Got MCAT score. Apply now or wait a year?

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deep122

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Hey guys. Here's my situation. I sent in my AMCAS on August 9th, which is pretty late. It hasn't even been verified actually. I'm also going abroad in a week and won't be back until the end of October, so even when I get secondaries, I wouldn't necessarily be able to complete them quickly. My initial plan, knowing these details, was to just apply to my state school, which I considered my number one choice at the time (mostly because it would save me a significant amount of cash, though it is also a good school). However, I just got my MCAT score and got a 36, so I might have a shot at some higher ranked schools. I am applying with a 3.8 cumulative and science gpa, but with average extracurriculars and letters of recommendation. I think I might have a decent shot at getting into my state school this year, but my other option is to take two years off and really go all out with my application next cycle (I graduated this past year). A med student advised me to take the two years and see if I get any scholarships anywhere or get into a top 20 school.

Personally, I'm not too concerned with the prestige of a school and am more concerned about the cost, but this med student told me not to make that my primary consideration. I read that the name of your medical school only plays a small part in which residencies you can get, but this med student says it can be pretty important. Also, I was under the impression that scholarships were few and far between when it came to medical schools. If anyone has any advice on what I should do, that would be really great.
 
I would recommend to apply to your top schools(3 or so) because worst case scenario you don't get in this go-round and then end up in your alternative route that you seem to be favoring anyway. Your potential loss here is only a few hundred dollars.

I think the process of holding off and hoping to get scholarships is a bad idea. 1) It's never a for sure thing. 2) You have to factor in how much that "limbo" year is going to cost you.

Personally, I would rather get into an alright medical school and continue the long haul rather than taking a year off in hopes that something pans out.
 
I would wait and apply later if I were you, for 3 reasons.

1) Applying to less than 5 schools is a waste of time and money. Even with your MCAT, there are no guarantees in this game, so you ought to cast a wider net, otherwise...

2) you will be a reapplicant. Which is OK, but common wisdom says that you'd rather put out one stellar application than 2 good ones. I am speaking as a person who put out 2 good ones - this application game gets real old, real fast.

3) You are pretty late to the ball. As you know, admissions are rolling for the most part, so you'd be better off preparing your application for next year and getting it in June 2012.

Good luck to you!
 
Apply now OP.

If your biggest concern is cost, you'll waste a year in hopes of
1. getting in to a 'top' school and
2. That top school giving you a scholarship.

The chance you have to start school summer of 2012 is worth the few hundred dollars and 'risking' being a re-applicant.
 
I'm applying this cycle and I see people who are just recently applying still getting secondaries and interviews. Its definitely not too late to apply now. But if you do, make sure your work well on your apps and don't rush it if it means an inferior quality.
 
deep122 said:
Pretty divided opinion it seems.
Click to expand...

OP... do not apply now. What's the rush???

Apply EARLY next year. Work on making your app super awesome for the next 6+ months.

Submit on June 1st, get interviews early. Then attain acceptance in October? Sounds like a win to me.
 
CodeBlu said:
OP... do not apply now. What's the rush???

Apply EARLY next year. Work on making your app super awesome for the next 6+ months.

Submit on June 1st, get interviews early. Then attain acceptance in October? Sounds like a win to me.
Click to expand...

But.. but.. Acceptance in May 2012 > acceptance in October 2012
:whistle:
 
Listen to CodeBlu, he knows everything 🙂 Write a pros and cons list and you will easily see that applying next year is more to your advantage. Don't stress your time abroad by being swamped with secondaries. Rushing to submit = sloppy secondaries. Enjoy your time abroad and do it for next year.

EDIT: P.s. Congrats on your MCAT score 😀
 
Last edited:
Next year you are going to be one hot applicant! 🙂
 
AymAyzing said:
Listen to CodeBlu, he knows everything 🙂 Write a pros and cons list and you will easily see that applying next year is more to your advantage. Don't stress your time abroad by being swamped with secondaries. Rushing to submit = sloppy secondaries. Enjoy your time abroad and do it for next year.
Click to expand...

False! But thank you.

Trust me though. Submitting an app now... chances are you'd get a few interviews and maybe even an acceptance. But it'll cause you a lot of stress, and it might not be the school you want to go to. Apply early, apply broadly. Great stats will get you in the door.
 
Thanks for the advice guys. I'm definitely leaning towards applying next cycle. Also, I've heard conflicting opinions on the impact of extracurriculars. I've looked at some MDApplicant pages and it seems like many of them have such incredible extracurriculars (in addition to great GPA and MCAT) and are still getting rejected from those top schools. However, I have also read from some people that as long as you have the numbers, average extracurriculars will be fine (for top schools). I imagine it varies from school to school, but I was under the impression that extracurriculars were very very important. Is this not the case?
 
deep122 said:
Thanks for the advice guys. I'm definitely leaning towards applying next cycle. Also, I've heard conflicting opinions on the impact of extracurriculars. I've looked at some MDApplicant pages and it seems like many of them have such incredible extracurriculars (in addition to great GPA and MCAT) and are still getting rejected from those top schools. However, I have also read from some people that as long as you have the numbers, average extracurriculars will be fine (for top schools). I imagine it varies from school to school, but I was under the impression that extracurriculars were very very important. Is this not the case?
Click to expand...
Like anything else, it depends on the school, the applicant, etc. There is also the possibility that one of the excellent candidates rejected had a bad LOR, had poorly written essays, didn't interview well, etc. Admissions is a black box at each school you apply to, and is better looked at as a game of chance than a formula where "x+y+z=accepted, x+y+z-1=rejected". Each aspect that is important for admission, gpa, mcat, lor's, essays, EC's, etc. can increase or decrease your chances based on whether it is above or below average. Increase what you can, where you can, and you increase your odds, regardless of where you apply. Good luck.
 
You have strong stats, apply this year and you will get in. No need to wait.
 
If you don't want to wait and you don't mind attending your state school, I say go for it! I turned in a sloppy application, late and barely made it into my state schools but made it nonetheless and I'm very happy with my decision. You'll also save some money by going to your state school. Plus you already had a year off, which I hope you've been enjoying.
 
You lose out 100% on the opportunities you don't take. Would it be completely impossible for you to do those top tier secondaries while on break? Would you have an internet connection?

Also, couldn't you write them now? I'm pretty sure the prompts are up on the school specific thread.
 
Eric01 said:
You lose out 100% on the opportunities you don't take. Would it be completely impossible for you to do those top tier secondaries while on break? Would you have an internet connection?

Also, couldn't you write them now? I'm pretty sure the prompts are up on the school specific thread.
Click to expand...

For every opportunity you take, you also lose out on the alternative opportunities you didn't take. 😛

The key is to do a proper cost-benefit analysis!
 
I would apply to at least 5 schools this year, there are no guarantees... That being said, there will be no guarantees in two years either. So is it worth waiting to apply in two years taking two years off of your life, adding two years of inevitable tution increases? Probably not - and, the 'prestige' of your medical school matters relatively little come match day. Your private loans, on the other hand, will be on your shoulders for 10+ years. Also, AOA membership is based on percentile rank in your class, so it actually would behoove you to kick ass at a state school than do 'average' at a top tier school. All of the previous, of course, is my own opinion.

Go for it this year and hope for the best! You can always re-apply.
 
Dude, you're late in the app cycle so i'd just wait a year and build up some extra EC's and apply early next year. you've got solid stats and will definitely get in somewhere pretty damn good next year if you apply early.

good luck.
 
As I see it, you have a decent chance if you apply now or you have pretty great chances if you apply early next year.

I would (did) spend the year improving your app and submit early next year to give yourself better chances. :luck:
 
A good number of my classmates applied late. I like the option of applying to your favorite schools and seeing what happens.

This assumes:
You have the money to apply twice if necessary
You have your PS written and LOR's ready (I'm assuming so since you're verified now?)

Also, consider applying next year, not in two.

Keep in mind, every year you delay med school is a year of future income you deprive yourself. $150,000+/yr.
 
Thanks for all the advice. This is definitely a tough decision for me. It seems like it really just comes down to where and when I want to go to medical school. Applying this year or the next can result in success. I'm not entirely sure what I will end up doing, but I think I'm leaning towards withdrawing my application this year and applying the next cycle. I figure, this way I can beef up my application a bit more, maybe make some money to pay for medical school, and really assess all my options without rushing the process. Decisions decisions.
 
Two things. 1) it depends on your state of residence. California isn't the same as a lot of smaller states 2) if you do decide to apply this year, I wouldn't limit yourself to 3 or 5 schools. If you're going to apply, you might as well go for it and send applications to a bunch of schools. There are no guarantees, and the more schools the greater your chance of getting an acceptance
 
your AMCAS is already in. Go through with the application, the stats are good. Unless there is no way you would be able to get the secondaries back until november...
 
FlowRate said:
A good number of my classmates applied late. I like the option of applying to your favorite schools and seeing what happens.

This assumes:
You have the money to apply twice if necessary
You have your PS written and LOR's ready (I'm assuming so since you're verified now?)

Also, consider applying next year, not in two.

Keep in mind, every year you delay med school is a year of future income you deprive yourself. $150,000+/yr.
Click to expand...

However, it's been proposed and practically confirmed (subjectively) that you experience life at an accelerate rate relatively to younger ages, as you age. Therefore, youth is best savored by the young.

http://www.chronos.msu.ru/EREPORTS/gruber_subjective.pdf In two meta-analyses of prospective time, duration-judgment exhibited a
nonmonotonic (U-shaped) function over the lifespan, opposite of what the
psychological hypotheses predicted. However, in adult retrospective time
studies, duration judgment declined with age, thereby providing some support
for the association between subjective time and information-processing rates.


At the age of 65, working 1 more year before retiring at 66 or 67 doesn't really matter, does it?
 
deep122 said:
I'm not too concerned with the prestige of a school and am more concerned about the cost.
Click to expand...

As an MS4 currently applying to residency, I will tell you to worry about a medical school's prestige. Top residency programs want residents from top name schools. A middle of the road applicant from a top school has a better chance than a top applicant from a mediocre school.
Today you might not want to go to a top name program in a competitive specialty. Tomorrow that might change.
Don't put yourself out of that market before you start. If you go to top school you can still apply for mediocre residency spots.
I am confident I will still match well, I have worked hard and I will find a residency program that is a good fit. But in hindsight, I wish I had applied to medical school in June rather than November. I would have had a chance to attend a better regarded school.
 
OP depending on how ur ECs and letters and the rest of ur app look you could apply now... i had a friend back in college apply with a 32 mcat in october and got in pretty quickly once he was verified. Schools interview into the spring and they accept more people than they expect to matriculate and its true that its not "early" but I also don't think its late and with that high mcat score you will def get in somewhere barring your not a weirdo come interview time. At the same time if you don't care to take a year off (and btw u need to be productive during that year, sitting on ur @$s will look bad bc they will ask what u did during ur gap year) and u wanna go to top programs (and again, everyone applying to harvard columbia etc has 35 mcat so u need something special to stand out) then take the year off and wait to june.
 
deep122 said:
Hey guys. Here's my situation. I sent in my AMCAS on August 9th, which is pretty late. It hasn't even been verified actually. I'm also going abroad in a week and won't be back until the end of October, so even when I get secondaries, I wouldn't necessarily be able to complete them quickly. My initial plan, knowing these details, was to just apply to my state school, which I considered my number one choice at the time (mostly because it would save me a significant amount of cash, though it is also a good school). However, I just got my MCAT score and got a 36, so I might have a shot at some higher ranked schools. I am applying with a 3.8 cumulative and science gpa, but with average extracurriculars and letters of recommendation. I think I might have a decent shot at getting into my state school this year, but my other option is to take two years off and really go all out with my application next cycle (I graduated this past year). A med student advised me to take the two years and see if I get any scholarships anywhere or get into a top 20 school.

Personally, I'm not too concerned with the prestige of a school and am more concerned about the cost, but this med student told me not to make that my primary consideration. I read that the name of your medical school only plays a small part in which residencies you can get, but this med student says it can be pretty important. Also, I was under the impression that scholarships were few and far between when it came to medical schools. If anyone has any advice on what I should do, that would be really great.
Click to expand...

You don't have to be Gandhi to apply to medical schools. You have great stats (3.8/36). There's internet all over the world and there's literally nothing stopping you from working on secondaries while abroad, so that's a null issue. Throw your net out there to at least 5 schools (more is better, especially considering your late app). Rock your December interviews, get accepted, move on, and do some more traveling.

Don't let the SDN-ers get you down. They have spots for good applicants like yourself all the way through April. There's no point in holding out for 2 years for scholarships. Either you get them or you don't, your grades aren't going to change, and I doubt any school is going to make it rain on you because you did one or two extra EC's from now until then.
 
You can only hope some other complicating factor doesn't present itself next year. I say don't put off today for what may be tomorrow.
 
deep122 said:
Hey guys. Here's my situation. I sent in my AMCAS on August 9th, which is pretty late. It hasn't even been verified actually. I'm also going abroad in a week and won't be back until the end of October, so even when I get secondaries, I wouldn't necessarily be able to complete them quickly. My initial plan, knowing these details, was to just apply to my state school, which I considered my number one choice at the time (mostly because it would save me a significant amount of cash, though it is also a good school). However, I just got my MCAT score and got a 36, so I might have a shot at some higher ranked schools. I am applying with a 3.8 cumulative and science gpa, but with average extracurriculars and letters of recommendation. I think I might have a decent shot at getting into my state school this year, but my other option is to take two years off and really go all out with my application next cycle (I graduated this past year). A med student advised me to take the two years and see if I get any scholarships anywhere or get into a top 20 school.

Personally, I'm not too concerned with the prestige of a school and am more concerned about the cost, but this med student told me not to make that my primary consideration. I read that the name of your medical school only plays a small part in which residencies you can get, but this med student says it can be pretty important. Also, I was under the impression that scholarships were few and far between when it came to medical schools. If anyone has any advice on what I should do, that would be really great.
Click to expand...

You have great numbers but I think you'd be selling yourself short to apply now as it is late AND you have mediocre ECs and LORs. ("Average" is mediocre in this game.) Take a year and bring those ECs up to superior. Make a difference in your school/community/state and get LORs that match your stats. Then you might end up w/ schools offering some lucrative financial assistant (i.e., scholarships) and/or end up at a much better school. About 8% of 45/4.0s don't get in each year. There's a reason for that. Get the rest of your app up to par. You don't want to be a reapplicant or, perhaps worse, end up at a school you really don't want to attend because you decided to just dive in without proper preparation.
 
dannydickman said:
You don't have to be Gandhi to apply to medical schools. You have great stats (3.8/36). There's internet all over the world and there's literally nothing stopping you from working on secondaries while abroad, so that's a null issue. Throw your net out there to at least 5 schools (more is better, especially considering your late app). Rock your December interviews, get accepted, move on, and do some more traveling.

Don't let the SDN-ers get you down. They have spots for good applicants like yourself all the way through April. There's no point in holding out for 2 years for scholarships. Either you get them or you don't, your grades aren't going to change, and I doubt any school is going to make it rain on you because you did one or two extra EC's from now until then.
Click to expand...

This is a good post.

music2doc said:
You have great numbers but I think you'd be selling yourself short to apply now as it is late AND you have mediocre ECs and LORs. ("Average" is mediocre in this game.) Take a year and bring those ECs up to superior. Make a difference in your school/community/state and get LORs that match your stats. Then you might end up w/ schools offering some lucrative financial assistant (i.e., scholarships) and/or end up at a much better school. About 8% of 45/4.0s don't get in each year. There's a reason for that. Get the rest of your app up to par. You don't want to be a reapplicant or, perhaps worse, end up at a school you really don't want to attend because you decided to just dive in without proper preparation.
Click to expand...

This is a bad post.
 
FlowRate said:
This is a bad post.
Click to expand...

I dunno... doesn't it depend on his goals? Why settle for less just b/c you were late? An extra year and a better career.... It all depends on your priorities.
 
music2doc said:
I dunno... doesn't it depend on his goals? Why settle for less just b/c you were late? An extra year and a better career.... It all depends on your priorities.
Click to expand...
OP could have secondaries in by 1 Oct and Dec/Jan interviews. As long as he's not set on totally rolling schools, he may stand a chance. I still like the "choose the ones you REALLY want and if you fail, apply broadly next year" idea. Nothing to lose but a few hundred dollars that he might have lost next year anyway.
 
sector9 said:
I think it's hard to give advice without knowing more about these ECs
Click to expand...

Very true.

That and what "average LORs" really mean. When I hear "average" with "LOR" I usually cringe. You want your LORs to be described as (at minimum) "strong" or (preferably) "stellar" or "absolutely outstanding" not "average."

As for ECs, "average" could mean anything.... Don't get me wrong, numbers are a very important piece and generally are what get you the interview at most places, but the other stuff is what gets you in at many schools.
 
I ended up withdrawing my AMCAS application. I really didn't want to deal with the application process while I was abroad and I hadn't even thought about which schools I wanted to apply to (outside of my state school). All in all, I was pretty unprepared to apply this cycle.

By the way, my ECs are pretty typical: a bit of volunteering, worked in a few labs (didn't really do research; was basically just an assistant), went abroad (no where exotic) and worked with people recovering from mental illnesses, help out with my cultural organization, have some hobbies, was secretary in a club. Nothing too fancy.

I describe my recommendations as average, because I didn't really know most of my writers very well (outside of one). However, during my mock interview, the interviewer said that the letters spoke highly of me, which is a good sign about their quality I guess.
 
Thanks for the update, it's always lame when people don't give closure to their stories. That's a mature decision. If you aren't ready, then you shouldn't force it. You will be hearing back from med schools a year later but you have extra time to strengthen your application and that's not a bad thing. I hope you enjoy your time abroad.
 
ah you've made your decision..but if I were you..I'd have just applied..I've nothing to lose except a few hundred bucks or a little more possibly? And who is to tell you wouldn't have gotten the scholarship or anything else you were looking for?
 
Innovative said:
ah you've made your decision..but if I were you..I'd have just applied..I've nothing to lose except a few hundred bucks or a little more possibly? And who is to tell you wouldn't have gotten the scholarship or anything else you were looking for?
Click to expand...

I think I probably could have gotten into a school this cycle, but I figured that I worked so hard to do well on the MCAT that I should take the application process just as seriously. Who knows, I might still end up at my state school, but I'd like it to be a fully informed decision. Otherwise, I would just wonder "what if...?"
 
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