enough to have very high GPA and a decent MCAT than you do not need to have saved the humanity from AIDs and malaria, you could be an average in regard to ECs. However, D’s committee commented that she had way more than they think is possible to have with her GPA. She never felt this way though. I do not have any other experience than that.</p>
<p>I’ve seen that paper and that chart. The brief from Sept. 2011 did not ask about research, being a TA or some of the other ECs like military service included on the list of 15 on AMCAS. </p>
<p>I suppose anecdotal evidence is all applicants have to go on.</p>
<p>I’m curious about why you’re asking. What decision are you attempting to guide with this information? Maybe then we can be more helpful.</p>
<p>Ds stats are very high. ECs are regular. Three years of heavy research, one poster, some clinical exposure, TA, light on volunteering, light on club activity.</p>
<p>So which schools to target?</p>
<p>I can imagine some situations where you should alter your application list based on poor EC’s, but this doesn’t strike me as one of those times. I think she’ll be fine. Top research schools will be particularly interested.</p>
<p>the only application list alterations I would make based on ECs are basically research oriented vs underserved/ rural area type stuff which you could glean based on the mission statement of the school.</p>
<p>"Ds stats are very high. ECs are regular. Three years of heavy research, one poster, some clinical exposure, TA, light on volunteering, light on club activity.</p>
<p>So which schools to target? "
-She needs to target schools that SHE PERSONALLY PREFER, using her personal criteria. Nobody can tell her that. That is how my D. has decided. Than another step is to eliminate the ones that have much higher stats of accepted students. However, if your D. has an exceptionally high stats, then this step is not applicable to her. Every person knows what is important to her and what is not. Maybe some are much stronger in this stand than other. Mine was exceptionally strong. But still, your D have an idea.</p>
<p>Thanks. She will apply broadly. She is reading up on the various schools on the MSAR online.</p>
<p>I just don’t want her to be one of the 8 to 10% of people with her stats who don’t get in.</p>
<p>^She will…if she is applying broadly. But you are correct on this assessment, some people disregard the step 2 in my previous post. Even applicants with high stats might not get anywhere if they apply to only extremely selective places with the exceptionally high caliber of applicants pool. Keep in mind, there are still people who are sought after as first priority, they posses Graduate degrees from top Grad. Schools, they might have some unusual EC’s that might even took them gap year(s) to complete, who knows? It also varies from year to year. The funny part of D’s application was that adcom of her current Med. School callled her pre-med advisor and expressing their desire that she choose this school (which she did), apologising for their inablility to give her any Merit award because of exceptionally high caliber of applicants specifically in the year that D. applied. Well, they could not give money, but it was nice to know that they are looking forward to having her. But the fact is that the level of applicant pool at specific school varies from year to year. So, our experiences are only estimations.</p>
<p>Actually, the LizzyM spreadsheet posted on another thread was of some help answering my question. It shows the % of accepted applicants who had community service, medical experience and research. So she can look up the schools who have higher percentages of their accepts with research, perhaps showing how they value it relative to the other categories. </p>
<p>Still doesn’t show a breakdown according to stats of the accepted applicants.</p>
<p>it also won’t differentiate accepting lots of students who did one summer of research vs accepting lots of students who did extensive (which your D has) research.</p>
<p>I think it’d actually be better to go for schools with lower percentages in the other two vs high percentage of research.</p>
<p>^What difference? D. was dismayed that she had very rare chance to even discuss her research (3 years commitment) at interviews. Most did not care a bit. They wanted to caht about music (very broadly from classical to pop bands) and her unusual for pre-med volunteering. Sounded like they were mostly looking for some conversation that can break the monotonous cycle…</p>
<p>^this sort of ties into my point. There is a big difference between the kid who does one summer of research to get his feet wet and the kid who does years of it. Simply looking at the percentage of students who “did research” won’t tell you that. Additionally, just cuz they didn’t want to talk about it doesn’t mean it’s not important. As you said, they asked about the more unusual things: music minor, unusual volunteering etc. Unless the interviewer knows the field that your D did her research in, they 100% won’t want to talk about it even if they thought it was critical that she had done research.</p>