Transcripts in August

[SB720]

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How terrible would it be to send in transcripts the second week of August? There are a couple classes that I would like on the transcript, though I will not have finished them until August 8th. All the other parts of my application will be in before then. Is this too late?

 

[2010houston]

You'll have the opportunity to list the classes in progress / expected to take on your AMCAS apps, and I can't imagine that the GPA bump considering the 100+ hours you've already got before you apply is worth the 2+ month delay in submitting. I think early submission is >>> having the course grades unless there's some mitigating circumstance.

Good luck!!

 

[SB720]

I plan on taking 6 classes over the summer and they are all upper level science courses. I have only taken 4 upper level science courses and I don't want that to hurt me. Do you think it matters?

 

[tremulousNeedle]

You'll have the opportunity to list the classes in progress / expected to take on your AMCAS apps, and I can't imagine that the GPA bump considering the 100+ hours you've already got before you apply is worth the 2+ month delay in submitting. I think early submission is >>> having the course grades unless there's some mitigating circumstance.

Good luck!!

👍

Food for thought:
AMCAS personnel won't even look at your application until your transcripts have been received and the application submitted; AMCAS verification basically equals checking the courses and grades you entered against the transcripts you had sent by your school(s).

AMCAS 2011 instructions states that verification can take 4-6 weeks; in reality this process varies greatly from a few days to a few weeks (I've never heard of it taking the whole 4-6 weeks, unless there were problems). So if classes are done on Aug 8th, there are some questions to think about. Are the grades reported on August 8th or is there a delay. Will the registrar's office be able to send your transcripts as soon as the August grades are available or could there be a processing delay (fairly common)? All of this combined can add 2-6 weeks (possibly more) to your expected primary application complete date.

Bottom line: For any type of applicant (except for maybe the extraordinary pre-med student) an AMCAS completion date of approximately September (or later) will hugely negatively impact their application resulting in far fewer interviews, if any are offered at all. You can put the upper level courses on AMCAS as future courses, whatever benefit this may have on your application will be immensely overshadowed by the late application.

Short answer: Unless you are a stellar applicant, waiting for your August 8th grades is extremely detrimental. So much so, that I would be prepared to apply again the next application cycle (presuming the rest of your application is average).

-admissions committee interviewer / senior medical student



[Sorry for the novel, but I like to justify my statements]