Trying to understand how hypothetical timeline would have been

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jennyybennyy

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Just joined the forum because I realized how LITTLE I understand about the application process. I'm trying to understand how this would have played out if I had done things differently in efforts of learning how the process works and what advice I could give to someone else in my position, now that I'm learning everything a bit too late.

I am a transfer student so I finished my undergraduate classes first summer session of 2015, after which I'm considered graduated. This means I finished classes first week of August and received official grades second week of August. I would have sent my final transcript plus my community college transcripts to AMCAS at that point. They may have received it via mail by third week of August, when I was taking my MCAT on Aug 22. HYPOTHETICALLY, if I had managed to submit my application at around that time, the verification process may have taken 2-6 weeks. That means that by the first week of September through the first week of October AMCAS would have sent my applications to the medical schools I designated. These medical schools may or may not have sent secondaries until they received my MCAT score (Sept 22).

First Question: I think I've read that I can send my transcript to AMCAS before I finish all my classes for undergrad, as long as I haven't listed those classes on the application as taken? In that case I should have submitted my transcripts a week before applications opened on July 1, along with my application?

Second Question: Do some schools send out secondaries before they receive MCAT scores? What if a second MCAT is scheduled, will they wait for that MCAT score before sending secondaries?


In reality, I postponed a MCAT date from April to June to August as I was taking classes at the time and kept underestimating the sheer amount of time and focus that is needed to study for the MCAT. Had I realized this, I'm not sure when I would have taken the MCAT because I finished my Physics classes summer session 1 of 2014. I suppose that would leave me with the option of studying for it the second half of summer and taking it soon after.

Because I was studying for MCAT on my third attempt at trying, I was bogged down during the two weeks before Aug 22, at the time my official grades were posted for my last class taken. Realistically, I would not have my application worked on and submitted (unless I had already started when the application opened, which I hadn't) until the weeks after Aug 22. 2-6 weeks from that the last week of Aug would have been second week of September through second week of October when applications would have been send to medical schools.

From what I here, anything past the end of July is considered late for sending applications?

Correct if any of my hypothetical statements are incorrect - I am quite overwhelmed with figuring out how timely the whole process really is. It's not just sending the applications before deadlines which I was was stupid enough to think was true.
 
Sorry I'm confused, why does any of this matter if it's hypothetical? What did you actually submit, nothing right? Can you not just forget about all of this and submit your primary as early as possible next cycle?
 
This matters because I have younger family members and family friends who look to me for guidance - understanding the different possibilities is how I learn from my mistakes so that I don't just reapply next cycle and help myself, but be able to answer questions and guide others from making the same mistakes as I did, make sense? I get that I made a BUNCH of mistakes but my questions still hold because I'm not sure if some options are possible or not. If I'm suggested to not apply because it's too late, that it can be understood why I'd be a bit paranoid of clarifying the details so I don't hit some other unforeseen obstacle next cycle.

Oh, and in reality, that cliche is completely irrelevant to the purpose of me UNDERSTANDING what went wrong and how it could have been made different. Of course I can be the early bird next cycle but it's about learning and guiding others. This is how I learn, by understanding the nuances of whether this or that could have happened because it WILL happen to people who I WILL be able to give advice to, that is, if somebody ends up helping me instead of being catty? Applicants won't have everything set out nicely for applying if they don't know the facts and if somebody could please help clarify (this is a forum to HELP each other right) then I can help maneuver others around the obstacles that I faced.
 
This is just really difficult to understand since we're not sure what is and what isn't a hypothetical and there's a ton of variables here. Anyways, I'll take a crack at answering this.

I've seen "first week of September" thrown around as a good time to be complete at schools. This means that the school has your primary, LORs, transcripts, MCAT, and secondary application. So, with your hypothetical (?) MCAT date of August 22nd, you wouldn't be getting scores back until Sept. 22nd as you said, which would make you fairly late, at least for the MD cycle (DO cycle is a tad longer in my understanding). You also have to take into account that schools may want to screen your primary app to even determine if you should receive a secondary app, and this could take several weeks. So, at the earliest, schools would be seeing your completed application in mid-October at the earliest (this is taking into account time for them to screen your app and time for you to write and send back the secondary apps).

I really don't know anything about requesting transcripts before you've completed all coursework though I believe you're able to list coursework as "in progress" on your AMCAS. I also don't know anything about schools sending out secondaries before you have an MCAT score in. If you already have a score, and it's decent enough, they might send you one. But if you don't have a score at all, I don't know how that would work. Sorry I couldn't be of more help! I tried my best :shrug:
 
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