What Stats Do I Need to get into AUC?

Here’s the short answer:

2012-2013 Matriculant Stats:
Average MCAT: 25
Average Cumulative GPA: 3.24
Average Pre-requisite GPA: 3.06

Here’s the long answer:

There’s always a mystery as to what goes on behind the closed-doors of the admissions office. Here at AUC, after the applications are received by AUC’s very own Medical Education Administrative Services (MEAS) in Coral Gables, Florida, they are sent off to the island of St. Maarten where a group of administrators and faculty make up the admissions committee. They are the ones reading your essays and looking at your scores, and they will be the ones teaching you and saying hi to you in the hallways.

Because each application is different, there is no one set algorithm in which they determine who can get into the school or who cannot, or who deserves the Merit Scholarship. Each applicant is accepted on an individual basis.

Because of this, I have heard people getting into AUC with MCAT scores as high as 40 and scores as low as 21. It all depends on the overall strength of the applicant. The person I met with a 21 MCAT had a really high GPA during his undergrad years. He has published numerous papers, led teams on research (even as an undergrad), and has received numerous national awards on research. He’s even presented at the capitol and met politicians like Hillary Clinton. Having such prestigious experiences is more than enough to bring him into the school, overriding his anomalously low MCAT score. The average MCAT score for the September 2010 class was 26.

For many students, it was easy to start off on a bad foot freshmen year of college. I understand, because I did too, and this is something AUC emphasized to us during orientation. One semester in undergrad can kill you for many med school admissions but schools like AUC look past that to see that one bad semester is just an “exception” rather than the “rule.” There’s something in each and every one of our applications, they say, that demonstrated to them that we have the potential to be great doctors.

As an undergrad, I went to a fairly prestigious school in the Midwest and majored in architecture, a program with grading standards much different than biology or engineering. In architecture school, a 3.35 average was actually considered high, good enough for me to graduate cum laude (with honors).  But in premed, with a much different grading system and standard, this would be considered on the low end. Despite doing very well in my pre-med classes as a post-baccalaureate student at UGA, factoring in my previous “cum laude” GPA of 3.35, I could only pull up my accumulative GPA to a 3.5, which is considered only on the low end of “average” for med school application standards.

So while applying for medical schools, I had a 3.5 GPA and 28 MCAT to work with. I also strived to accumulate lots of patient-contact experiences and research hours, as well as unique extracurricular activities like performing music for community theaters. AUC saw that I had the drive to reach for my goals of becoming a doctor, despite humble beginnings, and was pleased to give me this opportunity to learn to become a doctor, even giving me a Merit Scholarship.  AUC understood my story, and I am very grateful to be here.

So in conclusion, what stats do you need to get into AUC?

If your score is closer to the 21 end, be among the top of your class in terms of GPA and have something really extraordinary (preferably on the national level ;) ) to back you up.

If your score is closer to the 40 end, you have nothing to worry about. Period.

Like the most of us, if your score is somewhere in between, around 26 or so, KNOW why you want to be a doctor and really show it on the rest of your application!