Quarter System v. June 1st

[Arsenophilia]

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Recently I went to see a premed adviser and he gave me the following advice:
Because my school is on the quarter system, we wont be receiving our official spring quarter grades until the end of June. However, medical schools like to see our spring quarter grades. Therefore, I should wait until the end of June to apply.

Although I understand this argument, I am dubious given my situation. I am a Junior with a 3.9+ GPA. I will not be getting a significant grade boost, nor do I need one from this quarter. I am taking one bio class for my major, one bio class for my interest, one history class for my minor and I am TAing for a bio class. I don't think that these classes are particularly significant given my track record in previous quarter with biology and history courses.

What do you guys think? Do you have any similar experiences to share which could help? Have you heard anything relevant to this?

 

[bigslick]

It's more important to submit early without spring quarter grades than late with the grades. You can always update them later.

 

[rHinO1]

I have decided to submit without my spring grades (quarter system too), but the decision was easier for me since I am a senior. I think applying earlier is more important, unless you haven't taken very many upper div science classes (in which case I might wait). You can update at interviews or with letters later.

 

[student113]

After reading the 100000000000000 threads on this forum, I personally thought the rule of thumb came down to how much coursework is already present on your transcript. I'm in the same situation as you and I am waiting until the grades are in, because they want to see at least 3 full years of work. If this were your 4th year, then the difference between 11 and 12 quarters is not much. But since it's a difference between 8 and 9, I'm personally going to wait.

Don't let SDN mess with you TOO much in terms of timing: "as early as possible" is right, but end of June or July is still early and not worth sacrificing a part of your app to avoid.

 

[Asyouwereatrio]

I'm also on a quarter system (UC) and my counselor told me with my GPA and MCAT score, I'm good to go and SHOULD apply around 01 June because it'll put me ahead and there likely won't be significant changes to my GPA. As of now, I have 3 Upper Divs in Bio...(as a bio major) and one Bio Lab...if I were to add this quarter, it'd just be two more upper divs and one more lab.

I really don't think that the lack of that last Spring Quarter would really make a huge difference, unless there ends up being a huge discrepancy in performance. Like we all know, there's only one year of bio required, plus one year of g-chem, etc. that students of all majors are required to take, so that's the only fair way to assess the entire pool of students.

Long story short, apply early is my suggestion, especially if your academic record is strong.

 

[JokerMD]

i submitted without spring grades, and i was fine...

 

[mdbound1987]

After reading the 100000000000000 threads on this forum, I personally thought the rule of thumb came down to how much coursework is already present on your transcript. I'm in the same situation as you and I am waiting until the grades are in, because they want to see at least 3 full years of work. If this were your 4th year, then the difference between 11 and 12 quarters is not much. But since it's a difference between 8 and 9, I'm personally going to wait.

Don't let SDN mess with you TOO much in terms of timing: "as early as possible" is right, but end of June or July is still early and not worth sacrificing a part of your app to avoid.

I agree with you that late June/July is still fairly early, but why not apply in early June if you have no reason not to? OP said these grades will not have an impact on his/her gpa, so why wait to submit? If you wait until the end of June to submit, it could take 3-4 weeks to get verified. So you are looking at being complete in mid-late July which isn't late, but it isn't exactly early June either. People on sdn make a big deal about quite a few things that aren't that serious, but applying early is not one of them. This process is ridiculously competitive so one should do everything in his/her control to increase his/her chances; this is one way to do it. Nothing is guaranteed in this process...even with a 3.9 gpa.

 

[ReptarBar]

so if i dont have 135 quarter units (90 semester units) before spring quarter begins, then i must apply after spring grades are out (provided that spring quarter would give me 135+)? if so, then ****.

are current courses factored into the units required?

 

[student113]

I agree with you that late June/July is still fairly early, but why not apply in early June if you have no reason not to? OP said these grades will not have an impact on his/her gpa, so why wait to submit? If you wait until the end of June to submit, it could take 3-4 weeks to get verified. So you are looking at being complete in mid-late July which isn't late, but it isn't exactly early June either. People on sdn make a big deal about quite a few things that aren't that serious, but applying early is not one of them. This process is ridiculously competitive so one should do everything in his/her control to increase his/her chances; this is one way to do it. Nothing is guaranteed in this process...even with a 3.9 gpa.

Well, I'm just paraphrasing what LizzyM said (in a post and in response to a pm I sent her about this issue). Being a third year, it is sacrificing too much of your app (1/9) to apply a few weeks early. And she said that if you do your secondaries quickly, it makes up for these few weeks and you'll be complete at about the same time.

 

[Hifey]

Personally, I submitted without my spring grades as a junior. My winter grades were not great ( I got 1 C) and my spring grades were much better. Anyways, interview invites started rolling in around mid August, so in that sense it didn't affect me at all. I just updated all my grades on the secondaries and in update emails right after they came out. I'd personally say submit early and here is why: AMCAS says it takes 4-6 ish weeks to verify. I submitted on June 4th and I was done in 10 days. That means when Amcas sent out the first batch of applications to the school, mine was among them. I started getting secondaries as early as late June/early July. If you send them in the thick of the action so to speak, it may take much longer to verify.

just my experience. You should do what you feel most comfortable with.