What's considered on-time when applying to DO schools?

[Dreamstoo]

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I've heard before September is usually considered early. I've had a friend who applied in mid Jan and matriculated into his top choice with decent stats. Lizzy M of 63 (GPA*10 + MCAT)

 

[deleted480308]

You are too late for real chances this year so apply opening day next year. There is little reason to apply late other than bad planning.

I applied day one with a poor gpa and a good mcat, had more interview invites than I could afford and an acceptance by the end of august. That's how you want it to work, not hoping someone bails and opens up a spot because you had three interviews in late february or something crazy like that

 

[Dreamstoo]

You are too late for real chances this year so apply opening day next year. There is little reason to apply late other than bad planning.

I applied day one with a poor gpa and a good mcat, had more interview invites than I could afford and an acceptance by the end of august. That's how you want it to work, not hoping someone bails and opens up a spot because you had three interviews in late february or something crazy like that

I don't plan to apply this cycle but I'm trying to apply by September-October next cycle. And yeah, I'm assuming my friend is one of the lucky few who get that opportunity to be accepted while applying quite late.

 

[Gordon Gekko]

I don't plan to apply this cycle but I'm trying to apply by September-October next cycle. And yeah, I'm assuming my friend is one of the lucky few who get that opportunity to be accepted while applying quite late.

Like sb247 said, forget September/October. Have your trigger ready to pull by July, secondaries pre-written (heck, write them now if you have time), LORs and shadowing good to go. Kick back, relax, and wait for the II's to roll in. If you want to feel a rush, go ahead an apply in October....or go skydiving.

 

[cabinbuilder]

I don't plan to apply this cycle but I'm trying to apply by September-October next cycle. And yeah, I'm assuming my friend is one of the lucky few who get that opportunity to be accepted while applying quite late.

No, you need to apply June 1st when it opens. You have 6 months to prepare. Setting yourself up for failure applying that late (Sept).

 

[Dreamstoo]

No, you need to apply June 1st when it opens. You have 6 months to prepare. Setting yourself up for failure applying that late.

Well I might be taking the new MCAT sometime in June-August for 2015. So I'm not really so what to do if I plan to go that route.

 

[cabinbuilder]

Well I might be taking the new MCAT sometime in June-August for 2015. So I'm not really so what to do if I plan to go that route.

You don't have to hold your application for the MCAT. You apply with MCAT pending. Of course if you bomb the MCAT then it's a moot point. You can always withdraw your app.

 

[Goro]

Depends upon the school, but at mine, candidates who apply that late start getting looked at more closely under the 'scope when they interview in early Spring. I suspect that apps received by Jan/Feb may end up interviewing for rationed seats or spots on wait lists.

The earlier one applies, the better.

I've heard before September is usually considered early. I've had a friend who applied in mid Jan and matriculated into his top choice with decent stats. Lizzy M of 63 (GPA*10 + MCAT)

 

[ChrisGriffen]

I've heard before September is usually considered early. I've had a friend who applied in mid Jan and matriculated into his top choice with decent stats. Lizzy M of 63 (GPA*10 + MCAT)

Sounds like this process hasnt ever been clearly explained to you.
There are no medical schools that I know of that accept primary applications as late as mid Jan, so theres that.


You will open amcas/aacomas on day one, fill them out carefully and have a few little essay/paragraph spots. This will take you a few days at best. You really should take time to make sure its clean and good. No spelling errors or anything like that.
You will have to get transcripts from any colleges that you received course credit from. This can take one month or longer to show up on the application site depending on how lazy your college admin are. You will also need to get letters or recommendation sent to the site to be uploaded. This can also take a long time. Then when you have all that completed and processed and so forth you click submit.

From that point the site will say "processing" which means essentially nothing to us. If you apply early, it will take ~ a month to process. The longer you wait to submit, the longer it takes to process. This is because there are more and more people applying as you drag your feet to hit submit. I have heard some classmates say it took them 6-8 weeks.

THEN it will say something along the lines of "sent out to schools"

You then wait for secondaries. Each school will contact you with a small packet or online thingy but you have to write essays specific to each school. They are similar enough that you should save all your essays on your comp to see if you can reuse them, but mostly you will need a unique set of essays per school.

You send that back, and wait for the school to confirm that they received it. Schools get thousands of applicants. It can take a few weeks for them to confirm to you that they received anything.




If you can get ALL THAT done before September, you are about "on time". This is a long ass process. THATS why everyone is telling you, and I agree, you NEED to get started on June 1st, the earliest possible.

If you wait til September to start this process, you will have a miserable semester of college and I guarantee you will rush it. Start early, and do a good job on those essays.

This stuff matters.

Good luck

 

[ananasmed]

Sounds like this process hasnt ever been clearly explained to you.
There are no medical schools that I know of that accept primary applications as late as mid Jan, so theres that.


You will open amcas/aacomas on day one, fill them out carefully and have a few little essay/paragraph spots. This will take you a few days at best. You really should take time to make sure its clean and good. No spelling errors or anything like that.
You will have to get transcripts from any colleges that you received course credit from. This can take one month or longer to show up on the application site depending on how lazy your college admin are. You will also need to get letters or recommendation sent to the site to be uploaded. This can also take a long time. Then when you have all that completed and processed and so forth you click submit.

From that point the site will say "processing" which means essentially nothing to us. If you apply early, it will take ~ a month to process. The longer you wait to submit, the longer it takes to process. This is because there are more and more people applying as you drag your feet to hit submit. I have heard some classmates say it took them 6-8 weeks.

THEN it will say something along the lines of "sent out to schools"

You then wait for secondaries. Each school will contact you with a small packet or online thingy but you have to write essays specific to each school. They are similar enough that you should save all your essays on your comp to see if you can reuse them, but mostly you will need a unique set of essays per school.

You send that back, and wait for the school to confirm that they received it. Schools get thousands of applicants. It can take a few weeks for them to confirm to you that they received anything.




If you can get ALL THAT done before September, you are about "on time". This is a long ass process. THATS why everyone is telling you, and I agree, you NEED to get started on June 1st, the earliest possible.

If you wait til September to start this process, you will have a miserable semester of college and I guarantee you will rush it. Start early, and do a good job on those essays.

This stuff matters.

Good luck

Excellent 100% on point advice, just one nitpicky thing about the letters of rec. AMCAS collects letters but AACOMAS does not. So for OP/anyone else reading this, the easiest thing to do is have your letters uploaded directly by your recommenders to a site like Interfolio that will collect and store the letters. Then you can send each letter/any combination of letters to each school you apply to (and/or also send them to AMCAS if you're applying to MD schools too). Definitely make sure to request your letters early and stay on your recommenders to remind them of your deadline, for a lot of people this seems to be a "rate limiting step" of sorts...

 

[deleted480308]

Excellent 100% on point advice, just one nitpicky thing about the letters of rec. AMCAS collects letters but AACOMAS does not. So for OP/anyone else reading this, the easiest thing to do is have your letters uploaded directly by your recommenders to a site like Interfolio that will collect and store the letters. Then you can send each letter/any combination of letters to each school you apply to (and/or also send them to AMCAS if you're applying to MD schools too). Definitely make sure to request your letters early and stay on your recommenders to remind them of your deadline, for a lot of people this seems to be a "rate limiting step" of sorts...

For real...start in january having your letter writers submit to jnterfolio....they will all take longer than you think

 

[DoctorSynthesis]

No, you need to apply June 1st when it opens. You have 6 months to prepare. Setting yourself up for failure applying that late.

Don't know what you're referring to as late. I applied in October and got in. But if you are referring to Jan/Feb then yea I agree!


@Goro once made a timeframe of what is considered early/late. I believe august July and June is early September October on time November and later is late. I don't recall what he said exactly though. And obviously the earlier the better. But if you're complete by October I think thats OK (it was for me). Goro usually says the DO cycle is longer!!!

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

Echoing what was said already. You need to hit the iron while it's hot. If you're just beginning to submit primaries in October then you're going to be losing out enormously at prospective schools.

If you need to take the mcat in August, have your primary already cleared and completed by September so that all you need to do is send in your scores to schools. But it is preferable that you have everything done earlier.

 

[Goro]

At my school, even Nov/Dec isn't too late!

Don't know what you're referring to as late. I applied in October and got in. But if you are referring to Jan/Feb then yea I agree!


@Goro once made a timeframe of what is considered early/late. I believe august July and June is early September October on time November and later is late. I don't recall what he said exactly though. And obviously the earlier the better. But if you're complete by October I think thats OK (it was for me). Goro usually says the DO cycle is longer!!!

 

[The_Sunny_Doc]

Based on personal experience, I'm siding with those who are dissuading you. Now is definitely considered late in the cycle. You could very well flush $2,000 down the toilet and have to apply as a re-applicant at a bunch of schools the next cycle.