AMCAS submission/retaking MCAT

I am applying for medical school this coming summer. I have taken the MCAT once already but, plan to take it again in July.

The plan now is to finish my AMCAS application by early june and submit it since it takes around a month for it to be processed before schools receive the application.

Questions: If I first send it to one reach school, in order to get the processing initiated and then add my top schools and other schools later when my second MCAT score comes out, would adding other schools later shorten the processing time frame at all? Or is the processing still a month regardless?

Another option would be to send my application to all schools once the MCAT score comes out the end of august?

Or should I submit my AMCAS to all schools in june w/ the July test taking date shown in the application. In this case, will my application only be considered and looked at once my july MCAT scores have been received, or will it be looked at with my previous MCAT score in place.

chemMD90 said:

...Or should I submit my AMCAS to all schools in june w/ the July test taking date shown in the application. In this case, will my application only be considered and looked at once my july MCAT scores have been received, or will it be looked at with my previous MCAT score in place.

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I suggest doing this one. Most (probably all) of the schools will simply hold off on sending you a secondary until your updated MCAT arrives. They will certainly look at your initial MCAT (as well as the rest of your app) beforehand, but won't make any decisions regarding your status.

If you submit to just one school in early June or only schools for which you are competitive with the current MCAT score, it only takes a few days to verify your transcripts. If you submit in August, it will take many weeks, probably a month. Once you have a second score, you can add additional schools (or not) depending on how much more competitive it is. When you add new schools, AMCAS will send out your entire file to new schools within a business day.

Meanwhile, you can start prewriting Secondary essays from prompts you'll find here on SDN, so your turn-around time when invited to submit a Secondary is minimal.

Theoretically, if you list a future MCAT date on the AMCAS primary application, schools will hold their consideration until the second core returns, unless the current score is competitive.

And some schools send out Secondaries to everyone without prescreening your application, even before your application is complete. It's a very good money maker to collect those Secondary fees.