Medical School Statistics
That Show You Your Chances

Medical school statistics help you to know just how big a deal your numbers are. They are a big deal. No matter how good your application is, if you don't have the numbers, you won't have a chance. About 90% of all applicants with over a 3.8 and 39 cumulative MCAT get accepted. And only about 10% with an MCAT below a 20 get accepted. So no matter what you do outside of the classroom your numbers will either work for you or against you depending on where they fall.

Telling Medical School Statistics To Stuff It

Let me repeat what I just said. If you have a 3.9 GPA and a 40 MCAT...you have a 10% chance of getting DENIED according to the AAMC. And if you have a 3.4 GPA and a 18 MCAT you have a 10% chance of being ACCEPTED! Those are nationwide statistics over the last two years. So...numbers play a HUGE role, no getting around that. But the ideas going around right now that you need a 3.7+ and a 30+ are just wrong. Those people have a 80% chance of acceptance.

If you are in that top 20% of applicants, chances are you know you are getting into medical school, but you likely have a top pick you really want to get accepted to. If you are in that bottom 80%, chances are you are worried about getting into medical school. MSC can help both situations. At MSC we specialize in giving you the exceptions. If you numbers are on par with or below your first choice, OR if your numbers seem too low to get accepted anywhere, MSC will help you do your application in the best possible way, thus giving you the absolute BEST chance of acceptance.

The rest of the statistics on this page are for helping you to start looking at what schools numbers are and what your numbers are while getting an idea as to whether you are the 90% who are very likely getting into medical school...the 10% who are not likely getting accepted to medical school...or somewhere in between. Let me give you my 5 day medical school admissions advice course "5 days to med school admissions success" which will give you the 5 best statistics busting principles to medical school success.

School Specific Statistics

Download Table 1 on this page by the AAMC
Take a look at the schools you are interested in here. How many total applications do they get? How many matriculates? This can tell you general competitiveness. Do you live in their state? Is that a big deal?

The main thing you want to assess here is overall competitiveness of the school. Some schools like George Washington, only accept about 1% of their applicants, while others accept a significantly higher number of students. Be careful, though, about ruling schools OUT by this table alone. You don't know anything yet about what they deem as important.

Using these tables to assess your chances as a specific sex or ethnic group

Data on the diversity of schools is readily available in tables 8-16 above, but will not be discussed here. Just keep in mind that while many school believe it important to have a class with several people from minorities (both female and race minorities), no one should rule out or in a school based on these medical school statistics, but rather just to have a better idea of how important diversity is to your application and to the school.

Putting Above Data Together with GPA and MCAT

Download Table 17 on this page,
OK now that you know a little bit about the schools you are interested in, take a look at the average GPA and MCAT data. Now how do you stack up with this? Where are you compared to the average? Or maybe you'd rather know what you have to be at in the future. You should try and be well above the average if you can. People will tell you to just do the best you can, and they are right, but if you want to set a specific goal set it high. As far as averages for your specific school, those can be found on each schools website. Take a look here to see if I have it up yet on this site, if not, go check it out at the actual school's website.

How To Use Medical School Statistics as a Research Tool

Now let me run you through some ways to think of making your list when applying to school. When you begin to whittle down your list of schools you need to know which ones are interested in which things. Do you need schools that put less emphasis on numbers? Maybe you are looking for schools that put more emphasis on them? Here is a quick way to find out. Average GPA and MCAT scores of each school won't give you the information you need by itself. What you need is to compare the percentage of matriculated applicants to the average GPA and MCAT scores.

Keep in mind that these numbers are data for those students who are matriculated, meaning enrolled in the school. This gives you information on 2 levels. You know that the school puts a bigger emphasis on numbers AND you know that the applicants feel that emphasis when they receive their acceptance letter. So if a school has a low percentage of matriculants to applicants, and a high GPA/MCAT average, then you know this is a competitive program. It is also a safe bet that it is competitive once you get in as well. Whereas if a school has a low matriculant to applicant percentage and a low GPA/MCAT average, you know they put emphasis on other parts of the application. You just don't know which parts yet.

Medical school statistics are a very good way to make an initial list of schools you are interested in. But be careful to rule out schools based solely on medical school statistics. If, on the other hand, the statistics look bad and you have another reason to rule out the school (i.e. geography, curriculum, etc), that may be a good reason to cross a school off your list.

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