western acceptance stats

[infinity101]

western apparently only looks at the GPA (2yr or conditional above 3.7) and whether or not the MCAT cutoffs have been met along with a decent EC sketch, when deciding applicants to invite for interviews. 

My question is, there are about >3000 applicants to western med, surely all of those applying meet cutoffs for the GPA and MCAT. then why is it that only around ~300 get interviews if only two factors (and decent ECs) are considered?

Because obviously a lot of people are rejected. From a few people i have personally spoken to, they apparently met the cutoffs but were rejected? Can someone please explain?

[jr2]

The mcat cutoff in cars is quite high for non swomen at 95th percentile. A lot of people apply with a 128 or 127 hoping the cutoff will drop (to no avail).  

[tavenan]

1 hour ago, infinity101 said:

From a few people i have personally spoken to, they apparently met the cutoffs but were rejected? Can someone please explain?

This is false. If you meet the cutoffs you get an interview, barring extremely rare situations that have to do with obvious red flags or something troubling in an applicant's past. 

The school changes the cutoffs every year precisely to only interview about 400 people, based on the applicant pool for that year. So by definition the top 400 MCAT scores dictate what the cutoff will be, with some wiggle room given to SWOMEN in section breakdowns but not total score cutoffs. 

[fremulon]

Does this mean a SWOMEN with a 2 year GPA of 4.0 and 525 (132 129 132 132) on the MCAT is "guranteed" an interview, no matter what the ABS or Letters or anything else say?

What is the selection criteria post-interview?

[Distancea]

22 minutes ago, healthscireject said:

Does this mean a SWOMEN with a 2 year GPA of 4.0 and 525 (132 129 132 132) on the MCAT is "guranteed" an interview, no matter what the ABS or Letters or anything else say?

What is the selection criteria post-interview?

Why go that far? A SWOMAN with a 3.7 and 

BBFLS       125                     
CPFBS       125                    
CARS         125                     
Combined Total 383    

 

It is a guaranteed interview in that case and no EC's are looked at.

[fremulon]

34 minutes ago, Distancea said:

Why go that far? A SWOMAN with a 3.7 and 

BBFLS       125                     
CPFBS       125                    
CARS         125                     
Combined Total 383    

 

It is a guaranteed interview in that case and no EC's are looked at.

I wonder if they'll look at Psych Soc this year

[T-cell]

Hey, ya I'm wondering the same thing!

Any ideas anyone? 

[rmorelan]

8 hours ago, T-cell said:

Hey, ya I'm wondering the same thing!

Any ideas anyone? 

the school never makes that kind of decision until after all the apps are in. That is an interesting part of how Western operates - rather than setting a benchmark and considering all people above it (like say TO with their MCAT scores - above them and at least they continue to look at you), Western selects them to exclude people - manipulating the cut offs to get around 450 people to interview. If everyone got better they would just raise the score automatically. They won't make any MCAT decisions until Nov/Dec (or there about)

[obiwankenobi]

8 hours ago, rmorelan said:

the school never makes that kind of decision until after all the apps are in. That is an interesting part of how Western operates - rather than setting a benchmark and considering all people above it (like say TO with their MCAT scores - above them and at least they continue to look at you), Western selects them to exclude people - manipulating the cut offs to get around 450 people to interview. If everyone got better they would just raise the score automatically. They won't make any MCAT decisions until Nov/Dec (or there about)

Still, I think it would be nice to tell us if they will consider P/S. They can still manipulate the cut offs after--it would just help people who are considering a rewrite based on one section.

[rmorelan]

56 minutes ago, obiwankenobi said:

Still, I think it would be nice to tell us if they will consider P/S. They can still manipulate the cut offs after--it would just help people who are considering a rewrite based on one section.

I mean that is true - but even they have no idea if they will use it yet. I have seen them make some pretty wild and unpredictable changes over the roughly 15 years (gah!) I have been looking at them. The spike to a really high VR score and keeping with when it moved to CARS, similar spike in BS, the even older relatively high writing sample. Raising MCAT grades even when GPA falls.......Western can be weird at times. I have heard the debates for these changes can be quite the affair - not everyone is in agreement always with any perspective change.