@juillet Good question!
The reason why the number of applicants can make a difference at a school is because typically a school will provide more resources ( a premed office, premed advisors, premed clubs, write Committee Letters, bring in speakers/experts ) if there are a larger number of applicants. It can be hard for a school to justify the expense or even the salary of a dedicated premed advisor if the school typically only has a small number of applicants each year. I recently was looking at a school that typically only has 8-11 med school applicants per year. I think that’s too few.
the other extreme can also be a negative. A school that has way too many med school applicants can also be a problem. I’ve seen a few schools that have 500-700+ Med school applicants each year. I would find it hard to believe that a school can properly advise that many and likely they’re not writing Committee Letters when the group is that large.
And you’re right…a school that says only 17% of their applicants were accepted would be bad thing, but I’ve never seen anything like that! Lol. More typically we see stats like: 55% or 75% or 80%
The reason why acceptance rates like 55%, 65%, or 75% don’t really tell a high school senior (or his parents) anything is because of several reasons.
When a high school senior hears a 75% stat, he wrongly thinks that HE has a 75% chance of getting into med school. No. That’s not what that stat is saying.
The school may have had 400 Frosh premeds, but by the time senior year was coming around, only 100 remained and applied to med school. If 75% of those remaining 100 rising college seniors end up being accepted, what does that tell an incoming freshman who is one of 400? Only 75 of his cohort of 400 premed made it into med school.
Also…all premeds aren’t equal. All med school applicants aren’t equal. If a school has a 55% acceptance rate, then that is probably a school that allows anyone to apply to med school…even those with stats that aren’t med school worthy. That should 55% admission stat should not discourage a student with a high GPA and strong MCAT score, because his/her chance is not 55%. His/her chance may really be 80%. His/her chance is not hurt by the fact that some premeds with lousy stats would not give up and applied anyway.