august mcat/mstp application

[passion4atcg]

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is it possible to take the mcat in august and apply to md/phd programs for that same application cycle? or does it put you at a significant disadvantage? how do you go about the process? i'm a little confused so if anybody has any help, it would be much appreciated. thanks!

 

[Thundrstorm]

It's probably about as much of a disadvantage as it is for MD applications. For some schools, the August MCAT could be a big disadvantage. For example, Cornell had an October 17th deadline this year, and was done interviewing in mid-November. Many other programs seemed to finish interviewing in January. I personally feel that my early applications helped me a lot, but that's purely anecdotal. I'd be curious to hear what others think.

 

[Reimat]

Yea, when I look back at this cycle, the one universally damning thing that happened to people at my school was applying later because of the August MCAT. I don't think it makes a difference MD or MD/PhD, you significantly 'weaken' your app by taking the August MCAT (and applying late in the cycle).

 

[mdphd2b]

Yea, when I look back at this cycle, the one universally damning thing that happened to people at my school was applying later because of the August MCAT. I don't think it makes a difference MD or MD/PhD, you significantly 'weaken' your app by taking the August MCAT (and applying late in the cycle).

Also depends on the school. Here at Pitt they are very straight-forward about it. August MCAT-takers are too late to be considered for the same cycle, since our MSTP interview season is done by Thanksgiving.

 

[Wertt]

Didn't hurt me. But I suppose it does depend where you apply.

 

[Zmoney12]

What if you get everything else done during the summer, so that as soon as your scores come you are complete? Is this still a big disadvantage?

 

[stherling]

another thing to consider is whether you're considering the MD-only route. Although most schools will say that your MSTP app won't affect your MD-only chances, it CAN affect when your app gets processed. That is, sometimes the MD-only committee won't see your application until the MSTP folk are done with it, which may be too late. I applied to 5 schools, at 3 of them the MSTP committee sat on my app until after the MD committee was done making interview decisions. I don't need to tell you how that turned out! That said, I applied late because of the August MCAT. If I'd applied early, the additional delay from MSTP processing might not have been a problem.

 

[Neuronix]

On the flip side it won't hurt you at schools with a number of late interview dates like UPenn or Yale. It probably would help to contact all the schools you're interested in to make sure you're not wasting your money by applying with the same year August MCAT!

 

[passion4atcg]

Thanks so much everybody for your help!