PSA: Do NOT submit your application on May 27th!!

[Moko]

PSA:

If you are planning to submit your application on May 27th, do not do it! Take the next several days to review your application word by word and line by line to make sure that there are no silly mistakes or typos. For good measure, check your application twice or even thrice! Does an essay make you sound arrogant, overconfident, negative, or unconfident? Did you accidentally forget to paste in an essay? If so, now is your last chance to change it. Once you hit “Submit”, that is it. You are stuck with this application for the rest of the cycle. There is no option to revise your application post-submission; and should you unintentionally withdraw your application, you will NOT be able to apply again this year. READ: your cycle will be over before it even began. Yes, this has happened before.

Every year we see applicants rush to submit their applications. They subsequently notice mistakes or realize that they could have written a much better essay had they given themselves a couple extra weeks. From the reviewer standpoint, we receive many applications that read like they were written the night before. Do not let this be you.

Applying to medical school is not a race. Applications are not necessarily reviewed in the order they are received. Being verified by June 1st will also literally have zero impact on your chances as completed applications are not transmitted to schools until June 25th. Realistically, your odds of success will be similar regardless of whether your application is 'complete' in late June vs late July (see below for verification times). You can and should start pre-writing secondaries during the verification process so that secondaries can be completed in a timely manner after verification.

So, avoid the urge to submit this week. There is no benefit to doing so. Take a breather and come back to your application in a few days and review it very carefully for any mistakes and subpar essays. If you truly cannot improve anything, then submit your application at that time. Best of luck, and may the odds be ever in your favor.

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Time to verification (2021 cycle - COVID data)
2020-2021 Official AMCAS Verification Thread
Take-aways:
- those who submitted their primary application in mid-June were verified around mid-July. These applicants still have the opportunity to complete their secondaries and be considered early
- those who submitted their primary application in late-June were verified around early-to-mid August. These applicants still had the opportunity to complete their secondaries and not be considered late. Pre-writing secondary essays during the verification process is key!

Time for verification (2020 cycle - pre-COVID data - credit: Reddit)

tl;dr: Do NOT submit your application on May 27th. You have nothing to gain, and potentially everything to lose.

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[Goro]

To follow up my wise colleague's words, every cycle we see post ad nauseum that have titles like this :"Made X mistake in my essay....am I doomed?"

Also, deadlines are for those who want their applications to be dead in the water. Submit your AMCAS application by July 1 and your secondaries within 2-4 weeks of receiving them and not later than September 15.

Patience is a virtue; the need for instant gratification is not.

Schools stratify the apps as they come in and don't send out secondaries or IIs merely in chronological order.

Secondaries are often a tax on the hopelessly naïve, if not pathologically optimistic.

 

[wysdoc]

PSA:

If you are planning to submit your application on May 27th, do not do it! Take the next several days to review your application word by word and line by line to make sure that there are no silly mistakes or typos. For good measure, check your application twice or even thrice! Does an essay make you sound arrogant, overconfident, negative, or unconfident? Did you accidentally forget to paste in an essay? If so, now is your last chance to change it. Once you hit “Submit”, that is it. You are stuck with this application for the rest of the cycle. There is no option to revise your application post-submission; and should you unintentionally withdraw your application, you will NOT be able to apply again this year. READ: your cycle will be over before it even began. Yes, this has happened before.

Every year we see applicants rush to submit their applications. They subsequently notice mistakes or realize that they could have written a much better essay had they given themselves a couple extra weeks. From the reviewer standpoint, we receive many applications that read like they were written the night before. Do not let this be you.

Applying to medical school is not a race. Applications are not necessarily reviewed in the order they are received. Being verified by June 1st will also literally have zero impact on your chances as completed applications are not transmitted to schools until June 25th. Realistically, your odds of success will be similar regardless of whether your application is 'complete' in late June vs late July (see below for verification times). You can and should start pre-writing secondaries during the verification process so that secondaries can be completed in a timely manner after verification.

So, avoid the urge to submit this week. There is no benefit to doing so. Take a breather and come back to your application in a few days and review it very carefully for any mistakes and subpar essays. If you truly cannot improve anything, then submit your application at that time. Best of luck, and may the odds be ever in your favor.

---

Time to verification (2021 cycle - COVID data)
2020-2021 Official AMCAS Verification Thread
Take-aways:
- those who submitted their primary application in mid-June were verified around mid-July. These applicants still have the opportunity to complete their secondaries and be considered early
- those who submitted their primary application in late-June were verified around early-to-mid August. These applicants still had the opportunity to complete their secondaries and not be considered late. Pre-writing secondary essays during the verification process is key!

Time for verification (2020 cycle - pre-COVID data - credit: Reddit)
View attachment 337707

tl;dr: Do NOT submit your application on May 27th. You have nothing to gain, and potentially everything to lose.

On the topic of pre-writing secondaries:
Yes, you can start work on them after you submit your application, using your knowledge of what the questions were last year.
BUT - When you get the actual secondary from a school, check to be sure the questions for this year are the same!
You might be frustrated if you have written your masterpiece of an essay and that question has been changed or deleted, but writing it over is better than turning in the wrong answer.

 

[EdgeTrimmer]

Expect to get secondaries from most schools quickly since not many screen initially and try to finish them within 2 weeks. Ability to reuse the essays is key to completing them quickly.

 

[deleted1041819]

Definitely can't stress this enough. When I applied, I realized a week after submitting that I mislabeled one of my activities as non-clinical employment instead of non-clinical volunteering, which I had to explain during secondaries. This was a headache. It was not the end of the world, but I wish I had taken the extra 24 hours to avoid this avoidable mistake!

 

[LizzyM]

Expect to get secondaries from most schools quickly since not many screen initially and try to finish them within 2 weeks. Ability to reuse the essays is key to complete them quickly.

But be sure you change the school name if you mention it in one secondary and then another! And be sure the name is spelled correctly!

 

[deleted1106140]

Is it true that if a student's GPA is 3.7, they might be at a disadvantage by getting their app in on the first day, since most likely, the other applicants who do this are self-starters and will have even higher GPAs (3.9+), leading their app to look bad in comparison?

 

[wysdoc]

Is it true that if a student's GPA is 3.7, they might be at a disadvantage by getting their app in on the first day, since most likely, the other applicants who do this are self-starters and will have even higher GPAs (3.9+), leading their app to look bad in comparison?

Submit when you are ready and happy with your application.

 

[husky_doc16]

An additional tip is to stay organized with submitting your app, MCAT score and transcripts, receiving/submitting secondaries, and etc. Having a spreadsheet of dates when things came in and needed to be submitted seriously helped me from feeling overwhelmed years ago.

 

[Princeton Medical Student]

Is it true that if a student's GPA is 3.7, they might be at a disadvantage by getting their app in on the first day, since most likely, the other applicants who do this are self-starters and will have even higher GPAs (3.9+), leading their app to look bad in comparison?

You are overthinking this bro

 

[GoPenguinsGo]

My general rule of thumb is if you havent had atleast 3 panic attacks regarding the quality of your essays, you’re not ready to submit that secondary.

 

[MD-PhD-NonTrad]

But be sure you change the school name if you mention it in one secondary and then another! And be sure the name is spelled correctly!

Problem solved by simply using terms such as “Your medical school”, “this city”, “that part of the country.”

Application hacker mode initiated.

 

[deleted555445]

You are overthinking this bro

You're underthinking it. I'm submitting at each schools deadline to look better compared to those submitting at the last minute. You're out here playing checkers while I'm playing chess.

 

[veggiepremed]

before I submitted I triple checked all my activities, essays, etc and thought I was good to submit. Then I printed my application out on paper and went through it again and found a few more errors. Definitely found that to be helpful! There's a function that allows you to print your app on AMCAS/AACOMAS so definitely do it!

 

[EdgeTrimmer]

Is it true that if a student's GPA is 3.7, they might be at a disadvantage by getting their app in on the first day, since most likely, the other applicants who do this are self-starters and will have even higher GPAs (3.9+), leading their app to look bad in comparison?

It could be opposite. If you submit with lower stats late they may be out of interview slots.

 

[Angus Avagadro]

If you are applying to DO schools, please work in the word Osteopathic. I always look at essays to see if someone showed the slightest interest in Osteopathic Medicine. Yes, it is possible I might look more favorably on someone who bothered to make a unique essay for my school rather than cut n paste their allopathic essay.

 

[seanm028]

If you are applying to DO schools, please work in the word Osteopathic. I always look at essays to see if someone showed the slightest interest in Osteopathic Medicine. Yes, it is possible I might look more favorably on someone who bothered to make a unique essay for my school rather than cut n paste their allopathic essay.

Find and replace: "physician" --> "osteopath" 😂😂

 

[Angus Avagadro]

Find and replace: "physician" --> "osteopath" 😂😂

I'm not laughing. Thank you for your service.

 

[seanm028]

I'm not laughing. Thank you for your service.

I suppose it might be funnier if it weren't for the fact that people actually do this...

 

[EdgeTrimmer]

before I submitted I triple checked all my activities, essays, etc and thought I was good to submit. Then I printed my application out on paper and went through it again and found a few more errors. Definitely found that to be helpful! There's a function that allows you to print your app on AMCAS/AACOMAS so definitely do it!

Also have another set of eyes check.

 

[LizzyM]

Be sure you know where the medical school is located. Cornell is not in Ithaca and Northwestern is not in Evanston. Any others that are tricky like that?

 

[Princeton Medical Student]

Be sure you know where the medical school is located. Cornell is not in Ithaca and Northwestern is not in Evanston. Any others that are tricky like that?

WashU maybe?

 

[seanm028]

Be sure you know where the medical school is located. Cornell is not in Ithaca and Northwestern is not in Evanston. Any others that are tricky like that?

Baylor isn't in Waco.

 

[deleted555445]

Be sure you know where the medical school is located. Cornell is not in Ithaca and Northwestern is not in Evanston. Any others that are tricky like that?

Davis isn’t in Davis lol

 

[Sephirakra]

WashU maybe?

Still in St. Louis, just on the other side of the park.

 

[MD-PhD-NonTrad]

Be sure you know where the medical school is located. Cornell is not in Ithaca and Northwestern is not in Evanston. Any others that are tricky like that?

Washington University is in Saint Louis and is not the same thing as University of Washington.

 

[AriMed]

Time to verification (2021 cycle - COVID data)
2020-2021 Official AMCAS Verification Thread

Is there a thread like this for the 2021-2022 (Current) Cycle. Noticed the people over on Reddit and different med app discords are starting to see verifications.

 

[KnightDoc]

Is there a thread like this for the 2021-2022 (Current) Cycle. Noticed the people over on Reddit and different med app discords are starting to see verifications.

You're actually asking this on the thread started by the mod telling us NOT to submit today????

I LOVE it (and was actually wondering the same thing, although I have to admit I also wonder what difference could it possibly make to someone who submitted today and wasn't verified to know that someone else WAS verified, a mere 29 days before the first transmission to schools???)!!!

 

[MD-PhD-NonTrad]

You're actually asking this on the thread started by the mod telling us NOT to submit today????

I LOVE it (and was actually wondering the same thing, although I have to admit I also wonder what difference could it possibly make to someone who submitted today and wasn't verified to know that someone else WAS verified, a mere 29 days before the first transmission to schools???)!!!

A lot of us did still submit today. Would be interesting to see how just a few hours difference makes

 

[AriMed]

You're actually asking this on the thread started by the mod telling us NOT to submit today????

I LOVE it (and was actually wondering the same thing, although I have to admit I also wonder what difference could it possibly make to someone who submitted today and wasn't verified to know that someone else WAS verified, a mere 29 days before the first transmission to schools???)!!!

Honestly just for the sake of the people next year having the data.
That thread really helped put the people in my group (including myself) aiming for today at ease and I'm sure this year's thread will help next year's equally neurotic bunch.

 

[seanm028]

Is there a thread like this for the 2021-2022 (Current) Cycle. Noticed the people over on Reddit and different med app discords are starting to see verifications.

People are getting verified on day 1??

 

[AriMed]

People are getting verified on day 1??

Remove if linking to reddit is not allowed (still new to sdn)

Yeah, some of the comments.

 

[wysdoc]

Remove if linking to reddit is not allowed (still new to sdn)

Yeah, some of the comments.

I did remove the Reddit cross-link, sorry.
Follow it on Reddit if you like Reddit

 

[Moko]

I have been informed that May 27th has claimed its first victim on Reddit.

"I tripled checked my application when I submitted it this morning. I have no idea how I did not catch this until I looked at it later in the day after submission. I basically submitted the most meaningful experience for one of my activities twice. Once for the right one but also accidentally submitted it for one of my other activities instead of its own most meaningful essay. This is the mistake that anyone ADCOM would catch when reviewing my application."

 

[MD-PhD-NonTrad]

I have been informed that May 27th has claimed its first victim on Reddit.

This is why I entered and exited the submit payment area like six times this morning. Got to the payment menu clicked on the review and thought to myself let’s check it again. A bunch of times. Not changing anything, just checking. Still found a zero in place of an O on the one right before submission.

 

[LindaAccepted]

before I submitted I triple checked all my activities, essays, etc and thought I was good to submit. Then I printed my application out on paper and went through it again and found a few more errors. Definitely found that to be helpful! There's a function that allows you to print your app on AMCAS/AACOMAS so definitely do it!

Printing out the document one of my favorite proofing tips! Here are a few more:

1. If at all possible, give at least several hours -- or better yet a day or two -- between your last revision and your proof.
2. Change location when you proof. If you sit at a desk when writing, move to the kitchen table with the printed version.
3. Read it out loud when you proof it. Don't read it silently. Your ear will catch more errors that way.

 

[deleted555445]

 

[cutejeans]

Quick question about when to submit: I requested my transcript super late (i.e. this Tuesday) electronically & paper just in case. I thought electronic would be immediate, but AMCAS still hasn't received my transcript so I think I'll have to wait 10-15 days. My question is should I submit my application for verification if my transcript hasn't been received yet? Or should I wait until it's received?

I was going to submit on the 27th but this transcript thing made me hold off, so I've spent some more time revising my PS and activities

 

[KnightDoc]

Quick question about when to submit: I requested my transcript super late (i.e. this Tuesday) electronically & paper just in case. I thought electronic would be immediate, but AMCAS still hasn't received my transcript so I think I'll have to wait 10-15 days. My question is should I submit my application for verification if my transcript hasn't been received yet? Or should I wait until it's received?

I was going to submit on the 27th but this transcript thing made me hold off, so I've spent some more time revising my PS and activities

TBH, there is no reason to submit before your transcript is marked received, since you cannot enter the verification queue until then. So, all you will be accomplishing would be paying the fee and losing access to the application a little earlier than necessary!

For the record, there is no such thing as "immediate" with AMCAS this time of year. Their website has a tracker that tells you exactly where they are in processing both transcripts and applications.

 

[wysdoc]

Honestly just for the sake of the people next year having the data.
That thread really helped put the people in my group (including myself) aiming for today at ease and I'm sure this year's thread will help next year's equally neurotic bunch.

@AriMed and others: By popular request I started a thread up for y'all to post your submission & verification dates.
Remember this is all voluntary information posted by you the SDN members and not an official feed from AMCAS.

Here is the AMCAS page which states which submission dates they are currently processing - see the feed in the right column for dates and for messages from AMCAS. Applying to Medical School with AMCAS

2021-2022 Official AMCAS Verification Thread (Thread for SDN members to post their dates)

 

[NYTCOMJB27]

People are getting verified on day 1??

My AACOMAS was verified in 12 hours AMCAS I submitted as it opened and nothing yet. In regards to not submitting, I revised my apps carefully and was confident in my submissions. I had been working on my application throughout the past few months.

I find it pointless to go back and review applications after I’ve submitted them. I’m ALWAYS going to say I could have written that better. I know my activities, experiences and school information. As long as you didn’t stretch the truth on anything you all should as well. Reviewing your app after submitting just provides more stress.

Review before submission so you don’t need to look at it after

*what’s the point to go looking for needed changes when you can’t make them anymore?

 

[MD-PhD-NonTrad]

find it pointless to go back and review applications after I’ve submitted them.

While agreed that there is no reason to go in and review after submission, I think it would be good to review just prior to an interview. You may know the activities, but remembering exactly what you said about an activity so you can be prepared for any questions or have any anecdotes ready may be beneficial

 

[LadyDustyBlue]

I have been informed that May 27th has claimed its first victim on Reddit.

Good grief, what a nightmare. I'm gonna put this thread on *watch* to remind myself later and when I'm ready to apply that I shouldn't pressure myself to rush apps.

Thoughts and prayers to current applicants! Wishing everyone so much luck and golden organizational skills and execution that you haven't had prior to this cycle *laugh-cries*.

 

[KnightDoc]

I find it pointless to go back and review applications after I’ve submitted them. I’m ALWAYS going to say I could have written that better. I know my activities, experiences and school information. As long as you didn’t stretch the truth on anything you all should as well. Reviewing your app after submitting just provides more stress.

Review before submission so you don’t need to look at it after

*what’s the point to go looking for needed changes when you can’t make them anymore?

Because we are all neurotic and cannot control ourselves???

 

[NYTCOMJB27]

Because we are all neurotic and cannot control ourselves???

Very true and exactly why I won’t look 😂

 

[KnightDoc]

Very true and exactly why I won’t look 😂

Then, by definition, you are not neurotic and CAN control yourself!!

 

[LunaOri]

Be sure you know where the medical school is located. Cornell is not in Ithaca and Northwestern is not in Evanston. Any others that are tricky like that?

UMass isn’t in Amherst. UConn isn’t in Storrs. Tufts isn’t in Grafton. Lots of schools have med schools that aren’t on the main undergrad campus.