<p>One can argue about whether my analysis of grade deflation of hard majors vs. acceptance rates is simple and superficial or not. But at the end of the day, there is still the issue of having to explain the 77% MIT premed acceptance rate, as compared to that at peer schools like HYPS, which routinely hover around the 90+% range. There is also still the issue of explaining why is is that MIT premeds who are successfully admitted actually have a HIGHER gpa than that of successful premeds nationwide (a 3.77/4.0 vs. something like a 3.5/4.0), when you would expect the exact opposite to be true (MIT is a difficult school, so med-schools should be admitting more MIT students who have lower-than-average gpa’s to compensate for the difficulty). </p>
<p>Nor is this just a one-off. This has been consistent for years. MIT has, in general, has consistently had a lower premed success rate than do HYPS. And succesful MIT premeds have had gpa’s that are consistently equal to or higher than that of succesful premeds nationwide. So you can talk about how the analysis is too simplistic and whatnot. But at the end of the day, the data still begs an explanation. If you don’t like my explanation of the data, fine, then what’s your explanation of the data?</p>
<p>However, I do agree with you (and disagree with streetlight) that MIT students don’t have a lower acceptance rate simply because their students just decide to apply to med-school for the heck of it. It’s not only for the reasons that you stated, of which I agree, that the app process is a long and grueling one and tends to eliminate those students who aren’t serious. But you can also think of it this way. If you say that lots of MIT students are applying for the heck of it (and not getting in), then why isn’t the same thing happening at HYPS? For example, you might try to argue that the 23% of MIT premeds who don’t get in anywhere must contain a lot of unserious premeds who are just applying for the heck of it. But then why doesn’t Harvard also have 23% of its premeds just applying for the heck of it (and not getting in)? Why doesn’t Stanford? The question is then, if you believe the issue is that of not serious premeds applying for the heck of it, then of the 5 elite peer schools (HYPSM), why is it MIT that seems to have the biggest problem with students applying just for the heck of it, and not getting in? </p>
<p><a href=“http://web.mit.edu/career/www/infostats/preprof.html[/url]”>http://web.mit.edu/career/www/infostats/preprof.html</a></p>