Will MCAT cutoffs change?

[iFlayx]

Given the unstability of the MCAT cutoffs in recent years, I am wondering if it would also change next year?

My current MCAT stats are 128/129/130/126 (PS/CARS/BS/Psych). I will be going back to school to do a gap year and I am hoping to be interviewed on the basis of a conditional acceptance. My current GPA for the one year that meets cutoffs are 3.85. Should I continue the gap year with the assumption that the MCAT cutoffs for CARS will remain at 129?

Also, does anyone have a guess as to whether they will include the psych section next year?

Thanks!

[SoraAde]

This upcoming cycle, Psych/Soc will very likely have a cut off (because the old MCAT will no longer be accepted). That being said, nobody can know what it is, but if it has any effect (which it may or may not) on the CARS cutoff, I imagine it would decrease it.

What do you mean by gap year? Do you have a BSc?

[iFlayx]

I meant that I will be going back for a special year, my typo mistake.

I am just hoping that the psych req will not go over 126..

[hartk48]

My theory:

Cars will fluctuate between 130 and 129 if psych wont be implemented because many people fail to realize the cut offs change every year (youd be surprised how many people I had to explain this too) encouraging / discouraging applicants to apply, respectively, thus affecting the pool of applicants.  

If psych is implemented, independent of the other sections, its cut off will be higher than 127. Aamc just changed its % correct to scaled score on their two official FLs. 51/59 being a 128 (in C/P and B/B it is 129). 

[hartk48]

127 or above *

 

[SoraAde]

7 hours ago, iFlayx said:

I meant that I will be going back for a special year, my typo mistake.

I am just hoping that the psych req will not go over 126..

Unfortunately, I would be very surprised if it was less than 127.

[habromania]

Chances of psych being 128 and CARS/BIO staying at 129? Don't have time to rewrite this summer (and it could very well be a silly decision)...Guess we'll see

[bruh]

C/P has historically been on the low side for Western. My guess is it will stay as 126. With the addition of Psyc, that would mean an extra measure of screening, thus I'd assume that the cut off for CARS would be slightly lowered - 128 or 129. Bio will probably stay at 128. Psyc between 127-128 

My prediction: 126/129/128/127 

[habromania]

6 hours ago, VINCHER said:

C/P has historically been on the low side for Western. My guess is it will stay as 126. With the addition of Psyc, that would mean an extra measure of screening, thus I'd assume that the cut off for CARS would be slightly lowered - 128 or 129. Bio will probably stay at 128. Psyc between 127-128 

My prediction: 126/129/128/127 

Seems reasonable given this year's cut-offs 

[iFlayx]

Given that they will removing the old MCAT, wouldnt that sort of lower the new MCAT requirement considering that there will be less applicants that qualify for interviews through the old pool? 

Does anyone know why there is a particular reason for the historically low C/P cutoff at western tho?..

[bruh]

2 hours ago, iFlayx said:

Given that they will removing the old MCAT, wouldnt that sort of lower the new MCAT requirement considering that there will be less applicants that qualify for interviews through the old pool? 

Does anyone know why there is a particular reason for the historically low C/P cutoff at western tho?..

That makes sense. The removal of the old-MCAT could lower the competitive requirements, as was seen in UofC when they only accepted the new MCAT. Less applicants applied, more applicants were interviewed, and success rates were higher than the years prior. (stats are n Dr. Ian Walker's information video).

Western most likely believes that CARS, followed by B/B are stronger measures of qualification when compared to C/P, as seen in their historically higher VR/CARS cut offs and lower C/P cut offs.

[mia1234]

Considering CARS was 129 last year, what is the likely hood it will drop with psych likely being considered ?

[Neurophilic]

On 7/15/2017 at 8:05 PM, mia1234 said:

Considering CARS was 129 last year, what is the likely hood it will drop with psych likely being considered ?

It all depends on how much value Western decides to give to psych/soc. If they continue with current standards of giving CARS such a high priority, I wouldn't be surprised if CARS stayed at 129 and the other sections were adjusted to accommodate the introduction of the new section. But who knows, maybe there will be a new restructuring of priority and psych could be equally valued as CARS. Personally, I'm hoping they drop CARS to 127 and make psych something like a 129 or 130, giving it top priority.   

[applicant111]

Considering that they just dropped CARS from 130 to 129 (although to be fair, 130 was ridiculous), I would personally be surprised if they dropped it again. 

[lulu95]

12 hours ago, Neurophilic said:

It all depends on how much value Western decides to give to psych/soc. If they continue with current standards of giving CARS such a high priority, I wouldn't be surprised if CARS stayed at 129 and the other sections were adjusted to accommodate the introduction of the new section. But who knows, maybe there will be a new restructuring of priority and psych could be equally valued as CARS. Personally, I'm hoping they drop CARS to 127 and make psych something like a 129 or 130, giving it top priority.   

I'm doubtful that they would value psych/soc as much as CARS at such an early stage, as it's essentially the first year where the entire applicant pool will have submitted a psych/soc score. Especially considering that so many schools single out CARS as the determining factor, can't see the new section being suddenly valued equally to that holy grail of sections. I remember someone brought up once the idea that schools don't really know what to do with the psych/soc score yet because there's not enough data to determine what it's a good indicator of in terms od traits they're looking for in their students. Perhaps it may come to be valued in a few years, but right now, I see it treated as a low minimum cutoff comparable to c/p.

[Neurophilic]

1 hour ago, lulu95 said:

I'm doubtful that they would value psych/soc as much as CARS at such an early stage, as it's essentially the first year where the entire applicant pool will have submitted a psych/soc score. Especially considering that so many schools single out CARS as the determining factor, can't see the new section being suddenly valued equally to that holy grail of sections. I remember someone brought up once the idea that schools don't really know what to do with the psych/soc score yet because there's not enough data to determine what it's a good indicator of in terms od traits they're looking for in their students. Perhaps it may come to be valued in a few years, but right now, I see it treated as a low minimum cutoff comparable to c/p.

I agree with this and it'll probably be the case. But you also gotta remember that this is the school that decided to introduce a writing portion into their interviews after AAMC dropped the writing section after showing there was absolutely no correlation with performance. With all of that said, I've gotten some insider information stating that faculty are not happy with the students that are matriculating and there are talks of changing admission policies. This may be the perfect year to change relative weighting of MCAT subsections. Maybe this will be the year. Only time will tell.  

[Morinphen]

3 minutes ago, Neurophilic said:

I agree with this and it'll probably be the case. But you also gotta remember that this is the school that decided to introduce a writing portion into their interviews after AAMC dropped the writing section after showing there was absolutely no correlation with performance. With all of that said, I've gotten some insider information stating that faculty are not happy with the students that are matriculating and there are talks of changing admission policies. This may be the perfect year to change relative weighting of MCAT subsections. Maybe this will be the year. Only time will tell.  

Here comes CASPER

[Neurophilic]

Just now, Morinphen said:

Here comes CASPER

Haha that would be a nightmare!

[lulu95]

19 minutes ago, Morinphen said:

Here comes CASPER

CASPer, the not-so-friendly ghost that haunts anyone who doesn't type at 70+ wpm...

[Pakoon]

Does anyone have a theory now that they added an ABS component and didn't end up using psych last year?

[Pakoon]

39 minutes ago, ninja7292 said:

CARS will never drop below 129, esp. after being already dropped from 130.

That makes total sense, what are odds of them adding psych or lowering CP/BB cut offs?

[tavenan]

1 hour ago, Abramula said:

That makes total sense, what are odds of them adding psych or lowering CP/BB cut offs?

They'll do what ever they have to in order to interview 400 applicants. It's impossible for anyone to say whether or not they'll add Psych this cycle, though common sense dictates that they will add it at some point in time.

In terms of lowering CP or BB cutoffs, the school historically favours low CP and high BB/CARS. You have to realize that there are multiple ways they can break down the applicant pool into 400 students to interview, so the cutoffs will vary based on the applicant pool, but you can be safe in assuming that the BB cutoff will be higher than the CP cutoff, for example. For that reason, I find it extremely unlikely that the CARAS cutoff will drop below 129, because of how highly it's valued by the school, and how effective a CARS score of 129 is at reducing the applicant pool to 400. If they lowered CARS to 128, they'd probably have to do a lot of work to get the number of qualified applicants down to 400 again.

So it's best to wait and see how they value the Psych section. I think they might wait until they have 4 years of data for the first class that entered with the new MCAT, to see how their graduation / performance rates vary based on their PSYCH score on the MCAT. It's hard to tell how highly they value the PSYCH section, and if they introduce it at say a cutoff of 126 or 127, it's extremely unlikely that the cutoffs for the other sections would move at all, as everyone who meets 128 in B/B and 129 in CARS would most likely also meet a 126 or 127 in Psych already. 

 

[Pakoon]

On 8/22/2018 at 5:20 PM, tavenan said:

They'll do what ever they have to in order to interview 400 applicants. It's impossible for anyone to say whether or not they'll add Psych this cycle, though common sense dictates that they will add it at some point in time.

In terms of lowering CP or BB cutoffs, the school historically favours low CP and high BB/CARS. You have to realize that there are multiple ways they can break down the applicant pool into 400 students to interview, so the cutoffs will vary based on the applicant pool, but you can be safe in assuming that the BB cutoff will be higher than the CP cutoff, for example. For that reason, I find it extremely unlikely that the CARAS cutoff will drop below 129, because of how highly it's valued by the school, and how effective a CARS score of 129 is at reducing the applicant pool to 400. If they lowered CARS to 128, they'd probably have to do a lot of work to get the number of qualified applicants down to 400 again.

So it's best to wait and see how they value the Psych section. I think they might wait until they have 4 years of data for the first class that entered with the new MCAT, to see how their graduation / performance rates vary based on their PSYCH score on the MCAT. It's hard to tell how highly they value the PSYCH section, and if they introduce it at say a cutoff of 126 or 127, it's extremely unlikely that the cutoffs for the other sections would move at all, as everyone who meets 128 in B/B and 129 in CARS would most likely also meet a 126 or 127 in Psych already. 

 

For SWOMEN applicants adding another section would make a level of difference due to the flexibility they get in sections

[erythrocyte]

I expect CARS score requirements to drop, maybe to ~128. 

I say this for now, however, in the future I see them following a UoT style selection with very modest MCAT cutoffs, a higher GPA cutoff, and a stronger focus on ECs. 

If they're unhappy like the other poster said, it means the current selection criteria they feel is failing them. Rightfully so, tbh. While I admire Western for their unambiguous selection process, standardized tests are not the best predictor of success in med school (as has been shown for a while now). 

[indefatigable]

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