Difficulty of Getting Into Med School

WayOutWestMom
Sat, 25 Feb 2017 00:26:23 +0000

Not a med student, but parent of one young doctor (currently a 2nd year resident) and one med student (3rd year).

Before I answer your questions, I’d like to correct a misperception you have–

all US med schools are good. They all teach the same curriculum and all med students take the same national standardized exams. (USMLE or STEP exams.)

Medicine is very much a meritocracy–what you achieve matters, what your scores are matter, what your grades are matters-- not where you go to med school. (Honestly where you do your residency is much more important.)

Yes, is possible for an above average student to get into med school. D1 certainly wasn’t a wonderful student high school. (Academics just weren’t her thing.) She didn’t go to powerhouse college. (State U ranked ~#200). She got into more than one med school and is now at top residency program in the specialty of her choice. D2 was the complete opposite–top student in high school & attended a top 30 research U. Like her sister, she got into more than one med school and will be a candidate for top residencies in her specialty of choice next year.

I like to tell students that there as many routes to med school as there are applicants. D1 and D2 have classmates from a wide variety of backgrounds and colleges. Some are from brand name schools (USC, Stanford, JHU, UCLA), some are from LACs (Carleton, Swarthmore, Colorado College, St Mary’s), many are from state Us and some are from small regional colleges. The one commonality is each of those students made the most of the opportunities they had at wherever they ended up for college. They had top grades, great LORs from professors they got to know well, had track records of community service and altruism, had extensive clinical volunteering/paid employment and most had done some sort of research (although not all of them did biology research) and had demonstrated leadership in variety of ways. And besides all that, they are well-rounded, interesting & compassionate individuals.

That said, it’s getting harder and harder to get into med school. There has been an strongly upward trend in average GPA and average MCAT scores for accepted med students nationally, both in allopathic and osteopathic medical schools, for the past 5-6 years. For allopathic (MD) schools, last year’s average GPA was over 3.7; for osteopathic (DO) schools, it was 3.58. Likewise average MCAT scores for accepted students have been edging upward even as the average MCAT score for all test takers has gone down.

Based on my observations, what you do and achieve matters a whole lot more than where you go to college. You need an excellent GPA, a strong MCAT plus the full complement of pre-med ECs to be competitive.

My suggestion is that you find a school that “fits” you. Happier students earn better grades. (And there’s empirical evidence to back that up.) Your college shouldn’t break the [parental] bank or put you into substantial debt. (Med school is expensive and there’s little aid except for loans.) Find a school the offers you opportunities to engage in the expected pre-med ECs-- community service, clinical volunteering/employment, leadership activities, clinical or bench research. Good pre-med advising is a plus, but not strictly necessary.

LACs that are very small (<2000 students) often have limited research opportunities and you will need to use your summers remedying that by doing summer research programs–which are extremely competitive to get into.

Colleges in rural areas may have very limited opportunities for clinical volunteering and may require having a car on campus to get to them.