I am considering moving my MCAT test date back from August 9th to August 22. I know this is later on in the game but my biggest concern is maximizing my score. I have a high gpa at 3.9 with years of life experience and struggles. I have both some lab research experience as well as almost a year of volunteer work at a local hospital's ED. I began studying for my MCAT about 5 weeks ago but don't feel comfortable at the point I'm at right now. I plan on submitting my apps to about seven schools through the amcas within the next two weeks. Would taking the later MCAT test to maximize my score be more helpful or hurtful at getting an acceptance this year?
I took an August 20th MCAT and things turned out alright, although I'll give you my view on how it affected me. In my case I took pre-reqs right up through August, so it was about the earliest I could have taken it and still applied that year.
1. First, as the poster above said, I think what trumps everything is doing your best. It's not worth it to get a sub-par (for you) score that isn't reflective of your best efforts just because you want to apply early.
2. Recognize that your MCAT score won't be back until the end of September. To facilitate everything as early as possible, have all the rest of your application ready to go by that point so once your MCAT comes back you are ready for secondaries.
3. Realize this is a gamble, you won't get a chance to hold off your applications because of a bad MCAT score, so you'll be going into the application process "blind" so to speak. I would recommend applying very broadly at schools of all levels for that reason.
4. In my own personal case, I did end up getting interviews and acceptances, but the interviews all came after December/January, which I'm sure had to do with when I applied. This makes the rest of the fall after you send in your secondaries pretty nerve-racking. Also most of my interviews were for schools that got around 3-5k applications a year, so I've always wondered if my late app had anything to do with my lack of interviews at those schools that get 6-10k applicants etc. So from my own personal experience I would recommend targeting schools with lower numbers of applicants (you can try the other schools too, just make sure that they aren't all you are applying to) and also schools that don't have rolling admissions are your friend. Many schools give out all their spots early, but others only give out a certain number of spots each month or two, hence, applying late doesn't hurt you.
Hope that helps, like I said, if taking the MCAT in late August is when you are prepared, then that's really your only choice...
