How early should I apply?

apply as early as possible it's easier that way! because the schools have rolling admissions, it gets more competitive as it gets closer to the deadline.

most schools start accepting applications in august/september, so check the websites of each school you wish to apply to, to find out when they start accepting. you can also have the school send you a hard copy of an application so that you can start working on it/see what it looks like, but applying through the web was easier for me

as far as LOR, it's always good to have more, than less. the key is to have the REQUIRED letters (optometrist, professors, etc.) so be sure to check what the school requires, as they vary among schools. Also, some schools will tell you that they will only look at the required letters, and if you submit any more, they will not bother to look at them. it's different for each school, so just speak to an admissions officer and they'll let you know!

Good Luck!

 

As hokulele has already said, the earlier the better. I just wanted to add that even if you don't have all of your requirements just yet, it is possible to apply and even get an interview. Then the school usually will just wait until your OAT results come in or until your end of semester marks are official or whatever. So, apply as soon as you can.

Good luck!

 

As ODisme and hokulele said, apply as early as possible. Spend the summer getting all of your requirements together so that when the applications become available, you are ready to go.

On the LOR requirement, I would consider only sending in the number of letters that each school asks for. If you want, go ahead and ask the extra letters from professors or doctors, and put them off to the side as a just in case. If possible, try and make a judgement call on who is going to give you the best letter. (Who knows you better? Who has seen your work more? Which class did you do better in? Etc.) Try and pick out the strongest letter in each category, and pehaps let the school know that you have others if they are needed. If you send a bunch in at once, the school could very well pick off the X number of letters they want, and chuck out the others. You should do the picking for them!

Good luck!