Should I wait on one grade before submitting app?

[fluff]

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I will be taking an English class during summer school to fulfill requirements for medical school. However, the grade from that class will not come out until mid-late June. Should I wait on the grade from that class before submitting the primary, or do you think it would be better to submit the application? I know some schools have secondaries where you input new grades received, it should be OK for those schools, but for other schools…do I update them via email?

Thanks.

 

[crasiman]

I would only wait if it will raise your GPA in a significant way. One class probably won't do that.

That said, I did wait for my final quarter's grades to come out before submitting my application. They came out in late June and I submitted on July 1. I got a 4.0 that quarter and it bumped my GPA to 3.6/3.6. I considered that to be significant enough, and utilized the extra time to refine my PS. The downside was the extra processing time that it took for validation because I had submitted later. My application wasn't validated until 7/24.

If the rest of your application is in good shape and you're confident with it, and if the grade from that class doesn't really change your GPA, I would just submit it when you first can. This will get it sent out to the schools asap as it should be validated rather quickly throughout the first couple weeks of June (I remember seeing most people with 24-72 hr turn around times during the first week, which is much better than the 3 weeks it took for mine). That way you'll get a jump start on secondaries.

 

[Catalystik]

For the vast majority of med schools, you need not complete the prerequisites before you apply. Rather, list it on your transcript as a future course, so they know it is planned. There's no need to wait until that one grade is back before you submit.

 

[45408]

Don't bother waiting for one class. I wish I had waited for my spring grades to come in when I applied though.

 

[Alvarez13]

I would only wait if it will raise your GPA in a significant way. One class probably won't do that.

That said, I did wait for my final quarter's grades to come out before submitting my application. They came out in late June and I submitted on July 1. I got a 4.0 that quarter and it bumped my GPA to 3.6/3.6. I considered that to be significant enough, and utilized the extra time to refine my PS. The downside was the extra processing time that it took for validation because I had submitted later. My application wasn't validated until 7/24.

If the rest of your application is in good shape and you're confident with it, and if the grade from that class doesn't really change your GPA, I would just submit it when you first can. This will get it sent out to the schools asap as it should be validated rather quickly throughout the first couple weeks of June (I remember seeing most people with 24-72 hr turn around times during the first week, which is much better than the 3 weeks it took for mine). That way you'll get a jump start on secondaries.

This.

Plus, now you have something you can mention in an update letter.