developing a timeline for application

[egil_skallagrimsson]

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I'm a non-trad applying to medical school this summer and I don't know anyone else going through the process. I find it a little convoluted so I have a few questions:

1) I am taking the MCAT the first week of May. When should I start the AMCAS application and plan to submit it? Do I need my MCAT scores before I submit? Are these sent as part of the AMCAS application or separately to each school? If so, when should they be submitted?
2) Regarding letters of recommendation: are these submitted separately to each school I am applying to? Should they be submitted at the same time as the AMCAS application?
3) any other tips?

Thanks for any help!

 

[GreenDuck12]

AMCAS opens up the first day of June. It is your best interest to have all of the materials prepared ahead of time so that you can submit them as quickly as possible. Make sure you send MCAT scores / college transcripts sooner rather than later as they both must be verified.

I'm a non-trad applying to medical school this summer and I don't know anyone else going through the process. I find it a little convoluted so I have a few questions:

1) I am taking the MCAT the first week of May. When should I start the AMCAS application and plan to submit it? Do I need my MCAT scores before I submit? Are these sent as part of the AMCAS application or separately to each school? If so, when should they be submitted?
2) Regarding letters of recommendation: are these submitted separately to each school I am applying to? Should they be submitted at the same time as the AMCAS application?
3) any other tips?

Thanks for any help!

 

[DrMidlife]

1. start amcas the day it opens. get your transcripts ordered in may or earlier so they're not holding things up. you can say when you're taking the mcat - don't hold up your transcript review for your score. BUT if it turns out that your score is really bad, you need an out: submit with just one school to move your app along, and add the rest of your schools after you get your score, if it's good

2. letters should be available to schools when you apply if possible, but usually letters are part of secondary review after you're screened on gpa/mcat. consider using interfolio so that amcas doesn't own your letters. you can't send letters directly to schools, mostly.

now is a good time to visit the reapplicant forum to see if you're about to make any huge mistakes. i wrote a monolithic FAQ which is in the stickies.

good on you for asking early. best of luck to you.


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile app

 

[egil_skallagrimsson]

1. start amcas the day it opens. get your transcripts ordered in may or earlier so they're not holding things up. you can say when you're taking the mcat - don't hold up your transcript review for your score. BUT if it turns out that your score is really bad, you need an out: submit with just one school to move your app along, and add the rest of your schools after you get your score, if it's good

2. letters should be available to schools when you apply if possible, but usually letters are part of secondary review after you're screened on gpa/mcat. consider using interfolio so that amcas doesn't own your letters. you can't send letters directly to schools, mostly.

now is a good time to visit the reapplicant forum to see if you're about to make any huge mistakes. i wrote a monolithic FAQ which is in the stickies.

good on you for asking early. best of luck to you.


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile app

Thanks for the reply. I'm actually already considering pushing back my MCAT date. I am working, and taking organic chemistry on top of volunteering and it's been a little difficult. Not sure if I will be prepared by May 6th.... If worst comes to worst, is a May 23rd test date too late? If the AMCAS application isn't forwarded until the end of June anyway, will it make a difference?

 

[DrMidlife]

Review your general preparedness at this point. Are your cumulative overall and science GPAs going to get you anywhere with your med schools of interest? Are your science and humanities grades high enough that you're confident of your mastery of MCAT content? Do you have rigorous structured test prep on your schedule? (Note: test prep is just test prep and content review. It's not learning or relearning the content.) Do you have solid clinical experiences?

Hopefully you've taken the time to browse the reapplicant forum. It's not hard to find out what mistakes to avoid.

tl;dr: before you start the exam date hokey pokey, before you convince yourself that 3 weeks are going to make a difference in your score, make sure you're on the right planet.

Best of luck to you.

 

[egil_skallagrimsson]

Review your general preparedness at this point. Are your cumulative overall and science GPAs going to get you anywhere with your med schools of interest? Are your science and humanities grades high enough that you're confident of your mastery of MCAT content? Do you have rigorous structured test prep on your schedule? (Note: test prep is just test prep and content review. It's not learning or relearning the content.) Do you have solid clinical experiences?

Hopefully you've taken the time to browse the reapplicant forum. It's not hard to find out what mistakes to avoid.

tl;dr: before you start the exam date hokey pokey, before you convince yourself that 3 weeks are going to make a difference in your score, make sure you're on the right planet.

Best of luck to you.

I believe I am in fact, on the right planet 😉 I have browsed it quite a bit. The consensus seems to be April is the latest, but I didn't really see anyone say why.... My cumulative GPA is 3.8, science GPA is around 3.7 from a well known school. I've worked in research full time at a hospital for 2 years, I have a first author publication, and several co-authored papers under review. I'm aiming to have 125 hours of clinical experience by the time I submit my application and 40-50 hours of shadowing. I've been scoring 90%tile on the CARS section w/o any studying so I'm probably not going to bother with it. I'm taking organic right now so I'm hoping most of that will be fresh come exam time. The only subject I haven't gone through yet is physics. I finished bio, biochem, and psych review already and am finishing gen chem review this week. That leaves 9ish weeks to start doing practice exams and more practice passages and questions....

 

[DrMidlife]

good. understand that this is not the norm around here...