<p>“BTW: the BEST doctors are not necessarily those with the highest academics. Above a certain threshold and academics no longer matter (especially if you don’t join the academia). Besides, an MCAT/GPA score cannot be correlated to how a premed will fare as a doctor. It correlates to your reading/comprehension speed, which is tangential to your success in medical school, and is even more tangential to your success as a doctor.”</p>
<p>You don’t need a 43 or a 4.0 to be a good doctor. But I don’t think a 3.5/30 is too much to ask. The thing is, most BS/MDers (just as with most premeds) are not capable of attaining this. The attrition rates at even elite schools like Cornell or Berkeley attest to the fact that most smart high schoolers are not smart enough/dedicated enough/driven enough/whatever to make it to senior year with 3.5/30 stats. </p>
<p>A 2003 study found that out of all US allopathic medical schools, graduates from Meharry and Howard (the two schools with the lowest statistics) were disciplined 10 times as much as doctors produced from other schools. Clearly, there is some correlation between GPA/MCAT and your competence as a doctor. You need more qualities than GPA/MCAT but those are two factors you absolutely need to have. The ridiculous 3.2/25 or whatever threshold that BS/MDers are held to is not enough as Meharry and Howard demonstrate.</p>