with somewhat lower grades who is enrolled at a
more selective school. Also, the GPA
is viewed in the context of the applicant's
course of study. An applicant who met the
premedical course requirements by completing
bona fide courses designed for science
majors will obviously be favored over one whose
courses were intended for nonscience
majors. Similarly, an applicant who is
successfully completing a science major will tend
to be more credible than one who is not doing
so.
The breakdown of an applicant's GPA frequently
provides a more significant insight
into an applicant's achievement than does the
numerical value of the GPA. Thus, a con-
sistent level of performance would tend to
imply that this is the applicant's optimal
achievement level. On the other hand, an
erratic performance pattern, either upward or
downward, may well reflect a person's response
to the academic challenge being faced.
An upward pattern suggests an ability to adjust
to college, overcome an initial disap-
pointing performance level, and then proceed to
attain a high level of achievement even
when the educational demands are increasing. A
downward pattern would tend to indi-
cate the reverse--namely, the inability to
maintain a sustained high level of achievement
in the face of increased educational pressures.
In other words, when the values of GPAs
are the same, a GPA with a consistently good
achievement level and an upward pattern
will have a greater impact on the screening and
selection process than a similar GPA
with a downward achievement trend.
Science Course Grades
The science course grades on your record are
another factor considered in the admis-
sions process. This is reasonable since
medicine is the application of scientific princi-
ples that are intensively studied during the
first two years of professional school. While
a straight A science average is certainly not
mandatory for admission to medical school,
a solid level of consistently good performance
(3.5 or better) will serve to demonstrate
the potential to cope with the intellectual
demands of the basic medical sciences.
Your science grades and the effort it took to
achieve them will also help you evaluate
your own abilities and the wisdom of your
career choice. Incidentally, it is not essential
to enjoy all your premedical science courses,
but a genuine interest in science is essential.
It should be emphasized that just as the GPA's
impact is relative to the college
attended, so too is the science coursework
judged. Similarly, the grade pattern for work
completed over a three-year period can be of
special value. Consistently good grades
and an upward trend clearly present a positive
image of your science potential.
College Attended
It has already been noted that the college
attended affects the evaluation of an applicant's
GPA and science coursework by the admissions
committee. It also has an overall impact
on admission chances in general, for three
reasons. First, attendance at a university that
has an affiliated medical school offers a
degree of priority for acceptance into the univer-
sity's own medical college, because medical
schools traditionally accept a significant
number of freshman from their own college.
Second, it appears, at least statistically speak-
ing, that an applicant from a private
undergraduate institution has a greater chance of
acceptance at a private medical school. Third,
coming from a college that has established a
good medical school admission track record is a
decided advantage. There is an initial
favorable bias because of the positive image
that such an institution's name generates.
Intellectual Potential
Your academic performance, usually after a
three-year period of undergraduate studies,
provides a reasonable measure of your
intellectual potential. Its usefulness, however, is
tempered by the status of the school you
attend, by the possibility of grade inflation, and
possibly by the impact of pass/fail grades. For
these reasons there are two additional
factors considered in obtaining a comprehensive
and reliable determination of the future
performance of a medical student: MCAT scores
and recommendations.
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