Help determining if friend should apply this cycle

[croez]

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My friend is currently scheduled to take her MCAT on July 28th, which means she wouldn't receive her score back until August 18th. Assuming she's able to prewrite her secondaries and submit all of her secondaries by mid September, would that be too late to apply this cycle, or should she postpone and apply next cycle?

She did a post-bac, and with the post-bac, her GPA is a 3.68, sGPA 3.45. Scoring ~510s on her AAMC FL practice tests.

 

[sasukeuchiha33]

Take my advice with a grain of salt, but as long as your friend is efficient with getting secondaries turned around and does a lot of pre-writing, I think she'll be good for this cycle. I know there are differing opinions on this, but just by the look of things it seems like this cycle is going to be a little less competitive with subsequent cycles being more competitive. Her MCAT date is fine because of this weird screwed up cycle that we're in, and even if we weren't dealing with COVID it honestly still wouldn't be that late. Tell her to go for it and to make sure everything in her app is killer.

 

[candbgirl]

Take my advice with a grain of salt, but as long as your friend is efficient with getting secondaries turned around and does a lot of pre-writing, I think she'll be good for this cycle. I know there are differing opinions on this, but just by the look of things it seems like this cycle is going to be a little less competitive with subsequent cycles being more competitive. Her MCAT date is fine because of this weird screwed up cycle that we're in, and even if we weren't dealing with COVID it honestly still wouldn't be that late. Tell her to go for it and to make sure everything in her app is killer.

What makes you say most of this, especially the thing about this cycle being a little less competitive?

 

[candbgirl]

Has she submitted her primary to one school to get it verified? Nobody can tell you if she should wait or apply because we have no idea of the rest of her application-ECs etc! Does she have her letters? Have her make her own account so she can share what’s in her application and eventually her MCAT. People will be happy to help her out!

 

[penguinsfan71]

but just by the look of things it seems like this cycle is going to be a little less competitive with subsequent cycles being more competitive.

If anything, this cycle is shaping up to be more competitive than a regular cycle. AMCAS reported an increase in submissions and said that they're on pace to receive twice as many transcripts for processing than usual.

 

[9blade]

More applications doesn't mean better applications. I know 6 people to be exact who weren't planning on applying this year but are applying anyway because some schools are not looking at the MCAT. They are scribes and were planning on applying next cycle. There might be more people shooting their shots this year bc this cycle is a **** show, but I don't think it means that the quality is better this year. It might be. Idk. Just saying that more numbers doesn't necessarily mean tougher cycle.

 

[penguinsfan71]

More applications doesn't mean better applications. I know 6 people to be exact who weren't planning on applying this year but are applying anyway because some schools are not looking at the MCAT. They are scribes and were planning on applying next cycle. There might be more people shooting their shots this year bc this cycle is a **** show, but I don't think it means that the quality is better this year. It might be. Idk. Just saying that more numbers doesn't necessarily mean tougher cycle.

Are your friends applying to Stanford only? That's the only school that's gone MCAT optional so far.

 

[9blade]

Are your friends applying to Stanford only? That's the only school that's gone MCAT optional so far.

That's what I thought at first. I think they said they're applying to all Cali schools. I wasn't aware if all of them said there was no MCAT required. As far as I know, it's only Stanford. Not sure.

 

[Goro]

My friend is currently scheduled to take her MCAT on July 28th, which means she wouldn't receive her score back until August 18th. Assuming she's able to prewrite her secondaries and submit all of her secondaries by mid September, would that be too late to apply this cycle, or should she postpone and apply next cycle?

She did a post-bac, and with the post-bac, her GPA is a 3.68, sGPA 3.45. Scoring ~510s on her AAMC FL practice tests.

She'll be fine for this cycle

 

[penguinsfan71]

That's what I thought at first. I think they said they're applying to all Cali schools. I wasn't aware if all of them said there was no MCAT required. As far as I know, it's only Stanford. Not sure.

Yeah it's only Stanford (so far). The UC schools have said they'll send secondaries/interview invites without an MCAT score but once accepted you still have to take it.

 

[sasukeuchiha33]

If anything, this cycle is shaping up to be more competitive than a regular cycle. AMCAS reported an increase in submissions and said that they're on pace to receive twice as many transcripts for processing than usual.

they didn't say that had more submissions, they said they had more people start filling out AMCAS within a certain time frame (I believe it was 3 weeks). more people starting to fill out AMCAS =/= more apps for the cycle. also, the transcript submissions doesn't really mean much either given the total chaotic fritz that school registrar offices are in and how limited their options are in terms of ways to get transcripts to AAMC that don't involve direct mailing. Both things can be explained and neither justifies a more competitive cycle by any means.

 

[penguinsfan71]

they didn't say that had more submissions, they said they had more people start filling out AMCAS within a certain time frame (I believe it was 3 weeks). more people starting to fill out AMCAS =/= more apps for the cycle. also, the transcript submissions doesn't really mean much either given the total chaotic fritz that school registrar offices are in and how limited their options are in terms of ways to get transcripts to AAMC that don't involve direct mailing. Both things can be explained and neither justifies a more competitive cycle by any means.

I'm not saying that this cycle will definitely be more competitive, just that the increased number of submissions/transcripts suggests that it could be. I doubt it will be less competitive.

 

[sasukeuchiha33]

I'm not saying that this cycle will definitely be more competitive, just that the increased number of submissions/transcripts suggests that it could be. I doubt it will be less competitive.

The thing is though sites like medschoolcoach are saying that AAMC will ultimately receive almost 10k fewer applications than usual. Idk, it's difficult and I don't know whom to listen to. There are people like you who are saying that this cycle will likely be more competitive, but there are also others on here suggesting that it will be the same or less competitive. Ugh this entire thing is a total crapshoot.

 

[penguinsfan71]

The thing is though sites like medschoolcoach are saying that AAMC will ultimately receive almost 10k fewer applications than usual. Idk, it's difficult and I don't know whom to listen to. There are people like you who are saying that this cycle will likely be more competitive, but there are also others on here suggesting that it will be the same or less competitive. Ugh this entire thing is a total crapshoot.

Yeah honestly I don't know how it'll shake out. I hadn't heard that they were expecting less applications.