justchuck

How can I find out the stats on what percentage of undergrads a college board recommends for medical school admission?

My son is considering three SUNYs, Stony Brook, Binghamton and Genseo. He hopes to one day become a pediatrician. He is leaning towards Geneseo. I feel that Geneseo might be the most selective in the number of students it recommends to med schools. This is because it is the smallest of the three, and also, arguably, has the brightest students of the three.

I would hate to see his dream shot down because the cut off was a 3.6 GPA and he had a 3.5, or because the cutoff was the top 20% of students and he was at the 21 or 22% level.

Any thoughts on this?

What department could provide us with these figures? Admissions office? Registrars office?

There is also a whole school of thought that says as far as med school admissions are concerned, the student is better off just being an anonymous person that fits in and does well enough at a large state school, as opposed to be under the microscope of professors and faculty at a smaller LAC. Any thoughts on this theory?

mmmcdowe

Pre-health or pre-med advising will let you know the requirements. Generally, they are pretty low and flexible.

LWMD

I'm not aware of any college or university that has a cutoff for the percentage of pre-professional students it recommends, because so many factors go into predicting the success of any student in med school. GPA is only one factor.

Colleges and universities have reputations. A 3.5 from a school that is known to be academically rigorous is more meaningful than a 4.0 from a school where anyone with a pulse gets admitted. A very good friend of mine is an extremely gifted GYN oncologist. She had a 3.4 from a very rigorous school.

The pre-professional advisor of any school should be able to tell you what percentage of of its students are accepted. When schools have 80% acceptance rates, they are quick to brag about it.

MCAT scores are better predictors of success than GPA, for the reason stated above.

Good recommendations go beyond GPA and MCAT scores and include comments about adaptability, initiative, and the other human factors that make someone a successful professional.

If the schools on your son's list send about the same percentage of applicants to med school, the he should look for his best fit and be at a school where he will be happy.

justchuck

Thank you both.

bluedevilmike

With all due respect, I think I'm going to have to disagree with post #3 on a few levels.

(1) There is definitely some flexibility in how a GPA is viewed, but in no case is it ever large enough to reach 0.5 GPA points. Still, I can see where LWMD is coming from on this point.

(2) I know of some schools which employ cutoffs for premeds -- Johns Hopkins is the most famous of these -- but many more do so "under the table." Again, I can see where LWMD is coming from since most of these requirements are implicit, but unfortunately this isn't necessarily very reassuring.

(3) I'd be very wary of relying too heavily on an admissions percentage as a core metric. It's useful, no doubt, but it is definitely open to manipulation via screening, as your original post is rightly concerned about. For example, Christopher Newport brags about its 100% admissions rate -- that should be a cause for *concern,* not a cause for reassurance.

Still, it is useful, especially among peer schools. Stanford is at 70% compared to Duke's 80% and Harvard's 90%; I do think that's important information.

(4) LWMD is right on the money when he/she argues that MCAT is more useful. In fact, I would say that's a very good thing to look for: if you can obtain the data, find out what the average MCAT score of admitted students is. You want it low, not high -- since it means that "even low MCAT scores have a chance from X school." Sadly, very few schools give out this information.

(5) The bottom line? Most schools don't use hard cutoffs anyway, but they do have some standards in mind if they're screening schools.