I hope this finds you all well as you are working on your applications and for some of you preparing for the MCAT.
We are receiving numerous questions surrounding when we will be releasing applicant scores from the last cycle. I have answered this in this blog but I thought it would be useful to post here and give an update that is easier to find.
For context, many schools do not release previous scores but we now have for the last several years. We debate the value of this on an ongoing basis. The biggest value I personally see is that it does give applicants an idea of where they rank overall and “how close they were”. As mentioned previously, for receiving an interview and/or an offer the differences are often very small. My concern revolves around applicants who look at their file review scores and then decide to completely change their applications (or parts of their applications, specifically the top ten) to try to boost an area they believed they were weak in. As I’ve posted before, this may have unintended consequences in other area so I just recommend that you proceed with caution when “overhauling” your top ten. Remember the top ten is supposed to be a reflection of you, who your are, what life experiences were important to you, how these shaped you. Simply said, that shouldn’t change in one year.
With that said:
1. The scores will be released towards the end of August. As you read this, many may ask why the delay. It comes down to the simple fact that COVID -19 affected not only the way we needed to change elements in the last cycle but also for the upcoming cycle and that has necessitated changes in our online platforms that are not necessarily easy fixes.
2. We will only be releasing the file review scores. Again, you may ask why and the simple reason is that the cumulative scores are different between the two cohorts from last year and the relative ranking is more difficult to interpret. If you ranked highly in the file review and did not receive an offer or were put on the waitlist it usually signals that you did below average on the interview.
I hope you find some of this helpful. Please do not start posting or asking why you can’t see your scores earlier, the reasons why it’s so important to see your old scores, to reconsider releasing all the scores, etc…
