Unusual Volume of Appicants for 2015

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childish93

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Hey all,

I have heard from a couple friends and my school's advisor that there is going to be a significantly higher number of applicants this year due to upcoming changes in the MCAT. Has anyone else heard this? What do you think it means for us?
 
The people that would have gotten in will still get in. The people that wouldn't get in, won't get in. Adcoms will have to sort through more applications to find the people they would have selected to interview anyways (ie more work). Ultimately the process will change very little and the world will keep spinning.
 
I haven't heard this, but rushing to take the MCAT will most my likely be detrimental for those applicants.
 
I think they're confusing the rush to take the MCAT with the rush to apply this year. Every school will still accept the old MCAT next year. They have to. The new MCAT will have been out less than 2 months before the 2015-2016 cycle starts. Pretty sure the majority of schools will still accept the old MCAT for the 2016-2017 cycle.
 
Ismet said:
I think they're confusing the rush to take the MCAT with the rush to apply this year. Every school will still accept the old MCAT next year. They have to. The new MCAT will have been out less than 2 months before the 2015-2016 cycle starts. Pretty sure the majority of schools will still accept the old MCAT for the 2016-2017 cycle.
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I agree. I think my advisor is basing his opinion on the unusual # of applicants at our school and generalizing it. I was wondering if anyone else had heard this at their home instiutions
 
Ismet said:
I think they're confusing the rush to take the MCAT with the rush to apply this year. Every school will still accept the old MCAT next year. They have to. The new MCAT will have been out less than 2 months before the 2015-2016 cycle starts. Pretty sure the majority of schools will still accept the old MCAT for the 2016-2017 cycle.
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are you sure about this? can you give me detail why? I was told by my advisor that if I don't get in this cycle I would have to take the new MCAT for next cycle
 
childish93 said:
I agree. I think my advisor is basing his opinion on the unusual # of applicants at our school and generalizing it. I was wondering if anyone else had heard this at their home instiutions
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Well, he is an advisor, so something like that isn't too surprising.

As Dr . @mimelim said, it really shouldn't change much.
 
chillinillinkillin007 said:
are you sure about this? can you give me detail why? I was told by my advisor that if I don't get in this cycle I would have to take the new MCAT for next cycle
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The new MCAT will not be administered until March or April 2015 at the earliest. Do you really think that everyone applying in 2015-2016 will take the MCAT in March-May 2015? Take what your advisors say with a grain of salt.
 
childish93 said:
Hey all,

I have heard from a couple friends and my school's advisor that there is going to be a significantly higher number of applicants this year due to upcoming changes in the MCAT. Has anyone else heard this? What do you think it means for us?
Click to expand...

'Significantly higher' probably not, but I do expect a lot of people who would've put off the MCAT until next year will be taking it this summer/fall. How that translates to the number of applicants will be interesting to see.
 
TheShaker said:
Advisors generally don't know what the hell they're talking about.
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I would say mine is one of the exceptions- he is excellent. That being said, a 30% increase in volume of applicants at our school doesn't necessarily reflect a bigger trend
 
Just a question related to this topic. I applied at 9:41 of the morning the application opened. I'm not verified yet, but I was just wondering roughly how many applicants apply right when the application opens compared to maybe mid June. I'm not looking for a literal number but more of just an idea.
 
medschoolmyname said:
Just a question related to this topic. I applied at 9:41 of the morning the application opened. I'm not verified yet, but I was just wondering roughly how many applicants apply right when the application opens compared to maybe mid June. I'm not looking for a literal number but more of just an idea.
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A lot more. 😉
 
childish93 said:
I would say mine is one of the exceptions- he is excellent. That being said, a 30% increase in volume of applicants at our school doesn't necessarily reflect a bigger trend
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Means there are more people applying to your school, not necessarily that there are more applicants in general. Could just be that people are getting paranoid and applying to more programs.
 
mvenus929 said:
Means there are more people applying to your school, not necessarily that there are more applicants in general. Could just be that people are getting paranoid and applying to more programs.
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Sorry I wasn't clear. A higher number of people from my undergrad institution are applying to medical school than usual this year, not the same number of applicants applying to more schools
 
childish93 said:
Sorry I wasn't clear. A higher number of people from my undergrad institution are applying to medical school than usual this year, not the same number of applicants applying to more schools
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Ah, my mistake. I can't remember if we've hit a peak of applicants yet, so it's possible more people are still applying this year, but I doubt it's the 30% higher your school is seeing across the board.
 
childish93 said:
Hey all,

I have heard from a couple friends and my school's advisor that there is going to be a significantly higher number of applicants this year due to upcoming changes in the MCAT. Has anyone else heard this? What do you think it means for us?
Click to expand...

Its no surprise. During my cycle (2013-2014) AMCAS tweeted that they had the highest volume of applicants ever.. i assume that trend will continue
 
Hemorrage said:
Its no surprise. During my cycle (2013-2014) AMCAS tweeted that they had the highest volume of applicants ever.. i assume that trend will continue
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in regards to this trend, isn't the age of applicants increasing as well? Anyone know how many medical students have a gap year or how many actually went straight through?
 
chillinillinkillin007 said:
in regards to this trend, isn't the age of applicants increasing as well? Anyone know how many medical students have a gap year or how many actually went straight through?
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Its hard to say. The latest AAMC data (which is the only real reputable national source) only shows years 2009-2012; however, the trend is quite obvious- there isn't one. At least for the years 2009-2012 years (and likely earlier than that too) the average has been 24 and every once in a while 25.

The important take away is that the "traditional" applicant that applies end of junior year in college is actually becoming/is-already the "non-traditional" applicant. Most people seem to apply 1-2 years after college leaving them at the age of 24-25 prior to matriculation at medical school.

https://www.aamc.org/download/321468/data/2012factstable6.pdf
 
Hemorrage said:
Its hard to say. The latest AAMC data (which is the only real reputable national source) only shows years 2009-2012; however, the trend is quite obvious- there isn't one. At least for the years 2009-2012 years (and likely earlier than that too) the average has been 24 and every once in a while 25.

The important take away is that the "traditional" applicant that applies end of junior year in college is actually becoming/is-already the "non-traditional" applicant. Most people seem to apply 1-2 years after college leaving them at the age of 24-25 prior to matriculation at medical school.

https://www.aamc.org/download/321468/data/2012factstable6.pdf
Click to expand...

Look for the median. I still think its about 22, or at least every place I interviewed coincidentally had a lot of younger people. You get a couple 30 year old guys and they'll skew the data.
 
Hemorrage said:
Its hard to say. The latest AAMC data (which is the only real reputable national source) only shows years 2009-2012; however, the trend is quite obvious- there isn't one. At least for the years 2009-2012 years (and likely earlier than that too) the average has been 24 and every once in a while 25.

The important take away is that the "traditional" applicant that applies end of junior year in college is actually becoming/is-already the "non-traditional" applicant. Most people seem to apply 1-2 years after college leaving them at the age of 24-25 prior to matriculation at medical school.

https://www.aamc.org/download/321468/data/2012factstable6.pdf
Click to expand...
Just as a curious question, since I feel that matriculation is discussed a lot less frequently on SDN than application...when the hell do med schools typically start anyway? For all of those who get in this cycle, when will they actually see their first class?
 
I have only looked at specific start dates for a few schools when there was still a bit of uncertainty in where I would be attending and trying to make travel plans, but it seemed like the ones I did look at tended to start the last week of July or first 1-1.5 weeks of August. n<7 though, so I'm sure there could be a lot more variation than this.
 
mehc012 said:
Just as a curious question, since I feel that matriculation is discussed a lot less frequently on SDN than application...when the hell do med schools typically start anyway? For all of those who get in this cycle, when will they actually see their first class?
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Early to mid August for most. Some start earlier, in July.
 
The 2012-2013 cycle had an increase of ~6% more applicants than the previous cycle and had the largest pool ever. While I don't believe any official numbers have been released for the 2013-2014 cycle, I do believe I remember hearing at one point that it had an even larger pool. If there is an increase in the 2014-2015 cycle, I would look to trends and factors other than the MCAT change.
 
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