<p>I have so few things to say here, but I will say them.</p>
<p>First, though the average accepted premed’s GPA is 3.6, as I’ve said before, the average premed applicant’s GPA is almost exactly the same. (They stopped reporting the applicant GPAs this year, but in previous years, the applicant GPAs were 0.1 under the accepted student GPAs.) This indicates that there is little selection for GPA going on, except that the extreme left tail of the GPA distribution.</p>
<p>Also, 3.6 is a very good GPA at MIT, but the average MIT senior has a GPA of 3.3 on a 4.0 scale (from statistics [url=<a href=“Committee on the Undergraduate Program (CUP) | MIT Registrar”>Committee on the Undergraduate Program (CUP) | MIT Registrar]here[/url</a>], from 1996-2000 – and I would be willing to bet the numbers are higher now; see pg 40 and also note pg 35). So while the accepted premeds have GPAs above average at MIT, they are not that terrifically above average. And of course the 3.3 average GPA is for all students, while premeds are almost certainly less likely to be engineering majors, etc. </p>
<p>The question in the original post was “So pre-med at MIT is pretty much impossible?” I think we can all agree that, while students should seriously consider whether premed at MIT is the best path for them, premed at MIT is not “pretty much impossible”, and MIT premeds have a strong history of success in medical school applications.</p>