Define "early application"

[Pyruvate]

Hello,

I am trying to plan out my classes for next year along with when I will study for and take the MCAT. I was thinking it would work best for me to take the MCAT mid-June for an early July score release date. Of course, if I were to do this, I would follow the standard advice of submitting the primary application with transcripts and LORs right on June 1 and then waiting for the MCAT score for my application to be considered complete and sent off to schools.

I was wondering: What is widely considered to be the approximate cutoff date for an early application for a person who is doing this?

Mid-July? Early August? End of August?

Thank you!

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[LizzyM]

When are you going to write your Personal statement and all the experience descriptions? Are you going to do that while prepping for the MCAT? Just asking as this does take a significant amount of time, or so I'm told.

I like to see a primary submitted by June 30. Letters may not be forwarded from your school until late August but that's ok because it may take that long for schools to send you secondaries and for you to send them back.

Don't think about when you want to be "complete". That is out of your hands and is unpredictable. Control what you can control in this process and then let go. You can control the date you take the MCAT and the date you submit the primary and secondaries.

 

[whatever5]

Mid-July is definitely early. Early August is still okay. When AMCAS opens, submit your transcripts and LORs right away if possible. When AMCAS submission becomes available, submit day 1.

 

[Pyruvate]

When are you going to write your Personal statement and all the experience descriptions? Are you going to do that while prepping for the MCAT? Just asking as this does take a significant amount of time, or so I'm told.

I like to see a primary submitted by June 30. Letters may not be forwarded from your school until late August but that's ok because it may take that long for schools to send you secondaries and for you to send them back.

Don't think about when you want to be "complete". That is out of your hands and is unpredictable. Control what you can control in this process and then let go. You can control the date you take the MCAT and the date you submit the primary and secondaries.

From my understanding, it would be feasible for me to write my PS and experience descriptions the fall before I plan to apply, save them on my computer, and then copy/paste them into AMCAS when the application becomes available for filling out. My school doesn't have a premed committee, so I was thinking of asking for those LORs in the fall, giving my writers plenty of time, and then uploading/forwarding the letters to AMCAS using Interfolio.

Are there flaws in this plan I'm not seeing?

 

[LizzyM]

From my understanding, it would be feasible for me to write my PS and experience descriptions the fall before I plan to apply, save them on my computer, and then copy/paste them into AMCAS when the application becomes available for filling out. My school doesn't have a premed committee, so I was thinking of asking for those LORs in the fall, giving my writers plenty of time, and then uploading/forwarding the letters to AMCAS using Interfolio.

Are there flaws in this plan I'm not seeing?

I didn't know that you weren't applying in 2016.... If you are applying in 2017, you have plenty of time to map things out as you've planned.

 

[Pyruvate]

I didn't know that you weren't applying in 2016.... If you are applying in 2017, you have plenty of time to map things out as you've planned.

Yes, 2017 for me.

Thank you so much for your help. I really appreciate it.

 

[sat0ri]

When are you going to write your Personal statement and all the experience descriptions? Are you going to do that while prepping for the MCAT? Just asking as this does take a significant amount of time, or so I'm told.

I like to see a primary submitted by June 30. Letters may not be forwarded from your school until late August but that's ok because it may take that long for schools to send you secondaries and for you to send them back.

Don't think about when you want to be "complete". That is out of your hands and is unpredictable. Control what you can control in this process and then let go. You can control the date you take the MCAT and the date you submit the primary and secondaries.

I wanted to make sure I understood this correctly -- and I won't dress it up as something it's not -- I'm concerned about my MCAT date.

I am applying this cycle 2016-2017.
I am considering taking the MCAT July 8th with scores released August 9th.
If I submit by or before June 30th, my application would like be verified by roughly the first week of August (since this in peak rush, verification will probably take a bit longer than compared to June 2 primary submission).

So this would be considered "early", the all important "early" that I hear so much? August feels fairly late to me, but I'm really not sure. I'm definitely worried about disadvantaging my application.

Would this roughly as good as submitting June 2nd with an MCAT score in hand? If not would I still be on very good footing nonetheless?

I would really appreciate your input as I'm familiar with your high quality insight from being on SDN for some time.

EDIT - I should note too, that I've been preparing for the May 20th date (I'm finished with all content review right now), partly under the impression that "early" means something else.

 

[LizzyM]

Do you know how much writing is involved in the AMCAS including the descriptions of your activities and your PS? How do you expect to do that in the period from early May through late June while preparing for the MCAT and doing whatever else you are doing with your life?
Are you planning to apply to only one school with the rest added after you have your MCAT score?
In that case, you'll be writing far more secondaries than you'll need, and submitting secondaries in August. Unless the schools "skim the cream" and you are the cream of the crop, you are going to be in the second half of the applications to be reviewed and you may find it more difficult to break out of the pack and be invited for interviews. Frankly, I don't recommend taking the MCAT later than May.

 

[The Knife & Gun Club]

Second LizzyM that it takes a ton of time to write a good app, so take that into account. It took me about 2 weeks (at 2-4 hours a day) to finish my AMCAS. Its more work than I'd expected.

Also a June 2nd completion vs an early august completion arent the same. A june 2nd submission means you can realistically have all your secondaries complete in by late july (ie. youre in the first group to get reviewed). An august 8th completion puts your secondaries somewhere between early sept-early October, depending on writing speed. Thats not the end of the world, but not ideal.

Also, consider that if your a traditional applicant it's far more pleasant to write secondary apps in july than in August-September of your senior year of college. Even with alot of free time its tough to write more than 1-2 secondaries a day.