Academic Predictors of MCAT performance for Post‐baccalaureate Pre‐medical program students

Abstract

Career changers, i.e. students who did not major in the traditional pre‐medicine fields like chemistry and biology, presently constitute a large percentage of medical school applicants. Post‐baccalaureate pre‐medical programs (PBPMP) provide prerequisite coursework for non‐life science majors who aspire to become physicians. Curriculum includes physics, general and organic chemistry, biology and biochemistry. Students entering these programs generally do not have significant exposure to natural sciences, and are considered “scientifically naïve”. Therefore, post‐baccalaureate programs are searching for criteria for admission process to help identify applicants with potential to succeed in PBPMP and matriculate into medical schools.This study analyzed academic metrics of career changer pre‐medical students to predict their success on mandatory Medical College Admission Test (MCAT). Data analysis correlated MCAT scores with gender, high school Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) scores, undergraduate major or field of study, and undergraduate Grade Point Average (GPA). Undergraduate GPA is not correlated with performance on MCAT. Analysis yielded positive correlations between MCAT scores and SAT scores, and between MCAT and undergraduate non‐science major/field of study. The results provide insight into academic metrics that could predict future success on MCAT and matriculation into medical school. While positive correlations between certain sub‐scores on the SAT and MCAT were found, other holistic non‐quantitative characteristics should be considered for medical school admission.