Application Question

[JimT30]

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I took the MCATs May 25th and just in case I am not happy with my scores I signed up for the July 24th exam. I completed my application and it is ready to be submitted, but I was wondering whether I should list that I am taking the july 24th exam? Will schools not review my application until the july scores are in if I leave that on there? Also do you think I should wait until I get my scores to submit the application incase I score bad? Advice welcome.

 

[armybound]

yes you should list that you're taking it so they know to expect another set of scores.

i wouldn't wait to get the scores, what's it going to help if you wait? what are you going to do differently with the new set of scores?

study hard, good luck.

 

[Law2Doc]

I took the MCATs May 25th and just in case I am not happy with my scores I signed up for the July 24th exam. I completed my application and it is ready to be submitted, but I was wondering whether I should list that I am taking the july 24th exam? Will schools not review my application until the july scores are in if I leave that on there? Also do you think I should wait until I get my scores to submit the application incase I score bad? Advice welcome.

Don't really agree with the prior poster or with charging into another MCAT. If you did poorly, you may need to spend a lot more time studying than you are going to have left once you see the scores. Better to lose a cycle than rack up two bad MCAT scores in a couple of months. As for applying, you won't be all that late an applicant if you wait for the May scores so sit tight. If they are bad, it's best not to apply at all until they are fixed -- you only want to apply when all your ducks are in a row. It's better to lose a year studying and retaking the test than to risk making yourself a reapplicant by having applied with crummy scores. This is a process that does not reward "winging it" or running for luck. Make your first shot your only one.

 

[JimT30]

Don't really agree with the prior poster or with charging into another MCAT. If you did poorly, you may need to spend a lot more time studying than you are going to have left once you see the scores. Better to lose a cycle than rack up two bad MCAT scores in a couple of months. As for applying, you won't be all that late an applicant if you wait for the May scores so sit tight. If they are bad, it's best not to apply at all until they are fixed -- you only want to apply when all your ducks are in a row. It's better to lose a year studying and retaking the test than to risk making yourself a reapplicant by having applied with crummy scores. This is a process that does not reward "winging it" or running for luck. Make your first shot your only one.

Im not talking terrible scores here, I was consistently scoring in the low 30s on my practice exams. Freaked a little on the first section, so its not that I need all this time to study, maybe just a month more to hone in on some topics that are my weak points. If I score sub 30 I will retake if not i will let it be.

 

[TheRealMD]

You cannot trust your feelings about how your MCAT went. There are too many things going on during test day to make a sound decision on how it went.

Now, since you won't be getting your scores until around June 25th or so, I'd say you can wait to submit until then. The really bad thing you don't want is to submit saying that you'll take another MCAT, get a good score, then have to tell each school that you AREN't going to be taking another one. That just throws them in a loop.

You won't loose too much by waiting until the 25th as most people won't submit until July. But then again, with the CBT and people taking the test at different times, we're going to be less likely to see a mad rush at any one time, but instead a buildup of submissions around the dates of score releases.

 

[voirlesetoiles]

I took the MCATs May 25th and just in case I am not happy with my scores I signed up for the July 24th exam. I completed my application and it is ready to be submitted, but I was wondering whether I should list that I am taking the july 24th exam? Will schools not review my application until the july scores are in if I leave that on there? Also do you think I should wait until I get my scores to submit the application incase I score bad? Advice welcome.

I think what you do should be based on the schools you're applying to. The MSAR ($25) shows you which schools screen applicats before sending out secondaries. Those schools will wait for your MCAT scores anyway, so I'm waiting to get my MCAT scores back and then adding those schools on AMCAS based on how I do. But I'd definitely submit at least one school (esp the ones who send secondaries to all applicants) to AMCAS to get ahead on the verification thing.

 

[Law2Doc]

Those schools will wait for your MCAT scores anyway, so I'm waiting to get my MCAT scores back and then adding those schools on AMCAS based on how I do.

You are assuming instantaneous processing, which I suspect isn't really the case. In general the apps that are submitted in advance of the MCAT tend to get processed more rapidly when the MCAT hits than those where the whole app comes in at the same time as the late summer MCAT. Schools wait until things get determined "complete" before moving ahead with their review, and this determination is going to be quicker if the school is just waiting for 1 piece of paper rather than many. When you are talking about thousands of applications, your place in the queue can be very different based on which way you did it. Which is why the conventional wisdom on SDN is to have it all in before if you are doing a later test. That being said, the better applicants still do fine with late summer apps.