Here’s the bottom line: lots of otherwise qualified students don’t get into medical school because of a low MCAT score. The small state school student proved a high science and critical thinking aptitude, and admissions committees will likely choose the small state school student, despite the differences in the undergraduate reputation. Why do admissions committees care so much about the MCAT? The MCAT is an attempt to compare students who come from a broad range of backgrounds, majors, regions, undergraduate institutions, and much more.įor example, let’s say that a Stanford student and a student from a small state school have the same application, but the Stanford student scored a 505 on the MCAT while the small state school student scored a 518. If you think of medical school admissions as a tiered evaluation process, the MCAT falls in the top tier of what admissions committees look at when they evaluate an applicant, in addition to your GPA and personal statement. Odds are these students had less-than-stellar MCAT scores, one of the most important factors admissions committees consider when evaluating applications. You’ve probably heard stories about premed students who went to well-respected colleges, had extensive clinical and volunteer experiences, worked in the same lab for multiple years, and achieved a 3.9 GPA but were still rejected from every medical school that they applied to.

Part 1: Introduction to building a great MCAT study schedule

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