No II's 2 weeks from Thanksgiving (complete mid August/September)
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OK I have to ask. Does "complete" mean having all primaries sent in?
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To be "complete" happens once secondaries, fees, CASPer, MCAT scores, LORs etc are all in. You should have gotten an email from the school stating that you were complete.
LOL I'm several years away from applying. I'm just curious because I see the word thrown around here on SDN. Thank you for clearing that up for me.
EMS0821
Full Member
Only you would know about your own red flags, but your stats and school choices seem pretty good to me, and your MCAT shouldn't be holding you back. I wouldn't give up yet, but definitely keep working to improve your application in any way you can and if you need to reapply add in DO schools.
I think that you have a good list and you still should be patient. You can get an II tomorrow, or in March!
You should always be working on Plan B.
I continuing volunteering with LGBT communities. Alas, I don't know if "I just started this" types uof updates will be of any help here.
Walk the walk and don't merely talk the talk. You'd be surprised how many unethical capplicants magically discover their Native American or Hispanic heritage upon application to med school, and it wouldn't surprise me if these same types of people are "coming out" at app time as well.
As always, thanks for the perspective and reality check @gonnif
IF you wish to save a year in your process of becoming a doctor, and are OK with both learning OMM/OMT AND having 50-50 odds that you'll end up in Primary Care, it is NOT too late for a DO app. You'll help your app by shadowing a DO or getting a LOR from one. And so help me, if your retake a perfectly good MCAT, I'll reach through the electrons and smack you upside the head!
Forget the CA resident business. CA is the exporter of medical students. I think that no one should retake a 507 or higher without going through one app cycle.
IF one is boning for a CA school, then a retake might be reasonable for someone who has a < 509. Keep in mind that AMCAS recommends that scores be averaged. The best best thing is to take the MCAT once and do well.
USC and UCSF reward reinvention, but an MCAT of 515+ is needed, in my view.
Your 512 isn't going to keep you out of med school. I think that you should be at peace with going to an MD school outside of CA, or going to Western or Touro-CA if you wish to stay in state.
Thanksgiving is more than 2 weeks away and it is early this year. For the love of all that is holy, enjoy the next 3 weeks and worry about this on November 29th. Everything slows down leading up to AAMC annual meeting. Once everyone is back to their desks, things get moving again, then slow down for Thanksgiving. You have 26 applications out there... it just takes one interview and that can happen sometime in the next 4 months! Be patient.
Let us say "Amen."
With this, do you mean schools extending an II can happen within the next four months, or the applicant attending the II can happen? Do schools typically extend interview invites after the new year? Or do they usually extend the interview invites now but schedule the date after the new year? Sorry if this question is a little confusing!
I wonder about this because there are many people applying to 20+ schools who are getting multiple interviews and getting multiple admissions. I would think that some of the lower tier schools are going to interview people who will not attend their school, and they will have an unforeseen number of open spots heading into March. For example, I know some people who interviewed at lower-tier schools also interviewing at some upper/middle tier. They will choose the upper tier schools over the lower tier and there will be more than the expected number of spots available.
My stats are not as good as OP, but I have one II. I currently have zero R's, but I know some of the schools I applied to rejected other applicants (some with similar stats to mine). I feel like they are on the fence about my application, and I am hopeful for more.
Are there numbers concerning II's, when applicants get them, how many a person with one II by Nov 1st will get by the end of the cycle, etc. Data comforts me more than hearsay.
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SkinnyPremed
New Member
I was complete mid/ end of August and I didn’t get my first II until mid November and ended up with 5. You really never knowwwww. Hang in there, stay positive and find something to distract yourself with!!
A few years ago, a state that was in financial difficulty interviewed OOS applicants who were in the area for college in June to bulk up the class with OOS students who would pay OOS tuition. This year, with no clue as to where folks are holding offers, schools may find that they have empty seats and shrunken waitlists when the music stops on May 1. It is entirely possible that some interview invites will come very late in the season. Hang in there and find something distracting to do until then.
Welcome to our world of DO school admissions! This has what we've had to deal with for years.
Does this mean that application update during the cycle (new class grades, publications, etc) will play a stronger effect since the wait is longer? I know that these updates usually won't overturn the application significantly, but would these updates be helpful if we are in silent or post-secondary "hold"?
So.. still early to freak out although thanksgiving is right around the corner?
Could you describe generally what a “whiny” update is? When I wrote mine, I gave the info you’d find on an amcas experience and then a paragraph of why it was meaningful to me/what I’ve learned
all updates are by definition whiny unless they are related to new publications or national awards.
This thread is more than 10 days old. Freak out on November 29th. In the meantime, enjoy some holiday time with people you love.
What if you don’t love anyone? Jk
Now is the time to freak out. 
Just kidding! Hang in there!
Just kidding! Hang in there!
Now is the time to freak out.
Just kidding! Hang in there!
Currently waiting to get off work so I can go home and freak out bc no IIs for me still
Give it until the new year. If no news by then, I would say to think hard about your plan B (not to include retaking the MCAT unless there's a specific school in California that you want to attend). Double check for spelling errors in your primary and secondary essays + EC descriptions. Have people read your secondary essays to see if there are any flags there.Currently waiting to get off work so I can go home and freak out bc no IIs for me still
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I just thought December would be a more sparse II month given the upcoming holidays but I guess I wouldn't mind putting off freaking out for a little while longer! And I had 5+ medical students read my PS and give solid feedback and my secondaries also all received feedback so I'm not really sure.
The only red flags I can think of is my 125 in Chem/Phys, a not so solid LOR from a professor (wasn't too close to many profs bc I didn't go to OH and went to a larger school), and/or writing about my coming out experience and desire to work with LGBT patients without volunteering with the LGBT population (a new activity I just started).
Those don't seem like real flags (LGBTQ is not ever a flag) when you look at the complete package. I think even January 31st should suffice as the new freak out date considering all of the information listed in the above posts from the experts!
