Mercer is very mission oriented. If you're looking at this thread and can't tell me what Mercer's mission is, and why it makes you want to go there, you should really go to their website and look around. A few hours spent doing this is not time wasted. You need to have taken concrete action towards living the mission, and be able to talk about your experiences in your interview.
Also, it's best to apply very early in the cycle (like, now-ish): Mercer knows that many Georgia students that make their interview list also make MCG (GHSU now) or Emory waitlists, and that some will eventually choose these schools for whatever reason. If a student really wants to attend Mercer, the school feels they should get right on submitting their application. (This also goes for reapplicants. You know your way around the process by now, so get on it. If you really want to go to Mercer, keep at it and be tenacious.)
Trust me. I didn't get in last year with four years of research (for the department chair) plus a publication, a Master's degree with a 4.0 from Georgia Tech and a 38R for an MCAT. No one expected me to be unable to handle the curriculum, none of my interviews went poorly (I'm think), and I left the campus feeling psyched about my chances. However, they seemed to have felt I wasn't mission-compliant enough, and I applied late, in October, after many seats had been filled.
This year, I expect to show them I mean business, and that they are my first choice, by applying early and making mission-oriented improvements to my application. I don't really want the third time to have to be the charm.
(And hey, I'm not spitting out credentials to intimidate you or anything: I'm doing it to make the point that, to this school, grades are certainly not everything. The fact is that those that have truly walked the walk get in. I can be positive, and you can too, that students with somewhat lower scores than me succeeded where I failed. However, if you're scores/whatever are better than mine, that's cool too, but be aware you need to be mission-compliant, or you might expect to be passed over as well.)
Good luck to everyone applying this time around! Hope to see you at interviews!
Thanks!
it gets processed tomorrow...
Point being, things will move quickly once it gets through AMCAS and sent to Mercer. I guess this is their busy season and mine took exactly one week from the point I was told it was sent to the confirmation email.
