@rk2017 that’s interesting…look forward to hearing from them soon.
Completely agree! But it is for them to make decisions on who to consider and who not to. Programs can be rigid irrespective of their stature. As @NoviceDad rightly alluded to, a highly reputed program can be flexible with the parameters whereas as a run of the mill program can be very rigid in their criteria.
You can refer to or search on college board’s website where they posted tabular conversions to 4.0 unweighted scale from non letter grades. I remember posting it in this thread a while ago, but don’t have handy. Also different schools seem to have different way of calculating themselves for regular undergrad decisions, like for example heard that Stanford drops +s and -s around letter grades in a given course. (i.e. A+, A and A- all map to 4.0)
Sure, good luck and please keep posted what you may learn, folks may want to know in case they have gotten a little bit flexible lately.
@Ana2000, there is an option provided in the email about the skype option available for NJIT honors interview.
@GoldenRock and @rk2017 have explained it well about UPitt.
Another data point:
Past 2 years, they have invite ~ 40 candidates for interviews. All had perfect SAT or ACT scores.
Also, if you are INSTATE for UPitt, you are at a further disadvantage as they only admit 1-2 students from instate PA.
Further of what @rk2017 indicated:
Admissions committee looks for your high school’s course distribution which is sent with transcripts.
That helps them get an indication how the A fits within the school.
Plus they have past student experiences to refer to - which school students thrived in their college environment.
Re: HPME
From my experience, NU’s “fun” activities are about ~ 20-25% of PennState, UPitt, Temple, UMichigan & William & Mary.
Plus NU follows 10-week quarter system with 2 to 3 “mid-terms” which means most HPME kids are studying to maintain their high GPA requirements.
Most courses have curved scoring, like in many colleges.
In one Orgo class, median scores are 66% and B- cut off is around 78%. Typical weed-out course.
Plus NU has distribution requirements which can make students take “stupid” courses just to meet their course distribution requirements. Eg History of Religion course.
So, I would say it is focused towards studies.
@ShrutiSapphire
I would highly encourage you to apply to HPME and other programs
The BS MD admission committee how much weight are they giving to the essays??? Any comments?? Thx
@Metsfan7860 Oh wow the student was actually contacted to reapply? That is so cool and lucky wow. That didn’t happen to me lol ! Do you know if they do that to all the people placed on waitlist? Or, I’m pretty sure that only happened to people who probably did well in their previous interviews and were just really really close to getting a seat. And do you know if more transfers were accepted? Because I just really want to get another interview and hopefully I can take it from there. My stats certainly may not be spectacular, and I was really surprised I got an interview at all in the last cycle (had to have been my essays). So, what do you think a transfer applicant’s chance is at getting an interview? And also, did the transfer have to retake their sat/act again, or get new rec letters, or do new volunteering, write new essays, or anything like that? tysm for the help!
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That helps them get an indication how the A fits within the school.
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True, that is what is expected how these schools and programs ought to work. However from our experience it was not to be. Though D was in the top ~5% of her school (the school doesn’t rank), even with what might seem to be not so stellar 3.8x ish unweighted gpa in her super competitive, very rigorous and grade deflated high school, many of these programs did not factor it in their decisions to call her for interviews. They simply over looked her stellar performances in standardized, subject and AP tests and other achievements. Kids from relatively easy going schools and obviously higher gpa numbers got called instead for many such programs. Mentioning here to make it point, it is not a perfect world out there and not to get expectations too high for those in similar situations.
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Plus they have past student experiences to refer to - which school students thrived in their college environment.
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True, infact and fortunately that is what got her into the 7 year program she was most interested in, the track record of the previous students from the school who went there. She likewise is doing extremely well with the rigor of her background, which may have helped few kids from the high school getting interviews into her program and the valedictorian joining there this year.
@rk2017
As we know, how an admissions committee looks at a candidate is highly subjective.
Happy your D got into the program she was interested in.
@hoop897 I took the one in October
My D took it in Nov…Thx
@rk2017 - I completely with you.
Luckily your D was recognized by a college and gave her a chance. But how many colleges would do that, given almost perfect GPA and test scores 100+ kids eagerly waiting to get into those 5-20 seats?
As I heard from a major research institute intern, they select 5-10 candidates from 500+ applicants just using GPA as they do not have much time to go through essays or recommendations. I hope BS/MD colleges may do more than this.
May be a MCAT type of test is a way to go even for BS/MD? This is bring different level of kids into one common ground to compare.
@DSOF20192023 your information may be right, I also heard, usually undergrad admissions office filter applications based on GPA (may be test scores) and only handful of them are forwarded to med school admissions. May be after that other supplemental info relevant to med admission is looked into. Not all BS/MD applications make way to med school admissions office.
I know one candidate with perfect SAT and GPA (and from neighboring state) didn’t even get PITT interview. she got into HPME and Brown and couple of ivy leagues and decided to go to Stanford. So no one knows for sure how they select.
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also heard, usually undergrad admissions office filter applications based on GPA (may be test scores) and only handful of them are forwarded to med school admissions.
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To share rough statistics to give an idea on the program I am most familiar, which is perhaps one of the very few following the most holistic approach in their decision making:
2000+ applicants (with apparently 1000+ with near perfect gpas and scores) → 1 reader going through all to be consistent in the selection process → ~200 forwarded to joint med school and unviersity admissions committee, which includes dean or associate dean of med school admissions–> ~80 called in for interviews → ~50 acceptances → 30+ enrolling (4-5 getting merit awards of any shape or form for undergrad)
@rk2017 - If you are talking about BU, I thought they only give one or 2 merit for BSMD.