American Med Schools - MCAT Scores

[tsstmd]

Hello,

 

I just have a simple question!

Do American schools look at the average score of MCAT or the highest?

 

Thanks:)

[advair250]

School dependent, but the will still see ALL your scores.

[advair250]

Out of curiosity, what are the MCAT cutoffs like for American MD schools?

There are rarely cut-offs, but to be competitive you should have a balanced score in the low-mid 30's. 

 

MCAT is one part of the puzzle. 

[duoduoa]

American schools have tiers however I think anyone should at least aim for a min of 10 in each section. 35+ is competitive, and 40+ is interview guarantee. One thing about American schools is that they actually use MCAT to rank you, unlike here in Ontario where MCAT is only used as a cutoff.

[duoduoa]

35+? It's a dime in a dozen nowadays. People really need to understand how competitive it is to get into med school these days and why I'm stressed like a mother(*@$ker...

[swell9]

35+? It's a dime in a dozen nowadays. People really need to understand how competitive it is to get into med school these days and why I'm stressed like a mother(*@$ker...

 

Not negating your point about how competitive it is to get into med school, but I don't think you understand how the MCAT works. There is always ONLY 4%-5% students achieving a score of 35+ out of everyone who wrote the MCAT.

That's just how standardized tests work. Saying "it is a dime a dozen nowadays" is flawed in that respect.

[duoduoa]

Aha, I like this "only 4-5% can achieve 35+" argument because it's a perfect example of why you should always take statistics with a grain of salt. The problem with this number is that it completely ignores the MCAT-retaker group. Imagine someone scores a 30 in his first attempt but a 35 in this second attempt. In the eye of ADCOM such person belongs to the 35+ group (in terms of such person's competitiveness that is). However, his first attempt significantly deflates the 35+ percentage. Personally I believe the 35+ percentage is close to 15%.

[MD2B2019]

It's common for USA MD schools to use LizzyM score to rank applicants before interview.

 

LizzyM score = cGPA*10 + MCAT

 

So cGPA 3.8 *10 + MCAT 32 = LizzyM score 70

 

AMCAS will calculate TWO GPA for each applicant, one is overall cGPA,

the other is BCPM (Biology-Chemistry-Physics-Math) or science GPA.

 

Most schools use BCPM GPA for cut-off.

[DarkGhost]

Aha, I like this "only 4-5% can achieve 35+" argument because it's a perfect example of why you should always take statistics with a grain of salt. The problem with this number is that it completely ignores the MCAT-retaker group. Imagine someone scores a 30 in his first attempt but a 35 in this second attempt. In the eye of ADCOM such person belongs to the 35+ group (in terms of such person's competitiveness that is). However, his first attempt significantly deflates the 35+ percentage. Personally I believe the 35+ percentage is close to 15%.

The statistics still stand. 6.7% of ALL tests written in 2013 got a 35+, that includes people who rewrote in the same year. Furthermore, the odds of your score jumping from a 30, a 75th percentile score, to a 35, a 96th percentile score, are incredibly small. Has it been done? Probably. Is it done often enough to skew the statistics for a near hundred thousand tests? I doubt it.

[duoduoa]

6.7% of ALL tests written in 2013 got a 35+, that includes people who rewrote in the same year.  Furthermore, the odds of your score jumping from a 30, a 75th percentile score, to a 35, a 96th percentile score, are incredibly small.  Has it been done?  Probably.  Is it done often enough to screw the statistics for a near hundred thousand tests?  I doubt it. 

Tests, but not the actual applicants. Again, if someone writes 3 times that year and got a 35+ on the third attempt, then 1.most schools will consider his most recent score (OK maybe not entirely true, but the most recent score will be most heavily weighted) and 2. his previous two attempts significantly inflates the sample size.

 

I have no answer for your second point because I don't have the statistics. However, at least here on pm101 and over there on sdn, it seems that more than half of the users have a 35+.

[DarkGhost]

Tests, but not the actual applicants. Again, if someone writes 3 times that year and got a 35+ on the third attempt, then 1.most schools will consider his most recent score (OK maybe not entirely true, but the most recent score will be most heavily weighted) and 2. his previous two attempts significantly inflates the sample size.

 

I have no answer for your second point because I don't have the statistics. However, at least here on pm101 and over there on sdn, it seems that more than half of the users have a 35+.

The reality here is that there's no way to verify whether or not a significant number of tests are rewrites, nor is there a way to compare those scores. The anecdotal evidence I've accumulated over the years suggests it's incredibly difficult to raise your overall score significantly (i.e. five points). The math also suggests that ~6000 tests had a 35+ last year, so we can find some solace in the fact it's not nearly as common as SDN/premed101 would lead us to believe.