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MD Apply this year or wait?
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With your GPA and EC's currently, if you take your MCAT and do well on it 508+ I would go ahead and apply to the cycle. But as you mentioned 2 months isn't a lot of time to study, if you feel you would not be able to score well on it with the amount of time to study, hold off. Not something you want to risk as medical schools are not going anywhere. Spend the extra year building a few more shadowing hours as well as clinical experience. This is a personal choice that needs to be made on whether you think you can score highly on the MCAT in the time given, everything else looks good enough to get in. This is my .2 cents, take it for what it's worth
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Looks like you're in a good spot for this cycle then, just up to you now on the MCAT. Good luck
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Can't you reschedule the MCAT for a later date so that you would have more time? I honestly think 2 months is too short for the MCAT and would recommend moving it to April or May. Unless all of the spots are filled already.
Given that I'd have to reteach myself a lot of Bio/biochem I've forgotten and self-teach soc, I've decided to take it in late July for more time.
When classes get out this should give me over 2.5 months to study. I've also been saving back money, to the extent that I don't really have to work during this time either, so I'll likely exercise, volunteer a tiny bit, and of course fill the rest of my time with the MCAT. Hopefully I can still get in after I'm verified in late August
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One issue that I see with a late MCAT is an overall rushed application. You're not going to want to spend time working on your personal statement, activities, or secondary prewriting while studying for the MCAT. You could wait to do all of that until that month where you wait for your MCAT score. But that isn't really much time, and you won't know which secondaries to prewrite because you'll have no idea what your school list is. Then when secondaries begin to come out you'll be back in senior year trying to do a full course load and write secondaries. As I see it, it's going to be pretty difficult logistically to do it this way.
My recommendation is to wait. You could have all summer to study by taking the MCAT in late August or September and then be able to hit submit on day one next cycle with your app already prepped and a school list determined in advance.
But I think you can make it work either way if you are prepared...People often kick themselves during the cycle when they aren't getting much of a response and they wish they had done more like applied earlier, spent more time on their personal statement, or had extra time to do better on the MCAT.
Good luck either way!!
My recommendation is to wait. You could have all summer to study by taking the MCAT in late August or September and then be able to hit submit on day one next cycle with your app already prepped and a school list determined in advance.
But I think you can make it work either way if you are prepared...People often kick themselves during the cycle when they aren't getting much of a response and they wish they had done more like applied earlier, spent more time on their personal statement, or had extra time to do better on the MCAT.
Good luck either way!!
Thanks for the advice!!
I've decided to apply next cycle. While I considered applying this cycle, my heavy courseload, preventing me from doing much app/MCAT work before May, has made my decision for me...
Given my borderline clinical/shadowing experience and MCAT prep time for this cycle, applying this cycle is too risky for my tastes. I'll reduce this risk by applying next year, and I'll be adding on lots of cool things to round out my application over the next year (and I'll get to relax a bit too!).
