I know some people tend to add schools in late Sept-Oct, even if they submit their initial AMCAS early on. Did anyone here who added schools late during their app cycle ultimately get IIs or acceptances at those schools?
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Latest SDN Article! Keeping Costs Low as a Pre-Med
Dude I'm headed to a place I didn't hit complete at until Nov. I was an idiot for waiting that late, the disadvantage is real, but yes you absolutely can still have luck with late additions.
What efle is leaving out, no doubt out of modesty, is that s/he is a superstar. So med schools will have room toward later in the cycle for several demographics:
superstars
state residents (for state schools)
students who fulfill the school's specific mission
If one is a median student or below, I can't recommend applying after Labor day.
applying meaning
Do you mean applying as in adding a school or completing a secondary? And just curious, how do you know all these stats? I recall you answering quite a number of my questions!
Completing and submitting secondary.applying meaning
Do you mean applying as in adding a school or completing a secondary? And just curious, how do you know all these stats? I recall you answering quite a number of my questions!
I know stats because I study MSAR, and not merely the median MCAT scores. being on SDN for 5+ years also helps. One gets a gestalt via experience; people who are in here for only a single app cycle miss out on this.
@Goro what is your take on the idea of secondary turnaround time affecting your chances/speed of interview invite? I've seen mixed opinions on this topic lately.
I'm not CatMan but this is an SDN myth. Your complete date is what matters, not your turnaround time. As long as you are complete everywhere in the next month or so, no interview invites will be lost.
Also I have no idea how the opinions are mixed/split here because I haven't seen any posts advocating for a two-week rule, which is an outright myth.
i think the exception is uc davis which gives you exactly one month after receiving the secondary.
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I think UCSD also says to send it back within a month.
The "two week turnaround" suggestion is crazy though. Unless you've been pre-writing since May or June, there is no way to turn them all around that fast.
Oh damn, what a stupid myth...and I found out that even with a little pre-writing it became insane to try to do it for some of the schools, even more so the longer ones.
Oh I'm not really talking about here, I've seen it elsewhere and have honestly seen more of the myth argument here, which is good to hear because we don't mess around on SDN.
The only caveat to this is many SDN see the complete date as the goal only and lose sight of the fact that they are piling on overlapping task/priorities, thus splitting their time, focus, energy among these items that each need a near 100% attention. So not only do you want to be done by the mythical complete date, but you also want to have produced a high quality and highly polished secondary for each school
Even the schools that have turn around times listed, virtually none will reject you simply because your application is past the date. These dates are primarily there to keep the applications flowing in so the evaluators and adcoms can have some planning for the workflow of thousands of documents coming in.
The myth of a 2 week turnaround is perpetuated by outside vendors like the one in the following video (starts at 13:30), who also happens to advertise on SDN.
Which is ironic because this site is the biggest proponent of not going to the Carib I have ever come across. Makes you wonder if they even read SDN
Some degree of truth though. Mayo Clinic (both of them) recommend turning in secondaries within 2 weeks in the e-mail they send out (not a hard deadline, but a recommendation).
My concern here is that applicants focus more on the deadline instead of the quality of the secondary, hence my harping on this issue