Medical School, AMCAS, Prerequisites, Pass or fail, online college, etc...

[CanICode]

1. Yeah of course if you kill the MCAT you might make up for GPA deficiencies
2. 1 and 2 are related, high chance if you killed the MCAT you killed it on GPA too. The number of people getting 517+ but sitting in the 2s GPA wise isn't high. GPAs seen on this forum are also extremely overinflated when compared to most BM schools with rigorous STEM majors
3. Clinical hour quality is varies. Does 3000 hours as a CNA or EMT-B help? Maybe? But how much a school values this varies heavily. Schools know what is and isn't good patient care experience. Former RN or paramedic? Okay that might matter more
4. Yes, shadowing helps form a PS and get LORs
5. Of course.
6. Volunteering helps but ADCOMs can see if you are just checking a box
7. This actually matters A LOT. ADCOMS are not stupid, they look to see where you took your science-based classes. CBE schools with science classes, online labs and ACE credit for core pre reqs aren't going to fly. They want to see them from at LEAST an in-person CC.
8. You can definitely be a co-author on a published publication
9. Once again, COVID was a fluke. You are competing against thousands of student who took their science classes from BM school that were high weed out classes. Online, unproctored "science" classes with "labs" are not going to be accepted most of the time and aren't competitive. There is no "hacking" this process.

Med schools have sub 5% acceptance rates with some of the best and the brightest applying who almost all went to traditional 4 year school with STEM degrees. The vast majority took their core science courses in person with high-stress cut courses/exams/practicals. Not a CBE/Sophia check the gen ed sort of box.

Some of the things you said were true but the methodology/conclusion is flawed

Thanks for the feedback. It'd be nice if it were more useful, but I will stick with the ADCOMS I have spoken with and the data I linked in my post. Your post and post like it are exactly why I made this post. There is a lot of nonsense from people who haven't gone down the path for more than 1 hour of research, parroting the same posts that are from 5 years ago as if everything has stayed the same. Thinking you need prerequisites from an "in-person CC" shows me you know absolutely nothing and didn't take the time to read through any of the provided links. There are probably one hundred med schools that take online prerequisites now. Many literally do not care and use the MCAT to weed out now. The entire process has changed due to GPA inflation. So many "in-person" colleges barely require attendance now, and all the modules are done online. ADCOMS are focusing more on MCAT than anything nowadays because they know this is all BS. They know you go "in-person" to community college but actually do the classes online. This is why you see admission MCAT scores climbing. They used to give people the benefit of the doubt. They now know that a better score means that people actually learned the material.

Also, your responses are out of order.

Sorry to be so harsh or caddy, but you don't know what you are talking about. You are entirely misinformed, and your response completely ignores the data from AAMC. People in the military CLEP their way through prerequisites at some colleges. Whatever nonsense you have heard about the top 20 schools doesn't apply to the entire 150-school list. And if there is just one singular exception to the rule, you could simply apply at that school. But there isn't just one, there are 100 and a doctor who graduated from Harvard has the same rights to practice as a guy who graduates from the 150th school on the list.