AMCAS says that 27% of applicants are repeat applicants and of those 27% only about 1/4 get an acceptance on their second or third round of applications----so there are diminishing returns on being a repeat applicant. Repeat applicants are held to higher standards than first time applicants.
Every med school secondary asks what a repeat applicant has done since their last application to improve their app. (i.e. fix any shortcomings). Med schools on their webpages strongly advise rejected applicants to have 1-2 YEARS between application cycles to strengthen their apps. So it’s not like those who get accepted after being initially rejected apply with the same application they did originally
Looking at these statistics, its puzzling why undergrad institutions discourage and weed out their less than perfect pre med students. Every year we see social media posts of accepted students mentioning their premed advisor’s degrading predictions. Why is that so?
Because their job is to prevent students who aren’t competitive for med school from applying. The reason is twofold: 1)to prevent those students from dragging down their school’s professional school admission record; and 2) to save those really uncompetitive students from the cost, stress and heart-break of being an unsuccessful. (And the cost can be substantial–$6000 for a round of applications is pretty typical. With in-person interviews the cost can be substantially higher.)
I think there is some confirmation bias going on too. You’re only seeing those few students posting who are successful–the ones who aren’t don’t post about it.
Are pre-med advisors sometimes wrong about a student’s ability to get accepted? Heck yeah! They’re only human beings after all.
Yes but so many get in after gap years, post baccalaureate, research, MCAT retake, work experience, masters and resume strengthening so no reason to discourage just because they want to flaunt college’s high acceptance rates. It should be student’s call.
Undergrad college health profession advisors do not advise or track what applicants do post-graduation. Most undergrads do not include alumni in the med school admission records.
It’s always the student’s choice to apply or not. Even current undergrads whose HP advisors do not support their application are free to apply if they want to. They’ll just apply without a HP committee letter.