Predicting Your Med School Acceptance Rate With the MSC Score

By: MedSchoolCoach

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A med student’s MSC Score identifies how competitive an applicant they are. MedSchoolCoach developed this proprietary MSC Score by calculating thousands of data points across thousands of real applicants. The result? Now students can now determine their odds of acceptance into med school, and also see what they need to do to stay ahead of the competition.

Dr. Sahil Mehta is the founder of MedSchoolCoach and also the creator of the Med School Competitiveness score, which is often referred to as the MSC Score. He explains why he created the tool, and how it can help medical students planning their medical school journey.

Get your MSC Score to Determine Your Odds of Med School Acceptance

What Does the MSC Score Mean, and How Can Med Students Benefit from Knowing Theirs?

Getting into med school is hard, and there are many factors involved in the application process that play a role toward gaining acceptance. The reality is that previously, there was no real way to measure your odds of acceptance. It is as much a qualitative process as it is a quantitative process. However, we created the MSC Score to try to make this knowledge as quantitative as possible.

We’ve incorporated metrics like GPA and MCAT score, which we know are two of the most important pieces in the admissions puzzle.

However, we also know from our experience on admissions committees, and from working with thousands of students, that the reality is GPA and MCAT are only two of the important factors. So how do you incorporate the rest of the variables? Extracurriculars, research, clinical work, shadowing, volunteering, life experiences, where you went to undergrad school, or if you’re an underrepresented minority or not or all crucial data points.

And then, of course, how you actually put together a med school application is extremely important. The MSC Score takes all of these factors and puts them into a single score that gives students an approximation of where they stand compared to the general field of other medical students.

What is a Good MSC Score? What is a Bad MSC Score?

We’ve boiled the MSC Score between a 0 to 100. Obviously, if you’re 100, you’re a phenomenal applicant. In fact, you’d be a perfect applicant, and since nobody is perfect, the highest score you can actually get is a 99.

Most students will likely fall in the range between 40 and 70 if they’re a good candidate for medical school. If you get a low score, it will show you what your likelihood of getting into medical school at all is. If you get a high score, you can see how important it is to stay ahead of your peers to get into a top program.

Again, this is a qualitative process and we’re trying to make it quantitative as much as possible. There’s only so much you can do. We’re not taking into account how well you interview. We’re not taking into account how well you put together your personal statement. But we are at least giving you a framework based on what you’ve done in the past in both terms of your academics, as well as your extracurriculars.

How Can I Raise My MSC Score to Get into Medical School?

Your score is pretty much your score. By the time you get it, there often isn’t much you can do to change it. But that’s not always the case.

Let’s say you score poorly, but a lot of your poor score is because of your MCAT performance. Obviously, raising your MCAT score is going to jump your MSC score.

Or, perhaps you scored a 55 on the MSC score. Only about 40% of those applicants will get into school. So how do you make yourself part of that 40% that do get accepted? Now it’s all about putting together an application, putting together a great interview, putting together a great personal statement, putting it all together into a package that stands out so you’re the best 55 out there.

Let’s say you score 90. Well, phenomenal. You’re a great applicant. You’re probably going to get into med school. You should get into med school as long as all your ducks are in a row and you put together a great application. Now it’s just about what type of med school you can get into.

Can you break into a Top 5 or Top 10 school? It’s all about how you structure yourself, how well you perform in the interview, how you write your personal statement, and what your narrative is. Those are the things that MedSchoolCoach physician advisers and mentors help students bring out.

MedSchoolCoach can help you regardless of which end of the spectrum your score falls. MedSchoolCoach admissions advisors provide comprehensive help through every aspect of a student’s medical school application. We can help make your medical school dreams a reality.

MedSchoolCoach:

MedSchoolCoach was founded in 2007 with a simple premise: physicians should help future physicians. Since that time, we’ve helped more than 12,000 students get into and through medical school.

Our advisors are actual physicians with admissions committee experience. Our tutors go through the most rigorous selection process in the industry. Our company is focused just on one thing: build future physicians.