<p>How much of an impact do you think research publications have on medical school admissions? For example, how would a mid-author Nature/Science/Cell (high impact journal) paper be viewed? </p>
<p>I've heard some people say that publications are very good and others say that it doesn't matter?</p>
<p>They’re very helpful, but they are neither necessary nor sufficient to get you into a medical school.</p>
<p>Thanks! Do you think they could make up for a lack of GPA (for top schools). For example would a person with 3.7 GPA + Mid-author in one Nature/Science/Cell publication have the same chance as someone with 3.8 GPA, everything else being the same? I know this is very specific, but any general response is also welcome.</p>
<p>It would vary from school to school, on who was reviewing your application, and what mood they were in that day. Generally speaking 0.1 points of GPA, especially when moving from 3.8 to 3.7, is not a very large gap.</p>
<p>There’s really too many factors to answer any of these questions (although a 3.8 vs 3.7 is basically the same thing) with real certainty. What does “mid-author” mean? How many authors on the paper? What about someone with a first author low tier journal paper? What about a more specialized paper that is considered very good in that field but the reader isn’t in that field, etc.</p>