What counts as a late completion date?

[candylover1729391]

I’m thinking of pushing my mcat back to July 15. If I submit my primary early and make sure to pre write my secondaries, would being complete mid august be too late?

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[GoSpursGo]

I generally think of anything in September as being late. In August, you're not so late that you're going to only be competing for a small number of interview seats, but you're certainly not early enough that schools' interview schedules will be wide open either.

So, it's not ideal. But you also don't want to take the MCAT when you're not ready and underperform. Only you can know how much time is needed to be "ready" for the MCAT. I will say that if you go much beyond July 15 to take the MCAT, you should likely think about delaying your application for a year.

 

[MCAThiccy]

As a reminder, October 15th is when the first wave of acceptances roll out. Submitting a completed application on October 1st is late for sure and not recommended if you can help it.

 

[eigen]

Agreeing with the other posts that I consider September/October primary submissions "late", with August starting to diminish your chances slightly.

I don't see a substantial difference between students submitting in June/July/Early August. At those points, it's the strength of the application that makes or breaks success chances.

 

[CalBear456]

Agreeing with the other posts that I consider September/October primary submissions "late", with August starting to diminish your chances slightly.

I don't see a substantial difference between students submitting in June/July/Early August. At those points, it's the strength of the application that makes or breaks success chances.

@GoSpursGo @gyngyn @eigen @wysdoc

Thank you so much for your feedback! I was wondering, do you view having our application fully completed (secondaries, letters, e.t.c) at schools by September 4th or September 19th, differently? Are they both still considered on time completion dates at most schools?

I know you said submitting primaries in August as diminishing our chances slightly, but what is your view on having our secondaries complete by either early or mid September?

 

[GoSpursGo]

@GoSpursGo @gyngyn @eigen @wysdoc

Thank you so much for your feedback! I was wondering, do you view having our application fully completed (secondaries, letters, e.t.c) at schools by September 4th or September 19th, differently? Are they both still considered on time completion dates at most schools?

I know you said submitting primaries in August as diminishing our chances slightly, but what is your view on having our secondaries complete by either early or mid September?

I pretty explicitly said being complete in September is late. 9/19 is worse than 9/4

 

[eigen]

@GoSpursGo @gyngyn @eigen @wysdoc

Thank you so much for your feedback! I was wondering, do you view having our application fully completed (secondaries, letters, e.t.c) at schools by September 4th or September 19th, differently? Are they both still considered on time completion dates at most schools?

I know you said submitting primaries in August as diminishing our chances slightly, but what is your view on having our secondaries complete by either early or mid September?

In general your secondaries should be completed ASAP after you receive them. I generally advise a 7-10 day turnaround for students. For students applying to a lot of schools, I recommend a prioritization pre-secondary so they have the ones they care most about completed quickly.

In this case, if you have a secondary invite that you could complete on 9/4 and you delay it until 9/19, I don't think that's wise if it's a school you're particularly interested in.

I'm not sure I'd consider 9/4 late (although @GoSpursGo is probably better to listen to than me there). In general, I suggest my students aim to be complete by 9/4 (Labor Day) with later than that potentially negatively impacting their application.