<p>@WannaBeDoc</p>
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<p>I don’t think this is more an urban legend than fact. The 40 MCAT individuals I’ve met (n=3) all had perfectly fine interpersonal communication skills. They weren’t geeks/gunners who spent all their in the library studying either. They were, for lack of a better word, very normal.</p>
<p>Before you start going overboard on the rhapsodizing that a great EC can make up for a below average GPA or MCAT, please realize that truly amazing ECs are tough to come by. It’s expected that all LORs are very strong and supportive (i.e. “amazing”) of the candidate. Apparently according to adcomms on that other site, it’s quite rare even to see a LOR that doesn’t call the applicant the best thing since sliced bread. </p>
<p>WannaBe-- med school admission is a buyer’s market. They can demand anything they want and get it. Since a med school can fill every single one of their seats 3 to 4 times over with fully qualified candidates, they can cherry-pick applicants who have it all—strong stats AND strong interpersonal competencies. It’s not an either-or situation. </p>
<p>[See false dichotomy <a href=“http://mind.ucsd.edu/syllabi/98-99/logic/falsedichotomy.html”>http://mind.ucsd.edu/syllabi/98-99/logic/falsedichotomy.html</a> ]</p>
<p>FWIW, according to MSAR, for the 2012-13 cycle, the average accepted applicant had a 33 MCAT and 3.7 GPA.</p>