MCAT Admissions Insights

Admissions Officers’ Survey Data Snapshot

MCAT Admissions Insights delivers evidence-based insights, resources, and tools to help you use MCAT scores in ways that align with your schools’ missions and contexts. We invite you to join the conversation and share your reactions, comments, and insights with us.

Note: A total of 116 schools responded to the survey (76% response rate). Percentages shown represent responses of “currently use” or “will consider using if available” to the survey question: “Which of the following data about an applicant’s educational opportunities, lived experiences, and background characteristics does your school currently consider when interpreting applicants’ MCAT scores and UGPAs?”

Meeting students where they are: Many schools are interested in the larger context of educational opportunities — where applicants learned and lived — when interpreting academic metrics.

Data Highlights

• Schools use almost all the individual information included in the application (e.g., transcripts, essays or personal statements, letters of recommendation) to triangulate the meaning of MCAT scores and GPAs. (Not shown in the figure.)
• Far fewer use data about an applicant’s high school, college, or community to provide additional context for where they have lived and learned when interpreting MCAT scores and GPAs.
• Many are interested in using these contextual data about the applicant’s environment — their college, high school, and community — if available.

Join the Conversation

• Which survey finding, if any, surprised you? Why?
• Which data about applicants’ college, high school, or community would best help your school interpret applicants’ academic metrics?
• What are some potential barriers to using additional data about applicants’ college, high school, or community even if available?
• Share your feedback or questions for further study.
• Attend the Learn Serve Lead session entitled “Admitting Diverse Classes: Strategies, Barriers, and Possibilities for Using MCAT Scores in Context” on Nov. 9 from 12:45-1:45 p.m. ET. Register here.

Additional Resources

• Explore the new MCAT Scores and GPAs of Undergrad Feeder Schools Report in AMCAS for Schools (located under “Integrated Admissions Reports” in the left navigation) to determine how your applicants’ metrics compare to those of other applicants from the same undergraduate institution. (AAMC log-in required)
• Read Medical Education’s Wicked Problem: Achieving Equity in Assessment for Medical Learners, by Lucey, et al., published in Academic Medicine in December 2020.
• Read “The Consequences of Structural Racism on MCAT Scores and Medical School Admissions: The Past is Prologue,” published in Academic Medicine in March 2020, and listen to the accompanying podcast.

• To access previous MCAT-related communications, click here (AAMC log-in required).
• Contact us anytime at MCATAdmissions@aamc.org or visit our website at aamc.org/mcatadmissions.
• Please note any information requiring AAMC log-in is for AAMC members only and is not for public distribution. Such content may not otherwise be reproduced or distributed without written permission from the AAMC.