Applying to med school before taking the MCAT?

[soxman]

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Is it possible to apply to med school without taking the MCAT, but putting it off for a few months?

 

[ChubbyChaser]

Yes. Would I recommend doing it? No

 

[TheRealMD]

Uhh... that's like burning money. Seriously. In order to maximize your chances for getting into med school, the MCAT should have been done and forgotten about (besides the score you got).

 

[SigurRos]

Doesn't seem like a smart thing to do given that you won't be considered complete at your schools until the MCAT scores come in. If its a few weeks after you submit your AMCAS primary, then no it won't matter except that you will have to wait until your scores are in to be complete and start getting interview invitations.

 

[Phoenix.]

Doesn't seem like a smart thing to do given that you won't be considered complete at your schools until the MCAT scores come in. If its a few weeks after you submit your AMCAS primary, then no it won't matter except that you will have to wait until your scores are in to be complete and start getting interview invitations.

I agree. I wouldn't advise someone to plan to take the MCAT later than in June the year they're applying. Of course, you could still take it in July, August or September, but you'll making things a little harder for yourself than you need to. And if you take it in April or May, then you still have room to retake it if you need to.

 

[gsquared]

I wouldn't recommend it.

 

[Revenant]

Don't mind the naysayers....do it! DO IT!!!!!!!!

 

[plauto]

I agree. I wouldn't advise someone to plan to take the MCAT later than in June the year they're applying. Of course, you could still take it in July, August or September, but you'll making things a little harder for yourself than you need to. And if you take it in April or May, then you still have room to retake it if you need to.

x2. I applied in June and took the MCAT in July. Could have saved a couple hundred bucks since I sent the primary to 25 schools and after getting the score back sent the secondary to 14. (Actually, I sent the secondary to my state schools and a couple area schools even before I got the score back).
That was my only option due to personal reasons. Do it only if you have to.

 

[Blue128K]

I applied to medical schools before taking the MCAT. Let me just say, it's quite a gamble...and costs extra $$$. You have to anticipate what score you are going to get in order to choose your schools. Also, you have to plan for the best and worst and pick a wide range of schools to apply to.

I ended up applying to about 20 schools on my AMCAS. I got my MCAT score back and was pleasantly surprised. Therefore I didn't complete probably 1/3 of the secondaries and subsequentially added some more high end schools. It worked out well for me: I got my AMCAS verfied early enough and scored decently enough that I was able to just add a few extra schools.

HOWEVER- if the opposite happened (low score), I might have been screwed in that I'd have wasted all that money on the higher schools and now might have to wait a year to re-apply (waste all that money and now be considered a re-applicant). Bad News. Thankfully this didn't happen, but it easily could have. If you can? I'd wait. If not, just make sure you are ready to rock the MCAT.