Not to hijack this thread but my questions are related and dont really merit a new topic: is there anywhere (on this forum or otherwise) someone can point me to for looking at a general outline of months for when you take the MCAT vs when you apply?
For example, for clinical psychology graduate programs, you can apply to some programs as early as September, but you must have all your materials submitted no later than early December, which means you need to have taken your GRE (AND gotten your scores back officially) at least 3 weeks prior to December at the very latest.
When do most people take the MCATs? Are most med schools the same in their application durations and periods during the year? I keep hearing of people preparing their applications a full year ahead of when they are due, is this accurate?
The application cycle is about a year long, ie between the time the applications open and when the last students are accepted/med school starts. You'd apply summer 2013 to start in the summer/fall 2014.
1) People take the MCAT at a variety of times. Some students take it at the end of the summer so they can have the summer as dedicated study time without other classes interfering. Others take it spring semester of their junior year so they can apply that June. It really varies and seems to be balanced based on when you want to apply and when you have time to really devote yourself to studying.
2.) Yes, most (not all) US med schools utilize the AMCAS application service, its one standardized application students fill out that gets sent to the medical schools you select to apply to. It's nice because you don't have to fill out a separate application for each school. The AMCAS opens to be filled out before June each year, you can submit the application sometime in the beginning of June. AMCAS verifies your application and forwards stuff to the schools for review. There's a fee for this.
Schools have individual deadlines as to the latest date they'll accept applications. I think quite a few are generally around mid november, but you don't want wait anywhere near that long to apply as a lot of acceptances will have gone out by then.
Some schools have secondary applications or supplemental applications that ask additional information non-contained on the AMCAS, such as why do you want to go to X school, how would you contribute to the diversity of this class, do you have any research experience, if so briefly describe the hypothesis and how you tested it, what's your greatest challenge, etc. Some schools screen applications and only send secondaries to some people, some send them to everyone. There's usually a fee involved for this as well.
Then schools interview selected students. Some schools start interviewing as early as August, some not til October. MD schools can offer their first acceptances around Oct. 16th. A lot of schools seem to do rolling or semi rolling admissions, offering acceptances in waves. Waitlists get made and sent out and as people decline acceptances, offers are made from the waitlists. People can get accepted right up to the first day of class in some cases.
*That's a general overview, but there can be some variability.
It is possible to submit the application without an MCAT score, but since you kind of need to know your score to make decisions on where to apply, it's helpful to take it before you apply. Some schools won't look at your app until there's a score, and others will. Getting your score before you apply also saves you from wasting a lot money on applying that year if you do poorly and need to retake. I believe it takes about a month to get your MCAT score back after you take it, but I'm not positive on that.
That's my understanding of the process, but I work an overnight last night and have been awake too long so errors/omissions are likely.
