Medical school admission?

If there were two applicants of similar MCAT scores, good GPAs, good interviews and essays, impressive extracurricular activities and recommendations, which students will the medical school pick if there was only one space left? If all of these credentials were similar, would unique personal background and activities help in being chosen? Lets say that one of the applicants plays the flute in an orchestra and speaks three languages fluently. Would this person have the better chance at being chosen even though the activity is non health related?

You set an impossible scenario to answer. Admission committees are, by definition, subjective. The person who conducts your interview may like or dislike something about you that can never be known in advance. I have heard that some people were rejected because their answers didn't seem genuine–too rehearsed. That raised my eyebrows!

There is a personae that schools look for. If you are a West Coast type, laid back and prone to use slang, an Ivy League school isn't going to look upon you favorably. If you are prim and proper, a West Coast school might find you aloof and unpersonable. If you were born and raised in one state, odds are you are the type of person your state university is looking for.

Obviously, foreign languages are an asset. Would that compel a school to admit you over a candidate who had nursed a dying parent for years? Tough call. There just aren't any hard and fast answers.

But I will say this–if you have all that you describe, odds are you're going to be a doctor.