<p>Thanks for sharing your experiences, curmudgeon.</p>
<p>I happen to (sort of) know a kid from an Ivy who is applying this cycle. With 3.94 (+/-0.1) and 38 (+/-1) (Disclaimer: I only have second-hand knowledge so I am not 100% sure of her numbers), she has received many many invites from NE medical schools but no confirmed acceptance yet like your D. She has received a rejection from one of her top choices. I think she is still hoping for an invite from HMS. Her research credential is definitely not as astonishing as your D (not one of those few Rhode Scholars from her school). Also, one B+ in one of her premed classes in freshman year may hurt her chance a little bit, as there is another kid applying with 4.0 (Do not know his MCAT though.) I think a weakness for many of these high-stat kids is that they dedicate almost all of their time to maintain their grades, and are therefore not capable of dedicating enough time to building up astonishing ECs (like your D did) that may be needed for these top/academic medical schools.</p>
<p>I also heard that for some classes taught by some high power professors, the “good” undergraduate students consistently get higher grades than the graduate students, even though most graduate students take much fewer classes. (My guess is that the research project is more important for graduate students. So the graduate students only need to learn enough for their research, rather than have to get the top grades.) Therefore, most competitions for grades are actually among the undergraduate premed students, even though 1/2 or 1/3 of the class are graduate students.</p>