Nervous and confused

[Krupat]

Advertisement - Members don't see this ad

Hi everyone I submitted my AACOMAS on the 18th of October, and I applied to 28 schools out of the 31. I have a 3.4 ogpa and 3.3 sgpa and a 27N mcat (VR:8 PS:8 BS:11) I am really confused because I called schools and they say I am not late and not in bad shape but most ppl hear say October is too late. I was wondering if anyone could give me words of encouragement and if I still have a chance? I have good Extracurriculars: Volunteered in Costa Rica, Shadowed DO oncologist, Leadership positions in several student organizations, volunteered at a hospital, worked at a medical lab (spoke with insurance companies), and etc. My father passed away from cancer my sophomore year and that is my greatest/biggest/saddest experience. I just was hoping you guys could give me any advice. 🙁

 

[FrkyBgStok]

you will be fine. the problem with october is it is late because classes filling up and interviews are still going, so you are fighting for a shrinking number of seats. you have about average stats (slightly below) but because you applied very broadly, you should be ok. don't be selective with schools and you will likely get by with an acceptance, just take what you can get.

 

[DrWily]

Hi everyone I submitted my AACOMAS on the 18th of October, and I applied to 28 schools out of the 31. I have a 3.4 ogpa and 3.3 sgpa and a 27N mcat (VR:8 PS:8 BS:11) I am really confused because I called schools and they say I am not late and not in bad shape but most ppl hear say October is too late. I was wondering if anyone could give me words of encouragement and if I still have a chance? I have good Extracurriculars: Volunteered in Costa Rica, Shadowed DO oncologist, Leadership positions in several student organizations, volunteered at a hospital, worked at a medical lab (spoke with insurance companies), and etc. My father passed away from cancer my sophomore year and that is my greatest/biggest/saddest experience. I just was hoping you guys could give me any advice. 🙁

Hmmm... You will have to wait a while to get verified and all that jazz, but your stats are around average. You are disadvantaged because it's October, but anything can happen. SDN is for the neurotic med school candidates, so welcome aboard! I can see you getting some interviews, although they may be early next year (Jan-March). Like I said, its not impossible, but you are definitely "late" by SDN standards.

Look in each of the schools threads and start pre-writing your secondary essays. You will want those to be submitted ASAP.

 

[SRC1987]

Start the secondaries for the schools NOW so when the schools receive your application and send you a secondary you can submit it right away. You've applied to many schools so if you get a lot of secondaries it will be very time consuming (depending if they have a GPA/MCAT cut off).

Have your letters of evaluation sent out to Interfolio as soon as possible so you won't have to wait for that either.

The key is to have all this done and minimize the turn around time from when you receive a secondary to when you return it.

On each school's discussion the secondary questions are usually listed early in the forum.

Your interviews will end up later in the application cycle which isn't ideal, but it doesn't mean you don't have a chance.

Best of luck!

 

[ManBroDude]

Submitted AACOMAS 10/18
Verified/Released: ~11/25

Assuming you send all your letters now and have the essays all done for 28 schools (quite a feat, but you do have a month), you can submit same day you get them. Some schools will take 1-2 weeks from when you were released to actually send you a secondary, so that makes you wait even more. Finally, it takes them 3-5 weeks to make a decision whether to reject you or invite you to an inverview, so we're looking at Christmas/January when you get that news. You'll have to interview in January, but probably February, which is really pushing it late, as most of the seats in the class (180/200 i would guess) have already gone to people with your exact same stats and EC's but who had the prudence to submit in June and already interviewed and are already sitting on acceptances as we speak. So yes, you're at a disadvantage.

Never say never, though! Better get crackin' on those secondary essays!

 

[drgioiadds]

Hi everyone I submitted my AACOMAS on the 18th of October, and I applied to 28 schools out of the 31. I have a 3.4 ogpa and 3.3 sgpa and a 27N mcat (VR:8 PS:8 BS:11) I am really confused because I called schools and they say I am not late and not in bad shape but most ppl hear say October is too late. I was wondering if anyone could give me words of encouragement and if I still have a chance? I have good Extracurriculars: Volunteered in Costa Rica, Shadowed DO oncologist, Leadership positions in several student organizations, volunteered at a hospital, worked at a medical lab (spoke with insurance companies), and etc. My father passed away from cancer my sophomore year and that is my greatest/biggest/saddest experience. I just was hoping you guys could give me any advice. 🙁

You are not late. Here is some hope -- I'm international and completed last march and scored 2 interviews. March is Late. You'll be fine👍

 

[ksmajmudar]

Hi everyone I submitted my AACOMAS on the 18th of October, and I applied to 28 schools out of the 31. I have a 3.4 ogpa and 3.3 sgpa and a 27N mcat (VR:8 PS:8 BS:11) I am really confused because I called schools and they say I am not late and not in bad shape but most ppl hear say October is too late. I was wondering if anyone could give me words of encouragement and if I still have a chance? I have good Extracurriculars: Volunteered in Costa Rica, Shadowed DO oncologist, Leadership positions in several student organizations, volunteered at a hospital, worked at a medical lab (spoke with insurance companies), and etc. My father passed away from cancer my sophomore year and that is my greatest/biggest/saddest experience. I just was hoping you guys could give me any advice. 🙁

I think you will be accepted. Sounds like you have a compelling (and tragic, I'm very sorry to hear about the passing of your father) personal story to tell, alongside good stats and good ECs. I'm not sure if you'll necessarily get into your top choice school simply because there will be a lot more chance involved at this stage of the game as compared to back in june. Either way, I think you will get in SOMEWHERE - good luck, and be sure to keep us all updated on your situation!

[edit] And yes, as my esteemed colleagues here on SDN have advised, pre-write your secondaries.

 

[Iliketoytles]

I'm very sorry about your father. Hopefully you use that experience as motivation to do great things in the future. 👍

As to not be redundant on good advice, I agree with the above posters. Prewrite the secondaries. Don't worry about what people on SDN say about being "late". We all know SDNers submit their applications before AACOMAS even opens. 🙄

Kidding...

 

[Krupat]

Thank you guys! So should I send my rec letrs before my primary is verified? If so where can I find a list of what the schools want in terms of rec letrs?

Thank you!

 

[Iliketoytles]

Thank you guys! So should I send my rec letrs before my primary is verified? If so where can I find a list of what the schools want in terms of rec letrs?

Thank you!

For AACOMAS... you submit your recommendation letters with your secondaries (not with the primary as with other app services). It's best, especially if you're applying to many DO schools, to look into getting an interfolio account. This way, your letter writer can send their letter to interfolio (which is a 3rd party letter service)... and when you submit your secondaries, you can send your LOR electronically at that time as well. It's pretty cheap too, and a great investment for sure since it keeps everything really organized and simple.

As for what schools want... it's just a regular rec letter. You may want to visit each school's website individually for more details, but it's just a regular recommendation letter from your letter writer describing your character and desire to pursue medicine. 🙂

 

[Krupat]

So do I have to wait to be verified before I can use interfolio which already has my letrs. Can I send these letters out before the secondaries come in? Sorry guys for asking too many questions 🙁.

 

[Iliketoytles]

So do I have to wait to be verified before I can use interfolio which already has my letrs. Can I send these letters out before the secondaries come in? Sorry guys for asking too many questions 🙁.

It's fine! Interfolio is a separate system from AACOMAS, but they actually indirectly work together. So don't over complicate it... it's actually VERY simple!

You can ask your letter writers to send their LORs to interfolio whenever they are ready. Once Interfolio gets the letter, they will scan it and upload it onto your Interfolio account. Once it's uploaded, it can sit there for as long as you want, until your ready to send it. So yes, you can have your LORs and transcripts sent to Interfolio as early as you want. But you will send the LOR electronically when you complete your secondaries and submit them... which of course, will be after your application is verified (since you won't even receive secondaries until after your primary has been verified). Hope this makes sense! If not, let me know and I'll explain better.

 

[FrkyBgStok]

If you send them out too early, the schools may not have your info and may throw them. With interfolio you can submit to a vast majority of schools electronically, so they can have them the day after you receive a secondary offer. So I would just wait.

 

[ManBroDude]

Also, Interfolio doesn't charge to send the letters to the same school again. I've done this to multiple schools when I was afraid they lost my letters!

 

[DocEspana]

Pssh. I wasn't confirmed until the last possible day. Then I filled out secondaries the day they came. Got into a mess of schools. November is far from too late.