The AMCAS delay freak out

[KYmed]

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Is there any real validity to this AMCAS delay freak out? I keep seeing people on here telling others not to apply this year at this point....

I just submitted my primary on July 29th. I had to wait to get my MCAT back on July 23rd before I could decide to submit.
Last year, although I did not get accepted, I got an MD interview in early October even though I was not verified until September 15th. I had a 27 MCAT at that point.

Now that I have a 31 MCAT thanks to my recent retake, I wasn't worried about at least getting decent interview dates until I started seeing this delay freak out. I already have secondaries submitted for 2 of my top 3 MD choices. I just don't think this is as big of a deal as people are making it out to be. Am I wrong in thinking that?

The DO schools near me haven't gotten me fired up to apply, but now I'm starting to rethink that because of all this. Hmmmm

 

[Toss]

I just submitted my primary on July 29th. I had to wait to get my MCAT back on July 23rd before I could decide to submit.

You could have always just submitted the AMCAS application to a throwaway school prior to your MCAT test, and just added your other schools after.

It probably won't matter for non-rolling schools, but getting verified potentially by October is going to suck because people can start getting acceptances by October 15th.

 

[sourdoughllama]

I personally think people are having a hard time distinguishing between "early" relatively speaking and absolutely speaking. If you submitted on a certain date, you're still ahead of an X amount of people, who will get verified after you. AMCAS is delayed, but it's uniform, so everyone is delayed, meaning the day you submitted is still the amount of people before and after you. I can't say how schools are taking this into account, however.

 

[KYmed]

I personally think people are having a hard time distinguishing between "early" relatively speaking and absolutely speaking. If you submitted on a certain date, you're still ahead of an X amount of people, who will get verified after you. AMCAS is delayed, but it's uniform, so everyone is delayed, meaning the day you submitted is still the amount of people before and after you. I can't say how schools are taking this into account, however.

This is what I was thinking. If I'm slower to be verified, then everyone after me is too. If I could get verified by September 15th and still get an October 10 MD interview last year, I can't see myself being worse off with a much better score and a slightly earlier submission date this year.

 

[OCDOCDOCD]

I personally think people are having a hard time distinguishing between "early" relatively speaking and absolutely speaking. If you submitted on a certain date, you're still ahead of an X amount of people, who will get verified after you. AMCAS is delayed, but it's uniform, so everyone is delayed, meaning the day you submitted is still the amount of people before and after you. I can't say how schools are taking this into account, however.

That's my logic as well. I think a lot of the "don't bother applying now" responses are coming from people who are strictly viewing things in terms of the usual "complete after mid-september = late" timeline. What they don't realize is that what matters is how many people are ahead of you, not what time of the year you're complete in. While in previous cycles it was safe to say that being complete in October put you at a big disadvantage, this cycle is looking to be different.

We know that by June 27th "over 15,000" applications had been received by AMCAS. Considering that June typically sees somewhere between 30-40% of applicants apply, that number is exactly what you would expect by looking at past cycles. The difference is that this year it's taken nearly two months for AMCAS to move through just 15,000 applications. So the number of applications hasn't changed, just the wait time.

It is true that people are getting invites right now. However, one has to realize that the current pool of complete applicants is much smaller than usual due to the AMCAS delays. The only way this is going to screw people over is if schools don't wait for more applications and instead hand out all their invites before even half of applicants have become complete.

 

[mysterian]

Last year, although I did not get accepted, I got an MD interview in early October even though I was not verified until September 15th. I had a 27 MCAT at that point.

Now that I have a 31 MCAT thanks to my recent retake, I wasn't worried about at least getting decent interview dates until I started seeing this delay freak out.

If you don't mind my asking, how many schools did you apply to last year?

 

[KYmed]

If you don't mind my asking, how many schools did you apply to last year?

No problem. I was dumb last year, and I only applied to Louisville. I'm a Kentucky resident, and I was told when I talked to the admissions director to keep my 27 MCAT score and apply. I knew with a 27 I had no shot at UK. I knew people with 27s that were accepted at Louisville, but their GPA's were better than mine. Oh well.

This year I studied a lot and got my MCAT up to a 31. I'm applying to Louisville, Kentucky, Marshall, and Wright State.

 

[mysterian]

Cool. Best of luck, man. This is my first (and hopefully only) cycle and I kind of freaked out due to the processing delay and applied to like 20 schools. Since I submitted in mid-July I'm so on edge that I've hardly done anything productive today besides looking at these threads. Hoping that a 3.8 and a 33 can get me into at least one MD/PhD program.

 

[SunsFun]

I personally think people are having a hard time distinguishing between "early" relatively speaking and absolutely speaking. If you submitted on a certain date, you're still ahead of an X amount of people, who will get verified after you. AMCAS is delayed, but it's uniform, so everyone is delayed, meaning the day you submitted is still the amount of people before and after you. I can't say how schools are taking this into account, however.

I used to think like this as well but not anymore. The delay is most likely due to higher than expected number of applicants according to some people who contacted AMCAS. As I have said before, the schools even if aware of the delay will not risk changing their admission strategy that worked for them for years on such a short notice. They have plenty of applicants to chose from and will proceed as usual while all of us are still waiting.

 

[KYmed]

Cool. Best of luck, man. This is my first (and hopefully only) cycle and I kind of freaked out due to the processing delay and applied to like 20 schools. Since I submitted in mid-July I'm so on edge that I've hardly done anything productive today besides looking at these threads. Hoping that a 3.8 and a 33 can get me into at least one MD/PhD program.

Best of luck to you too. I've been a little more worried recently too, after the initial high of getting my MCAT score back. I'm sure you'll be able to get into an MD/PHD with those scores, depending on what state you're from. I know a white male who got into an MD/PHD and got some sort of scholarship as well with a 33/4.0.

 

[SilentSoldier]

You could have always just submitted the AMCAS application to a throwaway school prior to your MCAT test, and just added your other schools after.

It probably won't matter for non-rolling schools, but getting verified potentially by October is going to suck because people can start getting acceptances by October 15th.

Considering that it costs $160 to submit to one school, I don't think that this is that great of an idea. In my opinion its better to be able to know the score and be able to choose all the school's appropriately to save money and maximize chances.

 

[SunsFun]

That's my logic as well. I think a lot of the "don't bother applying now" responses are coming from people who are strictly viewing things in terms of the usual "complete after mid-september = late" timeline. What they don't realize is that what matters is how many people are ahead of you, not what time of the year you're complete in. While in previous cycles it was safe to say that being complete in October put you at a big disadvantage, this cycle is looking to be different.

We know that by June 27th "over 15,000" applications had been received by AMCAS. Considering that June typically sees somewhere between 30-40% of applicants apply, that number is exactly what you would expect by looking at past cycles. The difference is that this year it's taken nearly two months for AMCAS to move through just 15,000 applications. So the number of applications hasn't changed, just the wait time.

It is true that people are getting invites right now. However, one has to realize that the current pool of complete applicants is much smaller than usual due to the AMCAS delays. The only way this is going to screw people over is if schools don't wait for more applications and instead hand out all their invites before even half of applicants have become complete.

All we really care about is what ADCOM is doing. They will not push their interview days or invite less people to an interview even if we assume that fewer people have applied. They will invite X number of people give out Y% of acceptances and Z% of waitlists as they originally planned. Doing otherwise may put them at a disadvantage comparing to other schools who give out acceptances. Even if they anticipate more qualified candidates coming along later in the cycle, they will eventually accept less people of waitlist. In the end of the day, if your application is not there on time to be considered for an interview, somebody else just as good as you is available. We, the average applicants are at a disadvantage.