August MCAT

[bob13]

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Hey, i am a late bloomer and wanted to get some feedback. i am taking the aug mcat and applying to school for fall 05. questions
1. should i not send my application in until i get my mcat scores back or should i send it in early?
2. how much of a diadvantage am i at by taking the mcat late?

thanks

 

[Columbia22]

You should try to send in all you secondaries as soon as you get them, unless money is an issue and you need your score to decide which schools to apply to. The August MCAT will not put you at a disadvantage if your score is good. If you happen to find yourself in the 28-30 range, you will have much difficulty being noticed by schools, and most will keep you on Hold until they have gone through all other applicants with higher MCAT scores.

 

[MDMD]

Hey, I'm in the same situation as you are, and I have talked to my premed advisor allll about it, and I trust her very much. So, yes, you need to submit your AMCAS now, just indicate that you are taking the August MCAT. I have contacted a few schools that I really like and asked them what disadvantage I was at, and they said none, other than getting interviewed later. I think the schools with rolling admissions are the ones that are risky, but if you are a strong applicant, you should be fine. I mean think about it, if a school were to admit all the people they could, then their dream applicant came along with an August score and they had to turn him/her away because they are full, they would be pretty stupid. Just get your AMCAS in and if they send you secondaries send those in as quickly as possible too. You may be wondering if you should apply to your dream schools and risk embarassing yourself with a low MCAT score or wasting money, but I say go for it. You should have an idea what kind of score a student like yourself will get on the MCAT. Also, if you've taken any practice exams yet or have studied, you can kind of tell where you stand as well. Hope this helps. Good luck to you, and me!

 

[dabenxiong]

Hey, i am a late bloomer and wanted to get some feedback. i am taking the aug mcat and applying to school for fall 05. questions
1. should i not send my application in until i get my mcat scores back or should i send it in early?
2. how much of a diadvantage am i at by taking the mcat late?

thanks

I was in the same situation as you last year. I think you should submit your AMCAS no later than 9/1 as it usually takes 1~1.5 months for AAMC to process your application. It probably won't make a difference if you submit your AMCAS earlier than 9/1 because some schools wait until they have your latest MCAT score before they decide whether they want to send you a secondary or not (to name a few: CA schools, UW, OHSU, NW...etc. I think there's a thread about this). If you just want to get a head start on preparing secondary essays , just ask on SDN. I'm sure there'll be people out there to help you out. Personally, I think it's much more important to make sure your primary essay is well-written and free of errors. Also, take some time to think about how/what you want to list (as) your EC activities.

As for the second question, if you're applying to MD programs (and not MD/PhD), you'll be at a slight disadvantage if you take the August MCAT. But as long as you have solid numbers + good EC, LOR, and essays, you should be ok. Plus, it gives you an additional 2~3 months to boost your resume and/or acquire recommendation letters. For some people, it might make a difference. For example, if you're doing research, an additional 3 months of work might help you earn an authorship of a paper, which helps tremendously. You might end up going to your interviews in the Spring, but I doubt that'll hurt you that much.

 

[bokermmk]

I was an August MCATer. It puts you at a slight disadvnatage but it is nothing that cant be overcome. There are a few schools, however, that I would not apply to b/c they either fill early or hold first time August MCATers at a disadvantage. Two that I know of are Vandy and Loyola.

 

[bob13]

hey, thanks for the feedback. I am a non trad student with a background as a healthcare professional already but i feel this late mcat will hurt my chances of getting in.

 

[oldman]

hey, thanks for the feedback. I am a non trad student with a background as a healthcare professional already but i feel this late mcat will hurt my chances of getting in.

this is a competitive process, so any delay will make your application less than optimal, but if you want this year to be your year to go for it than do it.

i took an august mcat, but i didn't apply until the next cycle, so my score instead of being a late score became an early score. i had the april mcat available if necessary.

i think the difference between having your score from april versus august for the same cycle is a delay in finally getting in. using anecdoctal evidence, with my app turned in very early i was accepted by october whereas my friend who had everything turned in late wasn't accepted until april.

my best advice is if you don't mind delaying your application for the next cycle, you could be at an advantage over the april mcaters for fall of 2006 cycle because you'd have your score in october of 2004.

 

[Luck]

The August MCAT puts you at a major disadvantage. The reason is because there is tremendous pressure for you to succeed on it. If you can't get a 30 or above, you will be doomed to not getting in anywhere unless you have luck 😉 and you will have to resort to applying again.

Don't think the MCAT is some cakewalk where it's easy to get a 30. Just because you see all these fools on SDN getting 30s and above doesn't mean you will. SDN is full of a bunch of geniuses and gunners, not representative of the general premed population. That's why the average for the general population taking the MCAT is a 24.

So if you can get in the 70th to 80th percentile of all the people that take the MCAT, meaning at least a 30, then you're good. However, if you're just an average applicant who probably will get a 30 or below, you will not get accepted. Just look at Colombia. He came from Columbia and he took the August MCAT and received a 28. Even he couldn't get in anywhere and now is applying again and doing the same mistake of taking the August MCAT again. 😱

 

[Columbia22]

hey hey, first off, I wouldve never gotten that 8 in verbal had the fire alarm not rang half way through my verbal section. At that point, I couldnt read any more of my passages, I had about 5 more left. and I went through the rest of the exam skimming and choosing answer choices that looked correct. I complained to AMCAS but they never did anything about it. In fact, a few people i know who took the mcat last August have retaken it for the same reason. I know that a lousy blaring and flashing fire alarm shouldnt have fazed me out, but it was unexpected and i admit that i fell weak to it. Im retaking this August because I know my real score is above a 30. Lukc, do you have a fixation with me?? It seems that wherever I post, you magically appear. Or do you just have issue with my school???

 

[javandane]

I was an August MCATer. It puts you at a slight disadvnatage but it is nothing that cant be overcome. There are a few schools, however, that I would not apply to b/c they either fill early or hold first time August MCATers at a disadvantage. Two that I know of are Vandy and Loyola.

can you explain why or how loyola holds august MCATers at a disadvantage?

 

[oldman]

i think regarding the loyola, he/she is talking about rolling admission. and the whole idea is that they fill their class as time goes by, if they start interviewing in september and your mcat score isn't back until october, you end up competing for what's left.

 

[lola]

If you can't get a 30 or above, you will be doomed to not getting in anywhere unless you have luck 😉 and you will have to resort to applying again.

this is simply not true. if your application is strong (by strong i mean excellent gpa, great activities, great letters of rec, interesting experiences, a good undergrad will help, etc...) then you do not necessarily need luck to get in even with an mcat score less than 30. i believe the august mcat put me at a disadvantage, but i still got in despite a mediocre score. i didn't start getting acceptances until may, but i started getting pulled off waitlists after that. i don't think i got into 3 schools just by luck (plus waitlisted at another 3 from which i withdrew after being accepted to my first choice of my 6 waitlists). a score below 30 on the august mcat will not kill you if everything else about your application is solid.
loyola fills their class by like december or something. they don't start interviewing august mcat people til after that, because they wait for your scores before giving you a secondary. thus, if you get an interview from them you will be interviewing for the waitlist. that's what happened to me. it doesn't mean you won't get in, but you are at a disadvantage. tulane starts filling their class early too, so i interviewed for the waitlist there as well. it is not an ideal position to be in, but if they want you, you will probably get in off the waitlist.

 

[lola]

oh yeah, and you should submit AMCAS well before getting your august score if you want to have the best shot at getting in. that way you can have complete applications at schools that don't screen for secondaries by the time your score comes in.

 

[JohnHolmes]

Hey, i am a late bloomer and wanted to get some feedback. i am taking the aug mcat and applying to school for fall 05. questions
1. should i not send my application in until i get my mcat scores back or should i send it in early?
2. how much of a diadvantage am i at by taking the mcat late?

thanks

Don't wait. Apply early and apply often.

It's hard to assess how much of a disadvantage you are at by taking the August MCAT, I'll just say it doesn't work to your favor versus those who got took the April MCAT and did well.

Apply NOW, don't Wait! Good luck!!!!