Just recently someone had mentioned that a certain university had a high rate of students that actually made it into Medical School. How does one go about researching those specific statistics?
I live in Washington State. Between Tacoma and Seattle. I would love it if you could refer me to an actual site.
Have you found that you have to be a computer whiz/ detective to find information out sometimes? Thanks
I pretty sure the school your referring to is a Christian school in Seattle (SPU), one year they had a 100% acceptance rate.
Not sure if individual schools publish the acceptance rates into medical school by their students. (number applied vs. number accepted, wait-listed, etc.) I’ve looked into most of the Seattle area school.
There is usually a LOT of fine print to those statistics. Remember, there’s “lies, damned lies, and statistics.” If you hear a ridiculous stat like 100%, you need to ask yourself, 100% of what?
I have seen programs calculate their acceptance rate from students who first met a whole bunch of criteria. For example, at a given school, you might not qualify for a recommendation letter from the pre-med committee unless you get a certain score on the MCAT and a certain GPA. There could be many more students pursuing pre-med at that school, but they’re on their own. Some of them will get in and some won’t. Or I have seen pre-med committee letters that rank applicants, e.g. “our highest recommendation,” “recommended without reservations,” “recommended with reservations.” (ouch) They may calculate their acceptance rate only from the “highest recommendation” group.
So the devil’s in the details; don’t believe everything you read!
Mary
Since taking Psychology class I now understand that statistics are shaky. However, if a certain school has a low, low, low rate…I would know that they most likely don’t have the support of the faculty. I want a school that gives support or teaches so well that you do have that support. Maybe it just doesn’t matter? I am just trying to set myself up for success. Thanks Mary for the reminder. Not everyone realizes that statistics are relative.
That’s why I was looking at specific numbers. How many students matriculate annually? How many students actually apply?
I know where I am 2-3 students matriculating a year seems slim, but when you realize the major focus of my school is physical therapy, and the major portion of biology majors aren’t even looking at med school, that is a pretty good percentage rate in my mind. Enough to know the details needed. Enough to actually offer plenty of helps along the way (we get free MCAT practice tests each semester). But there’s a small enough percentage of the student body (less than 10…o.k. I’ve not met one yet this year lol) that the pre meds are considered “special” so the faculty (barring the evil biology prof) tends to favor you and help to push you toward where you need to be. They are more apt to take the time to answer questions knowing how vested you are there.
Long story short, forget the percentages, look at all the numbers.
But where are these numbers??? I don’t know how to find them!
i believe i saw on student doctor network someone did a spread sheat of all the schools and number of applicants and number of acceptance.
i have seen it somewhere else? i think it was linked off the AACOM website.
tbcnm
Thnx Maddux - I was going to make some of the same points made in your link. . .mainly that the numbers a school claims can’t mean too much.
If I get in, who claims me? My 10-years-past u-grad program or the CC where I took the last 4 req’d classes? Hopefully the CC, since they’re the ones helping me thru the process. I don’t think there is any good way for the schools to know how many of their students got accepted, unless they get data back form aamcas (or whoever reports this). A Chem Engr guy isn’t going to get counted by the “premed” advisors over in the Bio department, if they’re counting their own numbers. If they’re using aamcas numbers, then it’s still flawed b/c you’re over there trying to figure out if the bio dept is any good, and they’re counting Chem Es! I am also suspicious of schools with overly-healthy numbers. If I am an advisor, I’m going to tell the guy with the 3.1 and 25 MCAT to not apply so my school looks good, right? Of course the guy can do what he wants, but I don’t think you can assess how good a program is just by their admission %.
No worries Alij! That’s what this site is for, for us to help each other and motivate!