Early Applicant?!?

[fireandice98933]

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Im thinking of taking the Mcat at the end of may. I wanted to submit my primaries by mid june at the latest but Im a little worried about my mcat. Will med schools allow me to submit my applications by mid june and THEN allow me to submit my MCAT when its recieved a month from the date i took it (approx end of june)? I just want to kind of get around that first batch of applicants but i know it takes time for the applications to be processed ect.

 

[Law2Doc]

Im thinking of taking the Mcat at the end of may. I wanted to submit my primaries by mid june at the latest but Im a little worried about my mcat. Will med schools allow me to submit my applications by mid june and THEN allow me to submit my MCAT when its recieved a month from the date i took it (approx end of june)? I just want to kind of get around that first batch of applicants but i know it takes time for the applications to be processed ect.

That's should work, but I would probably wait until you see your MCAT before submitting, in case you want to abort and retake. Applying by the end of June is fine. The advantage of submitting before that time is highly exaggerated on SDN -- there is a big difference between early June and late August, but when you are talking early June vs early July it probably doesn't matter nearly as much. You can have everything ready to go before that date, and just not submitted.

 

[nVictus]

where's the l2d cat picture....

but yeah, what law2doc said it on point, especially the part about waiting for your mcat score before you submit... unless you are completely confident in your ability to reach your target score.

 

[supergirl87]

Im thinking of taking the Mcat at the end of may. I wanted to submit my primaries by mid june at the latest but Im a little worried about my mcat. Will med schools allow me to submit my applications by mid june and THEN allow me to submit my MCAT when its recieved a month from the date i took it (approx end of june)? I just want to kind of get around that first batch of applicants but i know it takes time for the applications to be processed ect.

That's exactly what I did. I took the MCAT at the end of May. I submitted my primary application mid-June. But here is the key: I only specified ONE med school on my primary application. The reason I did this was just to get my application verified (it took 3 weeks for me). By the time my app was verified, I got back my MCAT score. Since I did well, I added the other schools I intended to apply to. Since my app was already verified, it only took 2 days for the newly added schools to get my application. BUT, let's suppose that I didn't do well on that MCAT. My plan then would to notify the one school I specified to put my application on hold since I was going to take another MCAT. After I got back my second MCAT score, I would add the additional schools to the primary app (assuming I did well the second time!). Hope that made sense. It's the best way to go. And btw, I was in the first batch of interviewees.

 

[Chemist0157]

That's exactly what I did. I took the MCAT at the end of May. I submitted my primary application mid-June. But here is the key: I only specified ONE med school on my primary application. The reason I did this was just to get my application verified (it took 3 weeks for me). By the time my app was verified, I got back my MCAT score. Since I did well, I added the other schools I intended to apply to. Since my app was already verified, it only took 2 days for the newly added schools to get my application. BUT, let's suppose that I didn't do well on that MCAT. My plan then would to notify the one school I specified to put my application on hold since I was going to take another MCAT. After I got back my second MCAT score, I would add the additional schools to the primary app (assuming I did well the second time!). Hope that made sense. It's the best way to go. And btw, I was in the first batch of interviewees.

That's a smart way to do it. I had my MCAT score in hand before I submitted so this didn't affect me, but that's a good idea!

 

[chemolupusMD]

That's exactly what I did. I took the MCAT at the end of May. I submitted my primary application mid-June. But here is the key: I only specified ONE med school on my primary application. The reason I did this was just to get my application verified (it took 3 weeks for me). By the time my app was verified, I got back my MCAT score. Since I did well, I added the other schools I intended to apply to. Since my app was already verified, it only took 2 days for the newly added schools to get my application. BUT, let's suppose that I didn't do well on that MCAT. My plan then would to notify the one school I specified to put my application on hold since I was going to take another MCAT. After I got back my second MCAT score, I would add the additional schools to the primary app (assuming I did well the second time!). Hope that made sense. It's the best way to go. And btw, I was in the first batch of interviewees.

that was very clever. I am just wondering if this way was more expensive than if you would had done this the regular way.

 

[chemolupusMD]

OP, i took the late May MCAT last year. I got my score late June and apply as soon as i saw the number. I think that as long as you apply before mid July you are super early.

The other option is to take the March Mcat or the Jan one.

 

[chad5871]

that was very clever. I am just wondering if this way was more expensive than if you would had done this the regular way.

No. The cost would be identical.

 

[Law2Doc]

That's exactly what I did. I took the MCAT at the end of May. I submitted my primary application mid-June. But here is the key: I only specified ONE med school on my primary application. The reason I did this was just to get my application verified (it took 3 weeks for me). By the time my app was verified, I got back my MCAT score. Since I did well, I added the other schools I intended to apply to. Since my app was already verified, it only took 2 days for the newly added schools to get my application. BUT, let's suppose that I didn't do well on that MCAT. My plan then would to notify the one school I specified to put my application on hold since I was going to take another MCAT. After I got back my second MCAT score, I would add the additional schools to the primary app (assuming I did well the second time!). Hope that made sense. It's the best way to go. And btw, I was in the first batch of interviewees.

It's actually not the best way to do it. If you complete AMCAS you have "applied" to med school. Meaning if you do poorly on the MCAT and don't get in anywhere, the next time you apply you would be a reapplicant. If instead you waited to apply until you actually had a good MCAT in hand, you would be better off as you wouldn't risk the reapplicant stigma. It's a stigma because to get the same consideration as an applicant, you have to show substantial improvement from the prior cycle. If you sat out a cycle without having ever applied you wouldn't have this hurdle. So no, best not to do this.

 

[chad5871]

I just took my MCAT the summer before I applied. That way, I had all summer to study for it, got my scores, and was able to figure out where I wanted to apply over the course of the next year. And I could submit the earliest date possible if I wanted to.

 

[supergirl87]

It's actually not the best way to do it. If you complete AMCAS you have "applied" to med school. Meaning if you do poorly on the MCAT and don't get in anywhere, the next time you apply you would be a reapplicant. If instead you waited to apply until you actually had a good MCAT in hand, you would be better off as you wouldn't risk the reapplicant stigma. It's a stigma because to get the same consideration as an applicant, you have to show substantial improvement from the prior cycle. If you sat out a cycle without having ever applied you wouldn't have this hurdle. So no, best not to do this.

First of all, just to clarify... I believe that you should only take the MCAT when you are at a point where you are consistenly getting at least 29 or 30 on practice tests. When test day rolls around, you can expect to perform within two points (+ or -) of your most recent practice test scores. Therefore, I don't think it's a huge gamble for a person to submit their application without seeing their score first if they know what their score range is through practice tests.

Secondly, you're right, I wasn't thinking about potentially becoming a reapplicant. When I applied, I know I didn't think that far ahead. But even if I were at a position where I had to reapply next year, is that really so bad? Is there really a stigma associated with individuals who reapply? I would think that med schools would respect students who are motivated enough to go through this ridiculous process twice. I highly doubt that a person who scores at least 30 on practice tests will suddenly get a 24 on test day... unless they were sick, in which case the test should be voided. So the way I applied wasn't a total gamble since I knew how I was doing on practice tests. Though now that you've brought up this point, my disclaimer to others is that my advice only applies for people doing consistently well on practice MCAT tests.

By next year isn't AAMC trying to post scores after two weeks of having taken the MCAT? If that is the case, the OP can actually wait to see his MCAT score before sending the primary app. 🙂

 

[Law2Doc]

Secondly, you're right, I wasn't thinking about potentially becoming a reapplicant. When I applied, I know I didn't think that far ahead. But even if I were at a position where I had to reapply next year, is that really so bad? Is there really a stigma associated with individuals who reapply? I would think that med schools would respect students who are motivated enough to go through this ridiculous process twice. I highly doubt that a person who scores at least 30 on practice tests will suddenly get a 24 on test day... unless they were sick, in which case the test should be voided. So the way I applied wasn't a total gamble since I knew how I was doing on practice tests. Though now that you've brought up this point, my disclaimer to others is that my advice only applies for people doing consistently well on practice MCAT tests.

Just to address some of what you've said, your expected score should really be plus or minus 3 points, not 2. (This is the statistic that I was advised was borne out in Kaplan studies, so I buy it). And this is from scores you've gotten on full length practice tests, not partials or things taken over the course of several days. I would actually make the threshold over a 29, because honestly if you score 3 points worse than that (26) you won't be competitive for an allo med school. As for whether schools respect students enough to go through the process twice, it doesn't work out that way. This process absolutely, positively rewards those who get their ducks in a row first and THEN pull the trigger. It doesn't reward folks who shoot, miss, reload and shoot again. A reapplicant has a harder road because they have to show substantial improvement over the prior cycle. The person who applies once doesn't have anything to overcome, so he is advantaged. So I was advised to try to stay out of the reapplicant pile, even if it means taking a bit longer before you are ready to apply to med school.

 

[AZFutureDoc]

You really don't need to wait. If you don't like your score, you can just click a box on your AMCAS saying that you will be retaking it. This pretty much halts review of your app, and its just like you didn't submit it in the first place. The nice thing is that you still get secondaries and info packets while you study and wait after the second MCAT.

 

[Law2Doc]

You really don't need to wait. If you don't like your score, you can just click a box on your AMCAS saying that you will be retaking it. This pretty much halts review of your app, and its just like you didn't submit it in the first place. The nice thing is that you still get secondaries and info packets while you study and wait after the second MCAT.

And that's fine if you are going to get your second MCAT in in time not to be a late applicant. But if, like the OP, you are taking the first one in May, you won't be complete at a reasonably early time if you retake. So you'd be better off never applying until you saw your score in the first place. The OP has time to see his/her scores and decide whether or not to hit the submit button on AMCAS. I see no reason to rush an application in only to risk being a reapplicant if the score is bad.