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The 2026-2027 MD School Specific Threads are now live in the School Specific Discussions forum. The 2025-2026 cycle threads can be found here. -
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What is considered “late”?
Started by soon2bemd2026
I don't know how much monitoring you do, but I generally applied around the same time and struggled with watching people who submitted in late June to early July get interviews in August. To be fair, I acknowledge I haven't personally experienced radio silence, but given I sent secondaries to 51 schools, that's still ~45 I haven't heard back from.
It felt almost like things were roughly chronological by submission date to a point, and then things became a lot more random and sporadic. I think the frustration comes from not knowing if you've been reviewed yet or not at this point.
It's hard not to look back and think that the "first batch" heuristic applies to secondaries too.
Hope the 2026 people are reading.
It felt almost like things were roughly chronological by submission date to a point, and then things became a lot more random and sporadic. I think the frustration comes from not knowing if you've been reviewed yet or not at this point.
It's hard not to look back and think that the "first batch" heuristic applies to secondaries too.
Hope the 2026 people are reading.
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I'll say it again. This is a long slog for those who are reading and evaluating applications. We start around the time college football starts (late August) and we keep reading and evaluating right through early December (Army-Navy Game). There is sometimes a bit more to read right through the bowl games, particularly at schools that have interview schedules that run into February or later.
We are only half way through October. There are at least 6 more weekends of college football so cool your jets. You can't cry about no interviews until Black Friday (why it is called Black Friday, right?). This is an exhausting wait but there is no way around it. The readers are reading as quickly as they can without being overwhelmed and having everything blend together resulting in mistakes that can cost YOU an interview. The way the work is assigned, you might be the first of 60 that a reviewer looks at in a two week period and sends on for an interview or you might be the last and that could be 2 or 3 weeks later (if we have a 2 week deadline sometimes it is 3 weeks before we finish). And they aren't being assigned to readers FIFO (first in /first out) but might be sorted and ranked in some way (preference for in-state zip codes, or feeder schools, or MCAT/GPA, etc).
We are only half way through October. There are at least 6 more weekends of college football so cool your jets. You can't cry about no interviews until Black Friday (why it is called Black Friday, right?). This is an exhausting wait but there is no way around it. The readers are reading as quickly as they can without being overwhelmed and having everything blend together resulting in mistakes that can cost YOU an interview. The way the work is assigned, you might be the first of 60 that a reviewer looks at in a two week period and sends on for an interview or you might be the last and that could be 2 or 3 weeks later (if we have a 2 week deadline sometimes it is 3 weeks before we finish). And they aren't being assigned to readers FIFO (first in /first out) but might be sorted and ranked in some way (preference for in-state zip codes, or feeder schools, or MCAT/GPA, etc).
Hey, it's just the rest of our lives. No pressure!
At this point you all have enough of my personal information to dox me many times over. If you let me in to your school, I promise, I will be involved in admissions from my first day on campus. I would be very pleased to contribute my SDN hot takes to your committee.
Students at my school have no role that requires looking at applications so while your offer is generous, it wouldn't help the process get any faster.
Try other things to keep your mind off the process. For example, I'm extremely pissed a certain lunatic imposed 100% tariffs on China and caused the crypto market to crash. Albeit, it is clearly a negotiating tactic for the SPEC summit, so once he reverses said tariffs, the crypto market will rebound. And also, because of the shutdown, Solana ETFs aren't getting approved by the SEC, which has also impeded the crypto market.
See how agonizing over other things does wonders for keeping your mind off the application cycle?
Albeit, both put you in a hellhole you can't control, but at least this predicament's results are more immediate and I don't bug adcoms on SDN. I have not once worried about interviews this entire cycle.😇😇😇
See how agonizing over other things does wonders for keeping your mind off the application cycle?
Albeit, both put you in a hellhole you can't control, but at least this predicament's results are more immediate and I don't bug adcoms on SDN. I have not once worried about interviews this entire cycle.😇😇😇
Previously
Ask the medical students at the schools where you want to attend (when you were networking before you began applying). Some schools have a majority of students who interviewed in February-April of their cycle, even as they submitted in July-September.
Your mission fit determines your success. I would not give up hope on your in-state chances so early.
Ask the medical students at the schools where you want to attend (when you were networking before you began applying). Some schools have a majority of students who interviewed in February-April of their cycle, even as they submitted in July-September.
Your mission fit determines your success. I would not give up hope on your in-state chances so early.
Last edited:
rettygologama
Full Member
Is it worth it to keep submitting secondaries? Are they reviewed in order of received or other things as well?
Most schools don’t review in order
Yes, other things as well so if you are a military veteran with a 3.95/519 you might move to the top of the heap despite applying in mid-October. For everyone else, you should have secondaries and letters in by Labor Day.
To the OP, being complete in late July/early August isn't "late," but it certainly isn't "early" either. You more or less take yourself out of the running for the earliest interviews and, by extension, first acceptances on 10/15.
However, every school has many more acceptances yet to be handed out than have already been given, and all that matters is that you EVENTUALLY get an A, not that you get it in the first batch. So while you may have prolonged your anxiety by a few extra weeks-months while you have to await your app being reviewed and get through your interviews, your ultimate outcome is very likely to be the same as it would have been had you submitted in June. ADDITIONALLY, if you waited to submit for a good reason (you needed your MCAT re-take to come in, you needed a few more weeks to build up EC hours, etc) then you probably will have a better final outcome than if you'd rushed to submit earlier.
In the end, what's done is done. You weren't late, but you do need to be patient for a little while longer.
However, every school has many more acceptances yet to be handed out than have already been given, and all that matters is that you EVENTUALLY get an A, not that you get it in the first batch. So while you may have prolonged your anxiety by a few extra weeks-months while you have to await your app being reviewed and get through your interviews, your ultimate outcome is very likely to be the same as it would have been had you submitted in June. ADDITIONALLY, if you waited to submit for a good reason (you needed your MCAT re-take to come in, you needed a few more weeks to build up EC hours, etc) then you probably will have a better final outcome than if you'd rushed to submit earlier.
In the end, what's done is done. You weren't late, but you do need to be patient for a little while longer.
