Throw Away School Cost

[camposr]

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I'm new to this so bear with me.

This is my first time applying and I don't have an MCAT score yet, I take it July 8th. I've been reading about the concept of a throw away school and am considering it to speed up verification. Here's my questions:

1) What is absoulutely necessary to submit to a throw away? (LOR, experiences, etc.)

2) For AACOMAS, it's $40 per additional school. If I do a throw away, do I pay the $195 and then the $40 per school I acutally want to get in to? In other words, is it only going to cost me an extra $40 or do I have to pay the $195 twice?

Thanks in advance. This is so overwhelming and I've learned so much lurking these forums!

 

[jwilliams1993]

1. If you can get to the page where you're making a payment and submitting the application for verification, you've got what you need for the throw-away schools. I would suggest completing as much as you can so that you have less to do later. Some people wait on the LORs as some schools don't need them until you submit your secondary anyway. You will need your transcripts in there, so make sure you've requested those from your undergraduate school. In my opinion, they only new info you should be adding later would be your MCAT score and maybe letters.

2. I'm pretty positive once you've submitted the application to at least one school, you don't have to pay that $195 again, you'll just pay for each additional school. Can anyone else speak to this just to be sure? (Ever since I started using the AACOMAS app a few years ago, I have NEVER been able to open the FAQ page or else I'd be looking there.)

My best advice is to apply as early as possible- get the application submitted so that all you have to do is add your test score. Something else that helped me this cycle was pre-writing my secondary responses. You can find the prompts for most secondary applications here in the forums. Start a document with all of those prompts and your responses. This way, you'll have time to write, rewrite, edit, walk away from, and improve your responses before you even get the secondaries. It's really helpful to be able to turn around a secondary in a day or two instead of waiting weeks because you need to keep going over the responses.

 

[Ho0v-man]

If you're going to have your MCAT back in early August, this is unnecessary. Just do everything you can up until you submit to your first school and start pre-writing secondaries. Just submit your primaries on the same day you transfer your MCAT to aacomas (remember to do this). Don't submit secondaries until you know aacomas has your MCAT.

I submitted primaries at the end of September with most secondaries done mid to late October and it was fine.




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[camposr]

1. If you can get to the page where you're making a payment and submitting the application for verification, you've got what you need for the throw-away schools. I would suggest completing as much as you can so that you have less to do later. Some people wait on the LORs as some schools don't need them until you submit your secondary anyway. You will need your transcripts in there, so make sure you've requested those from your undergraduate school. In my opinion, they only new info you should be adding later would be your MCAT score and maybe letters.

2. I'm pretty positive once you've submitted the application to at least one school, you don't have to pay that $195 again, you'll just pay for each additional school. Can anyone else speak to this just to be sure? (Ever since I started using the AACOMAS app a few years ago, I have NEVER been able to open the FAQ page or else I'd be looking there.)

My best advice is to apply as early as possible- get the application submitted so that all you have to do is add your test score. Something else that helped me this cycle was pre-writing my secondary responses. You can find the prompts for most secondary applications here in the forums. Start a document with all of those prompts and your responses. This way, you'll have time to write, rewrite, edit, walk away from, and improve your responses before you even get the secondaries. It's really helpful to be able to turn around a secondary in a day or two instead of waiting weeks because you need to keep going over the responses.

Thank you so much for the help! I didn't even think about writing my secondary essays beforehand. That would be especially helpful if I can get them done before fall semester starts.

If you're going to have your MCAT back in early August, this is unnecessary. Just do everything you can up until you submit to your first school and start pre-writing secondaries. Just submit your primaries on the same day you transfer your MCAT to aacomas (remember to do this). Don't submit secondaries until you know aacomas has your MCAT.

I submitted primaries at the end of September with most secondaries done mid to late October and it was fine.




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I know it may not be necessary, I'm just nervous. I want to put myself in the best position so I'm considering a throw away. I may not especially since I can pre-write my secondaries. I didn't know about that.

 

[AsianPersuasion]

If that's your picture, you should remove it to give yourself some privacy. Good luck this cycle!

 

[Ho0v-man]

I know it may not be necessary, I'm just nervous. I want to put myself in the best position so I'm considering a throw away. I may not especially since I can pre-write my secondaries. I didn't know about that.

I know it's tempting, but from personal experience I'm telling you, don't let your neuroses wreak havoc on your bank account. Just focus on your MCAT right now. You'll still be plenty early for every school as long as your stats are good enough. Good luck!


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[AnatomyGrey12]

1) no definitely not. It is good to note that you only have to submit the primary to the throwaway so there are no other fees involved

2) throwaway will cost you $40. You don't pay the $195 twice.

 

[camposr]

Thank y'all so much, you've been lots of help! Wish I would've found this forum sooner 🙂