As I said few times already on this forum, for the caliber of the students here, getting 95+ % ile on MCAT should not be Herculean. I don’t see any problem getting >= 3.8 GPA either (refer to my comments on BU traditional few days ago)
As long as they avoid the trap of going for prestige and finding themselves in a dozen or so tough schools which can ruin their GPA (also listed by me earlier).
So what distinguishes one from the rest of the pack should be ECs. Some may end up with so so ones and some spectacular. So the folks who belong to the former category will face formidable competition from the latter, even if their GPA and MCAT are higher.
ECs are a tie-breacker even in a pack of 1600 SAT/36 ACTs for high schoolers where high school GPA can be a wild wild west depending upon high school rigor.
Same theory applies to UG to medical school, it is just different standardized scores, MCAT and UG GPA, but still very very important to be in that top tier candidates compare to high school scores, otherwise you are opening GAP year doors to compensate low GPA/MCAT with high ECs or take more science courses to boost GPA.
If one looks at MCAT guide data, there is a table clearly defines “Mean Importance Ratings of Academic, Experiential, Demographic, and Interview Data Used by Admissions Committees for Making Decisions About Which Applicants Receive Interview Invitations and Acceptance Offers”, that puts GPA, MCAT at highest importance along with few ECs, means GPA/MCAT is a must filter if one wants to be a top dog.
We are going all over the place and confusing newbies. Let me be blunt and say this, It’s candidate’s failure that they did NOT get a single BS/MD or MD/DO with traditional path whichever they chose to pursue. As discussed the issues could be
GPA
MCAT or ACT/SAT/SAT IIs
Poor ECs and/or lack of research
Bad school list (stats are not the only factor when choosing school)
Poor essays
Poor interview skills
We can’t simply say bad luck, ORM etc… and resort to our stated positions. So know your (your child’s strengths and weaknesses) and decide based on that.
I know UG schools massage their report, but this is one snippet from Vandy 2017 report “Vanderbilt students with a GPA of 3.8 or above have a 94% Acceptance Rate
compared to the National Average of 58.5%.” Vandy is a stats heavy UG admission school which means these are also good at standardized tests and did well in MCAT also (like most BSMD candidates).
Again traditional path is not horrible as some sound and all it takes is being level headed, plan the courses and ECs carefully, seek guidance from pre-health office and seniors who went thru the process instead of partying hard in the first year or two. Any student who got into BSMD can easily get into MD/DO with same approach they took in HS (unless it’s all managed by parents).
DO may not be option for some. Also those obsessed with fancy brand names and went to such for undergrad, may not want to pursue medicine going to non fancy ones. (I know someone who dropped out after a year of MD).
@undecided3494
Thank you,
do you have any suggestions for how to best prepare for the interview? I haven’t done any college interviews yet so I am a little nervous for this, especially since it is a longer interview than usual.
There is practically not much difference between MD and DO (yes, hampers little bit with some speciality). One orthopedic surgeon I consulted recently is a DO and he was involved with NBA team before. Back to fancy brand obsession argument?! So what’ wrong if a kid who decided MD is not for him and pursues some other career? You want an unhappy doctor treating patients? Only ORMs think Engineering and Medicine are the only game in the town. As I said before one of the smartest kids from our school joined BU SMED 8-10 years back and decided medicine is not for him and doing Ph.D. in Chemistry at a T20 school in CA. Some of my son’s friends also decided not to pursue medicine despite having good GPA. Please let kids decide and not impose your obsession about medicine on them.
It is high time the moderates - @skieurope@texaspg - created a separate TRADITIONAL vs BSMD thread.
Let’s keep this focused on BSMD - right now a few applications deadlines are coming up (on Jan 15) and we are expecting a few interview invites in the next couple of weeks.
poster of #2137, you are hilarious, no one is going to respond to you by addressing your ID. So 2-3 respondents on this thread said GW is out, all happened within last one week at most.
Hi,
Has anyone received Upstate interview confirmation? Not interview invite but a confirmation to attend on particular date among the three option chosen with details about where to go etc? Thanks in advance.