Future MCAT Date - When do I submit secondaries?

[dreamz10]

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Hi everyone,

I wrote my MCAT last summer (horrible: 7, 9, 9), and will be rewriting it the last week of August. My primary application was recently verified by AMCAS a few days ago, and now I have ~15 emails asking for secondaries. I've noticed that a lot of schools state that they will not process your secondary while you still have a future MCAT date.

So my question is: do I still need to submit my secondaries within two weeks from receiving them, even though I know they will not be processed until after my MCAT scores are released? I ask because obviously secondaries are very time consuming, and I still have a lot of studying to do for my MCAT.

Also, there are some schools that do not state this.. is it possible that they will still review my secondary, but wait until my score to make a final decision? In this case, I would want to submit soon so at least secondary app review is out of the way for them.

Any advice appreciated!

 

[WedgeDawg]

"do I still need to submit my secondaries within two weeks from receiving them"

I'm really curious about where this myth originated from. The two week "rule" is not a rule at all - it's a guideline to make sure you don't procrastinate.

To be perfectly honest, I think you should have waited another year to apply, because you don't even know what schools to target until you have your MCAT score and applying + studying for the MCAT is a recipe for failure or mediocrity on both fronts, particularly when your first score was a 25.

However, now that you have applied and there's nothing that can change that, your first priority should be your MCAT score. Without a significant improvement here (and I mean at least 5 points on the old scale), your very late application (results won't be out until late September at the earliest) will be DOA. Without your new score, the best you can hope for from schools is a hold pending further review (this is if you do not get an outright rejection with them only seeing your 25 MCAT).

Your best shot for coming out of this successfully is crushing the MCAT and then working like a madman for the month between taking your test and having your scores come out so that all secondaries are submitted before your scores are sent to schools.

Your other option is to cut your losses and not submit any secondaries, then reapply next cycle knowing what your MCAT scores are.

 

[DokterMom]

@WedgeDawg nailed it.

MCAT needs to be your first priority, because without a much better MCAT score, all of your other efforts will be wasted.