Too Late for Primaries?

[aspiringmd34]

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I am a female with a 4.0 GPA. MCAT of 506 taken in May. Application is mostly done (just needs tweaking) and could be submitted within the next couple days.

The school I am looking at has its final deadline as Nov. 1.
Is it too late to submit/waste of money?

Really need help here.

 

[IWillMakeIt1]

I would say it is late!

 

[tiramisucheese]

Are you looking at MD or DO? Definitely too late for MD, but you may be okay for DO.

 

[ciestar]

Yes. It's too late.

 

[SLU Student]

Unfortunately, it is too late for M.D. After you submit your primary, it'll take quite a while to verify. After that, you'll have to wait for your secondaries to come in as well. You're probably looking at being "complete" at schools by late October/early November. That is not good. I suggest waiting until next cycle.

On the other hand, you're fine for D.O. if you still want to apply this cycle.

 

[PreMedMissteps]

Yes, too late for MD schools.

Those nov deadlines should be totally ignored.

If you're fine with the DO route then apply for those.

Your screenname suggests that you want MD. If so, then spend the next 6 months prepping for the MCAT. Your score is low for MD....about an old MCAT 28. Try to get at least a 513 in case med schools average your scores.

 

[efle]

For someone with a borderline MCAT, being complete in mid to late October is a disadvantage you can't afford to tack on. If you took the MCAT back in May, why didn't you submit in early summer?

 

[mariposas905]

Wouldn't the primary be verified in a week or so at this time in the cycle? At least that's what last year's thread showed...

 

[efle]

Wouldn't the primary be verified in a week or so at this time in the cycle? At least that's what last year's thread showed...

It'd be like 1-2 weeks for primary, but then secondary receipt and return and processing takes a couple weeks for most places. Complete date would be like mid oct

 

[Ad2b]

Yes, too late for MD schools.

That's not true, at all.

What is true is that if you apply you are at a significant disadvantage over those who applied earlier in the cycle. There are people I know who have gotten in with their apps submitted late. But their secondaries were ready to go the minute they got them from the schools.

And they had stellar stats plus a stellar app (3.8's with 512+ MCAT, plus 100s of hours volunteering/leadership/clinical, + work experience). One person submitted Oct 1, with a 519... got in. Again, stellar stats and n-1.

Your GPA is stellar, the MCAT is meh.

FWIW, I may still throw in my app this cycle but I am also very cognizant that I may be just tossing money away and ready to reapply next year if need be.

 

[workaholic181]

I am a female with a 4.0 GPA. MCAT of 506 taken in May. Application is mostly done (just needs tweaking) and could be submitted within the next couple days.

The school I am looking at has its final deadline as Nov. 1.
Is it too late to submit/waste of money?

Really need help here.

Hey OP,

While it is possible to apply and be accepted this cycle, you're at a disadvantage. That, coupled with your more average MCAT score, doesn't bode great for an MD acceptance this cycle. You could be competitive for all DO though.

If you are okay with a gap year (and frankly, highly recommend gap years after doing one myself) then I would recommend you get any healthcare job you can find, retake the MCAT next winter/spring, and apply in June. Trust me, after having gone through the application process, I appreciate that adage thrown around on here of "apply early, and with your best app." Applying is expensive, time consuming, and often stressful. I would not want to go through it at any disadvantages!

Good luck with whatever you decide OP.

 

[PreMedMissteps]

FWIW, I may still throw in my app this cycle but I am also very cognizant that I may be just tossing money away and ready to reapply next year if need be.

Why does your signature show that you've already applied to 27 schools?

There may be more to the story with the friend who submitted their primary on Oct 1st and got in. Lucky state? URM? Top stats? Some other hook?

 

[Ad2b]

Why does your signature show that you've already applied to 27 schools?

Primary submitted to 27. Not complete at any of them.

My secondaries are already completed and ready to go once I'm complete with MCAT.

There may be more to the story with the friend who submitted their primary on Oct 1st and got in. Lucky state? URM? Top stats? Some other hook?

Nope. White female, 30-ish, stellar stats, as I mentioned in my post (519)... OOS, top 25 school. If you are getting your info from only SDN and reddit, you are missing about 60% of the premed population.

 

[Lucca]

I would advise you to wait, find beneficial gap year activities and apply next cycle.

 

[efle]

@Ad2b I'd be careful mentioning your own situation to OP. A 506 vs 519 on the MCAT makes a huge difference in how careful you need to be

 

[•Syzygy•]

It may also depend on what state you are from. If you are from a good state that has schools that take more in staters, you would definitely have a decent shot even now of getting an interview considering your perfect gpa. Because of your MCAT though, I wouldn't bother applying to any other schools this cycle. It would he a waste in my opinion...

As someone said before, use the year to beef up your EC's and you should be good for next year's cycle.

 

[Ad2b]

@Ad2b I'd be careful mentioning your own situation to OP. A 506 vs 519 on the MCAT makes a huge difference in how careful you need to be

I'm not the one with the 519, that's just someone I know and the reason I also put the n-1. (read both of my posts 😀 )

 

[MareNostrummm]

I applied early to late August and I already feel the impact of being late (relatively). Seems like the majority of schools are still pushing through the massive amount of July applications.

 

[PreMedMissteps]

Primary submitted to 27. Not complete at any of them.

Have you been verified?

 

[Ad2b]

Have you been verified?

why so interested in what I'm doing?

 

[SLU Student]

That's not true, at all.

What is true is that if you apply you are at a significant disadvantage over those who applied earlier in the cycle. There are people I know who have gotten in with their apps submitted late. But their secondaries were ready to go the minute they got them from the schools.

And they had stellar stats plus a stellar app (3.8's with 512+ MCAT, plus 100s of hours volunteering/leadership/clinical, + work experience). One person submitted Oct 1, with a 519... got in. Again, stellar stats and n-1.

Your GPA is stellar, the MCAT is meh.

FWIW, I may still throw in my app this cycle but I am also very cognizant that I may be just tossing money away and ready to reapply next year if need be.

Your anecdotes don't really contribute to what OP should be doing. There will always be people that get in with all odds stacked against them, but most people won't get so lucky. We should group every applicant into "most people."

Of course, OP's application won't be technically "too late" until he/she has missed his/her desired schools' deadlines, but that's not what we're going for here. OP's chances of acceptance will be significantly higher by submitting earlier next cycle, so therefore, I would consider it "too late" as of now.

 

[Ad2b]

Your anecdotes don't really contribute to what OP should be doing.

lol - I don't generally tell an adult what to do... I guide them to their own decisions using examples allowing them to think rather than be sheep.

 

[Lucca]

data is dated by a few cycles, but probably still useful. Submitting a primary today would mean around 25-30 days until verification. You wouldnt be verified until mid-late October. Using planeblue's II tracker (link in my sig) we can see that you would be competing for fewer than 40% of total available interview slots for that cycle. That's without even factoring in time for your application to be reviewed once verified if the school screens for secondaries, time for you to finish secondaries and return them, and finally have a complete app for the committee to judge.

It would be unadvisable to submit this late even if your application was stellar.


edit: see efle's post below

 

[efle]

^This is actually way off, starting in either 2015 or 2016 they changed the process to be like 3x faster. Let me find updated chart

 

[efle]

Here, this one.

Something like a week is more accurate.

 

[ciestar]

2014 was awful because of the MCAT change so everyone decided to apply that year. So they changed it for 2015 and hired more people to better do it. (Thankfully, I applied in 2015)

 

[Blanky]

Anyone telling you to apply just because someone with better stats did it one time does not mean that its a wise choice.