How early is early?

[medlover247]

I always here people saying that it is very important to apply early and this is what I wanted to do.

However, I'm retaking the MCAT in June and won't get my scores back till July. If I submit my primary application and just send them my scores when I get them will I be okay?

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[Isoprop]

i believe so but july is still early.

 

[rwessinger23]

You can do the primary w/out your mcat scores. go ahead and have it done and turned in and they will hold it until you send your scores. that's what I did. just to have the primary in and ready. i think that opens in june. and a LOT of people already have it done, they are just waiting to hit that submit button the second it opens. it just depends on how competitive you are i guess... I had a low MCAT, so I wanted to get my stuff in ASAP to increase my chances.

 

[Rotinaj1985]

Alternatively, have everything filled out but only select your safety school at first, and immediately after getting your results add all your other schools. This way you save money if you don't get the highest MCAT scores, but also gives you time to get it done properly and validated.

 

[LizzyM]

My team begins reading applications around August 15 so you'd want your secondaries & letters submitted then to be the "early bird". I'm sure someone has some insights on how early you need to submit the AMCAS and transcripts to get your primary applications to the schools by mid-July.

 

[45408]

If your practice scores are all good, you can fill it all out in advance and just have the schools wait for your MCAT scores. July would still be pretty early, yes, as long as you turned your secondaries around pretty quickly (don't wait longer than two weeks after you get it).

If your practice scores aren't that great, then this is sound advice:

Alternatively, have everything filled out but only select your safety school at first, and immediately after getting your results add all your other schools. This way you save money if you don't get the highest MCAT scores, but also gives you time to get it done properly and validated.

 

[SilkyDelicious]

So, are you asking just when you should submit the primary, or when you should start working on it?

You should start working on it now if you have the time. I can't tell you how many times I wrote and re-wrote my personal statement, but I know it was at least like 10. And I feel it was really a difference maker in getting me a few great interviews. Also if you have a decent premed adviser at your school make sure to schedule time with them now as well, cause this is right about when he/she will start to get the busiest and you can't just show up the day before you're submitting and hope they can give you much real input. Plus I feel like they're more receptive to students they know and have met with a few times and willing to help out those students more. Like I was in South America for all of May and finished my primary stuff while I was there and swapped emails with my adviser at least once a week to get her feedback. These people are just like admissions officers in that they read 100s of these apps every year, so they can give you a ton of help if you are really serious and stay on top of things.

In terms of submitting it, I'm completely guessing here, but I imagine through July is when AMCAS starts getting the highest volume of submissions and starts backing up a little so it may take longer to get verified. I know people that submitted in late July and it took almost 6 weeks to get verified, so keep that in mind. I'd say that to get it verified and ready to go by mid-July you'd probably want to submit no later than June 20-25th.

For this year, the earliest date was June 5th (I'm pretty sure on these dates though give or take 1/2 days...it is still early on Monday) to submit, though AMCAS did not send any of the applications to schools until June 20th, so as long as you were verified by June 20th you were among the earliest possible applications. I submitted like June 10th and was verified the 16th.

I know from personal experience the importance of applying early. Last year I was submitting secondaries at the deadlines and I had 1 interview at a school I really did not even want to go to. Well you can look at my MDapps for this year, but obviously a huge difference, and my GPA actually lowered like .03 and I did not retake the MCAT. All that changed was a few activities and I obviously re-wrote everything. I just feel like the perfect example of how much of a difference applying early makes. So good luck with everything

 

[SilkyDelicious]

Same goes for letters of rec and transcripts. Submit the transcripts as early as possible. My school was really well organized and I just had to go online and click a few buttons to submit anything, so make sure you know exactly how your school works, and if they have an online rec letter service because that makes it a lot easier for you and your letter writers.