<p>As I understand it, the most important factors are your GPA, MCAT, and activities (research or medically-related ECs only). Recommendations are also key.</p>
<p>so, leadership, volunteering, and other-non-medical-releated activities are not that important, right?</p>
<p>They are VERY important. GPA and MCAT scores will get you on the radar. This is after talking to many top tier med school admissions officers. They then look for things to separate you from the bunch - important are recommendations, clinical experience (so they know you know what you want to do) - can come in the form of volunteering, leadership roles was mentioned (various methods), exercising the other side of your brain (sports, music, etc), your personal statement (why you want to go - usually shaped by an EC or volunteer experience), your interview...</p>
<p>One officer said that if you have 9 things out of 10 items he listed, you would be a very good candidate for any med school. So you CAN make up for a deficient area by excelling in others.</p>
<p>Obviously GPA and MCAT scores are very important. Med school officers know the difficulty of MIT and compensate for that (which wasn't done previously). Why else would some of them be sending their premed children to MIT (I know a few of these students).</p>
<p>At MIT you will get ridiculous research experience. I'm a second semester freshman and I already am pushing out a publication - something that will be looked very favorably upon by admissions committees.</p>
<p>Regarding the ~70%: Many students come into MIT not realizing they want to be a doctor. A lot of my premed friends decided midway through sophomore year that is what they wanted to do - after taking classes and majoring in hard engineering courses (chemE, electricalengineering/computerscience, etc.) and didn't change their majors as they were halfway through it. These majors are notorious for being tough with grades - that could explain it. A very high # of premeds here at MIT don't become premed until well into their undergraduate coursework.</p>
<p>Schools manipulate medical school acceptance rates by only endorsing people with competitive numbers. Maybe MIT doesn't, and that's what explains the lower number.</p>
<p>MIT definitely doesn't do the endorsement thing. Anyone who wants to apply to medical school gets the same treatment as anyone else.</p>
<p>how well is MIT preparing you for the biology, chemistry, organic chemistry, and physics tested on the MCAT?</p>
<p>so well that you don't have to do anything in particular. they are all (well except orgo) included in your GIRs. essentially, anyone would be prepared for the mcats with a bit of preparation. which is why a lot of people are able to decide late in their academic careers that they want to be go to med school.</p>
<p>Okay, here is the deal… I am 16 years old, a Junior in High School (Commonwealth Connections Academy cyberschool). I have been accepted into MIT. I have a 4.38 GPA. I am going the PreMed route. For the past 2 years I have spent hours and hours and hours researching Tech schools and universities all over the United States, Europe, and in Austrailia and even universities in South Africa.
After doing research on the quality of universities and courses ofered by universities - MIT, for EVERYTHING came out on the top. Of course there are schools like The University of Cambridge, The University of Southampton, and The University of Oxford in England that are just outstanding, but for a first year PreMed student in the united states, at only 16 I found MIT to be the most promising for the first 4 years of my studies. I am going to be double majoring and double minoring (which is only allowed by MIT for few students). I am Majoring in BioChemistry and Microbiology and minoring in a Psychoanlysis class as well as a Bodily Health of Biology class. All of these classes are classes that were recommended by top universities in the world, for students that plan on coming to Medical school for 4-6 years after undergraduate school at another university through premed.
Pretty much consider yourself super grateful and lucky if you get into MIT and can successfully continue in the Pre-Med route because if you want to not be in the 50%tile or the 75%tile of students that get into medical school, and you wanna make the 98-99%tile, TAKE AS MANY DIFFICULT AND ENRICHING COURSES AS POSSIBLE!. You don’t go to a university like Dartmouth, MIT, or Yale just to take the courses you need and take extra easy courses just because you don’t wanna risk your GPA. The point of being an MIT student is providing the school with exceptional GPA’s to make their statistical results skyrocket. Plan ahead and study EVERY MEDICAL SCHOOL you would possibly consider before making a Pre-Med course plan. And also, do independent study and research for the MCAT test. If i wanted to, I could get exceptional scores on the MCAT if i took it today simply because I have spent all my freetime studying to become a medical student. Hard work and sacrificing tiem DOES pay off!</p>
<p>…wow. Just wow.</p>
<p>Oh, that’s sarcasm, by the way. Way to revive an almost 4-year-old thread to brag about yourself.</p>
<p>
That’s actually not true – anybody can double major and double minor if they would like to and can handle the workload.</p>
<p>
MIT only awards a degree in biology, not in a specific biology subfield. And MIT offers neither of these minors – a minor program is typically composed of about six classes. Minors offered at MIT can be found [url=<a href=“http://web.mit.edu/registrar/reg/majors-minors/declareminor.html]here[/url”>http://web.mit.edu/registrar/reg/majors-minors/declareminor.html]here[/url</a>].</p>