AAMC Application Transcript Dilemma

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I have come across a recent dilemma upon the drafting of my application for the AAMC. At the end of the spring semester I had a 3.179 GPA and recently took two summer A classes to boost my GPA to a 3.212 (got A's in both). When asking my registrar's office to send my official transcript to AMCAS it seems they will only be able to send a transcript of my initial GPA from the spring (the 3.179) and I will have to wait until the end of the summer C semester (which is the first week of August) to get a fully updated transcript with my 3.212.

The question now is:
1) Do I submit my transcript with my spring semester GPA of a 3.179 or do I hold out and wait until the very end of summer C (which is around the first week of August) so that AMCAS will be able to see my 3.212?
I was always told that the earlier I submit my application the better, and would waiting the whole month to submit my application + transcript be beneficial to me or not? I know the deviation between a 3.179 to a 3.212 is not too severe and I am fully aware that I'm hoping for a miracle, but what do you guys think?

Also I will be taking the MCAT in late July and have been preparing for it for the past 2 months and I realize a lot will be riding on that score.

2) I also thought, if I send my initial transcript with the 3.179 as soon as possible, would I be able to submit an updated transcript to AMCAS with a 3.212 the minute it is available, which would be about a month from now?


I realize that I also have to consider time of delivery/travel for my transcript which would further delay AMCAS receiving it. What do you all think, submit my application now with a slightly lower GPA, or wait until August with a slightly higher GPA?





Your feedback is always appreciated. Thank you.

 

[DAPI]

I have come across a recent dilemma upon the drafting of my application for the AAMC. At the end of the spring semester I had a 3.179 GPA and recently took two summer A classes to boost my GPA to a 3.212 (got A's in both). When asking my registrar's office to send my official transcript to AMCAS it seems they will only be able to send a transcript of my initial GPA from the spring (the 3.179) and I will have to wait until the end of the summer C semester (which is the first week of August) to get a fully updated transcript with my 3.212.

The question now is:
1) Do I submit my transcript with my spring semester GPA of a 3.179 or do I hold out and wait until the very end of summer C (which is around the first week of August) so that AMCAS will be able to see my 3.212?
I was always told that the earlier I submit my application the better, and would waiting the whole month to submit my application + transcript be beneficial to me or not? I know the deviation between a 3.179 to a 3.212 is not too severe and I am fully aware that I'm hoping for a miracle, but what do you guys think?

Also I will be taking the MCAT in late July and have been preparing for it for the past 2 months and I realize a lot will be riding on that score.

2) I also thought, if I send my initial transcript with the 3.179 as soon as possible, would I be able to submit an updated transcript to AMCAS with a 3.212 the minute it is available, which would be about a month from now?


I realize that I also have to consider time of delivery/travel for my transcript which would further delay AMCAS receiving it. What do you all think, submit my application now with a slightly lower GPA, or wait until August with a slightly higher GPA?





Your feedback is always appreciated. Thank you.

The real question you need to ask the registrar is if the class w/ grades will be on your transcript here in a week. AMCAS does not care about your GPA, just if the class in on there. Thats what I would be asking them. If they say nothing is posted till August, I would probably submit right now. Or do the following if you like to gamble a little.

Also, since you will not be taking the MCAT till late July and your scores will not be available till late August, you may be able to submit your app in late July without having actually sent in your transcript, but having had requested it w/ the request to hold till summer grades have been posted. That way your new transcript will arrive before you are verified, but you did not actually wait till your transcript was ready to submit. - I hope this made sense - see this: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showpost.php?p=12587235&postcount=564

There is no way to send a transcript after verification to AMCAS, but you can update individual schools later in the cycle (depending on the individual schools' policy)

 

[kpcrew]

poster above me is wrong, you can send in a transcript after you submit. you submit an academic change request and amcas will update schools for you but it seems that you should wait for all your grades to be available. you won't be finished with your application until late august at the earliest when your mcat score is in.

 

[DAPI]

poster above me is wrong, you can send in a transcript after you submit. you submit an academic change request and amcas will update schools for you. you won't be finished with your application until late august when your mcat score is in. it takes around a month or so to be verified so you can submit in early to mid july and then send in an academic change request while you're being verified.

Looks like kpcrew is 1/2 correct. I had never seen such a thing, it says you have to send in the update after verification, not during. Because of the this, I would submit now to get verified and hope your new transcript makes it to AMCAS before your MCAT score as once your MCAT score comes in I'm not really sure how much weight they will put in a change of GPA because schools may have already reviewed your app before the new grades come and may not look at it a second time, regardless of a GPA bump.

Sent from my iPhone.


Edit: See my post below - this post is wrong

 

[kpcrew]

so i took a closer look and poster above me is wrong again. from my understanding, the academic change request is for things that happened before submission. it says "Complete this form to request re-verification of your academic information. Please review AMCAS GPA policies, corrections by AMCAS to your Academic Record, and your own computations before contacting AMCAS regarding GPA discrepancies. AMCAS will not make corrections based on information which becomes available after the initial submission of your materials or modify current/future ("CC") coursework." you might be better off waiting since you will probably be verified a week or two after you get your mcat score and your gpa will be significantly higher.

 

[DAPI]

so i took a closer look and poster above me is wrong again. from my understanding, the academic change request is for things that happened before submission. it says "Complete this form to request re-verification of your academic information. Please review AMCAS GPA policies, corrections by AMCAS to your Academic Record, and your own computations before contacting AMCAS regarding GPA discrepancies. AMCAS will not make corrections based on information which becomes available after the initial submission of your materials or modify current/future ("CC") coursework." you might be better off waiting since you will probably be verified a week or two after you get your mcat score and your gpa will be significantly higher.

Yep, my second post was wrong as I miss read the AMCAS handbook from my iPhone. I stand by my original post.

Honestly, I have no idea what kpcrew is talking about in his/her first post at this point. Once you are verified, there is no way to change your GPA with an update (like I initially said) and there are no way to do an academic changes during verification. Academic change requests "will only become available after your application has completed the verification process." - page 8 of the handbook (https://www.aamc.org/students/download/182162/data/amcas_instruction_manual.pdf).

The are three options:
1) Submit now with whatever is on your transcript - whether that includes the courses or not
2) Submit after you see the courses on your transcript (given they are not actually there now)
3) Gamble - Submit mid/late July with the courses and grades listed in AMCAS (as if they were posted to your transcript), request a transcript from your school right after your grades are posted to your transcript, and pray that the transcript arrives before you are verified. The plus to this is you get verified earlier than you would have had you waited to submit till after your grades were posted. I would however send in a transcript w/o those grades so it will be verified w/o them and AMCAS will just change them to current coursework or grade pending or something - I'm not sure. - See my link in my original post.

There may actually be a 4th option if you have not already sent in a transcript for this school. You could submit today and then just send the transcript when the grades come in. Then AMCAS will just verify you at the time your transcript arrives. I am not entirely sure how this works though - i.e. if you are placed in the verification cue in order of when you hit submit or when your transcripts arrive - maybe someone else knows this. If its when your transcript arrives, than its not much different than option 2, but if its when you hit submit, then it could make a huge difference.