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Do schools check updates to primaries?
- Thread starter Jesse87
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There's a section on AMCAS that allows you to say if you're going to take the MCAT again. If you are planning on a retake, your application won't really be looked at in any final way until the new MCAT score is in. Mid-July is not late.
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One of the few parts of AMCAS that can be updated after submission is the MCAT 'final planned date' portion. You can go back into that part and change the date if you decide the first score isn't sufficiently competitive. Med schools will hold consideration of your file until the second score release which will automatically be made available to all your schools.
Thanks for the replies. If I don't update the "Final planned MCAT" date section, and go ahead to take the MCAT, when the scores automatically release, are the schools NOT going to check my new scores?
Assuming standard ECs and decent LORS I feel that if I apply with a 3.4 cgpa and maybe ~32 on the MCAT, if I don't apply in June, my appl won't be early or competitive enough? Any input appreciated. Thanks.
Assuming standard ECs and decent LORS I feel that if I apply with a 3.4 cgpa and maybe ~32 on the MCAT, if I don't apply in June, my appl won't be early or competitive enough? Any input appreciated. Thanks.
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Getting your application in early isn't like a magic bullet that automatically gives you +3 to MCAT and +.2 to GPA. Yes, you should get your application in as early as possible, but many schools don't begin sending out secondary applications until July or August. I'm not going to lie to you and say you'll have an easy application cycle with a 3.4 GPA, but as long as you get your primary application in before maybe the middle of July and turn your secondaries around quickly, you'll have as good of a chance as you can get.
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If you don't mark the retake date, and you apply to a school for which you are marginally competitive with the current score, you run the risk of being put in the REJECT pile from which there is no recourse.
I certainly don't expect extra points for applying 'early'. But since many schools are on rolling admissions, logically one would think that applying early means your application will be seen first, and sooner is better than later? July doesn't seem 'early' to me, so thats why i ask.
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Yes, sooner is better than later. But the question I was responding to is whether your application will be 'competitive' if you wait until July to send it. I'm telling you that you won't be any more or less competitive as an applicant whether you submit the day the application opens or the middle of July. It just doesn't matter. Now if you waited until October, you'd be at a huge disadvantage. June or July though doesn't make much of a difference.
Keep in mind that most schools don't start interviewing people until the academic year starts. If you have your secondaries in by the middle of August, they're going to interview you if they want to and reject you if they want to-the decision won't be based on timing.
