| | Medical School Admission Requirements (MSAR) 2005-2006: United States and Canada (Medical School Admission Requirements, United States and Canada) |  | Authors: Association Of American Medical Colleges, Meredith T. Moller
Publisher: Assoc of American Medical Colleges
Category: Book
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Avg. Customer Rating:  32 reviews
Sales Rank: 823212
Media: Paperback
Edition: 55
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 399
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.1
Dimensions (in): 10.7 x 8.3 x 0.9
ISBN: 1577540301
Dewey Decimal Number: 610
EAN: 9781577540304
ASIN: 1577540301
Publication Date: March 2004
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Book Description
The most up-to-date information on application procedures and deadlines, tuition and student fees, and statistics on acceptance rates from every accredited medical school in the United States and Canada. For people who are just thinking about medicine as a career, we've also provided an overview of the entire application and medical school process, with a timeline to help you get started.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 27 more reviews...
 A great resource, but.... July 1, 2006
25 out of 26 found this review helpful
This book is an almost comprehensive (A few US universities and a lot of Cadanian schools didn't have thier school data published) and highly useful book for pre-med students. It can usually be found in pre-med advising offices, but if it can't, it's definitely a good resource to own.
The MSAR will help you get a good idea of what sort of GPA and MCAT scores are needed to get into a university. If you are interested a multiple degree program like myself (MBA/MD), the MSAR will tell you which colleges/universities offer these combined degrees. ( Note that this book doesn't tell you what sort of GRE/GMAT scores are necessary to get into these combined degree programs. Usually with programs that offer combined degrees, GRE/MCAT/GMAT scores are usually higher than if you were to apply to each school individually).
Though this is a very good book it has some major flaws that I hope the AAMC/MSAR address, some of the problems are highlighted below.
Many of the numbers in this book are flawed for a few reasons.
1)A student who is applying from out of state to a public university has to get much better MCAT/GPA scores and shouldn't rely greatly on median acceptance scores listed in the MSAR as a basis of judgment for whether they can get into that university.(ie. If you're a student from Kansas applying to any of the University of California schools, you're going to have to get much higher scores than the California applicants to get ineterviews.)
2)For many universities that have both undergrad and MD programs, the median GPA's will be off. For example, students that go to Indiana University or University of Florida will be the ones who usually apply to the respective medical schools. If universities have grade inflation (which is hear is the case for Indiana University), it will be more difficult for a student not attending Indiana to gauge what sort of a GPA they'll need to get in.
For futures editions, I would also like for the MSAR to include what the median numbers for people who got interviews. Once applicants get an interview in a medical school, the interview can make or break whether they get into med school or not. If some one is a good speaker, has an affable personality or has some other exceptional personal attributes (volunteer work, working in a lab, getting published etc), s/he will be able to generally get slightly lower scores and GPA and still be able to get into a university. For those who are involved in such endeavors, it would be interesting to see how important extracurricular activities are compared to GPA/MCAT scores and will help others determine how much such extracurriculars come into play as far as getting an interview goes.
In addition to this, it would also be nice if the MSAR could provide the median range of high school GPA & SAT scores that are typical of students who get in straight-med programs (these are the programs that offer combined B.A.s and M.D.s in time periods ranging from 6-9 years).
Also keep in mind that the scores listed on the MSAR book are for those ACCEPTED. There is a big difference between those who get accepted and those who actually go to the school. Considering most serious pre-med students apply to 6-12+ schools and end up going to only one university, the median accepted scores will be inflated compared to the scores of the people who actually go there.
Though the statistics in this book are a very helpful resource, and probably still very accurate, take everything you see in the MSAR with a grain of salt and understand that exceeding these scores (GPA/MCAT) doesn't gurantee you admission by any means.
Good Luck
 I did not buy this, I just went to the library. . . July 19, 2006
10 out of 13 found this review helpful
I actually didn't purchase this book because Amazon cancelled my order because it was out of stock-- so I walked to the library.
Pros:
This book has great information regarding high and low MCAT scores (broken down for each subject) for each school. It is amazing and encouraging to see that there are people who get single digit scores in the sciences (5,6,7) being admitted into very competitive medical schools.
I like that the mission statements for each school are provided, and that a break down of the required courses is given. (I have completed the biochem, but it is good for those applicants who have not completed the subject to know which schools require it e.g Mayo Medical).
Cons:
I would have loved to see summary comparison tables with comparative data on the applicants to every school-- but I can see why this would make some schools uneasy. You don't get a good sense from MSAR which schools are the most competitive- for example Washington University in St. Louis is probably the most competitive school admissions wise in the country, but that doesn't really come across in the book.
 MSAR = Medical schools at a glance. July 2, 2006
8 out of 9 found this review helpful
Like the title says, you really must have this book if you are applying for the current cycle. The first few chapters explain the statistics for accepted students, and was quite the informative read.
The bulk of the book gives you a two page description of each AMCAS affiliated medical school. On the first, the school's mission statement, curriculum, and geographical details. On the second, are numbers (MCAT, GPA, etc.) and deadlines specific to the school.
Owning an MSAR before (I also applied in the entering class of 2005 cycle -- that makes me a blip on the graphs in this book!), it was quite interesting to see that medians instead of averages were used for MCAT and GPA considerations. While different by definition, I sort of treated this new fangled thing the same way. When the numbers are on the way high end of the slider, stay away, and if lower, consider. Do realize that the MSAR will only help you give a rough estimate on where you should apply based on numbers or school concentration.
What I really found it useful for was the school organization by state, making it easier for me to organize my notes before submitting my application. This helps if you are especially interested in the regional considerations of going to a specific school.
Though the MSAR does contain a summary of information for each specific school, I don't particularly recommend it as a sole source for the completion of secondary applications (once they come of course). Many of the med schools "look" the same on the surface, so use information given (a website or contact for example) as a springboard to more detailed and specific information on any given school. The same advice could go for interviews.
The MSAR is not exactly perfect (if it was, everyone would get into med school based on their presented numbers). However, it is THE best resource available to med school applicants right now. The people at AAMC did a great job with the amount of detail crammed into this book, along with a great presentation that is pleasing to the eye.
Highly informative and up-to-date May 15, 2006
5 out of 8 found this review helpful
It is one of the best books I have ever seen. It did help me a lot. Very informative, up to date and easy to use. A must-have for pre-medical students, those considering a career in medicine and to parents as well.
 Lazy premed's guide July 8, 2006
5 out of 13 found this review helpful
This book is just a latest telephone directory of all of medical schools in the US and Canada. The data provided in this book is available for free online via visiting individual medical school's websites. Anyone who is lazy enough to type a URL into a browser to get the free data should buy this book. This book does not throw any light on the actual medical school admissions assessment factors unlike better books available on this topic, such as the one on secretroute.com. Unlike secretroute.com's book, MSAR book also offers no data analysis for individual schools which will enhance one's chances of gaining admission into med school.
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