When is considered late and problematic?

[FitnessDoc2012]

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After what date of verification and marked as complete for ALL(info, lor, mcat) by AACOMAS considered late and the odds decrease for admission? If I take MCAT in late July or early August am I in serious likelihood of not getting accepted if I have good stats? Thanks!

 

[swimchick]

After what date of verification and marked as complete for ALL(info, lor, mcat) by AACOMAS considered late and the odds decrease for admission? If I take MCAT in late July or early August am I in serious likelihood of not getting accepted if I have good stats? Thanks!

If you read the AACOMAS instructions, you'll see the AACOMAS (the "primary" application) doesn't close. It looks like some schools will take a complete AACOMAS primary in May.

Even if you don't take the MCAT until late summer, you should still have your AACOMAS application complete and ready to go. I think you can submit the primary app without your MCAT score, but you may not get any secondaries until the scores are in.

I took my MCAT on August 20, 2010 and, due to some issues in the Interfolio office, my AACOMAS was not verified until September 30th. I still managed an acceptance and received interviews at each school I applied to.

If you haven't already, I suggest you read AACOMAS' instructions to applicants...it has everything you need to know 🙂

 

[theone1979]

After what date of verification and marked as complete for ALL(info, lor, mcat) by AACOMAS considered late and the odds decrease for admission? If I take MCAT in late July or early August am I in serious likelihood of not getting accepted if I have good stats? Thanks!

There are many many threads on this subject and I encourage you to search through those.

Having said that, as someone who just went through this process and took the MCAT in mid-August of this past summer and then applied, I have some insight on this subject.

You can't really think of it is 2 categories (early and late).
It's a spectrum that runs from extremely early (complete with everything in June/July), to extremely late (Jan/Feb).

The bottom line is the earlier the better, and as things get later, your chances of being accepted decrease. They don't decrease dramatically if you complete in August, but your chances are not as good they would have been if u applied earlier.

As I said, I took the MCAT in mid Aug so I did not get my scores until mid-Sept. My AACOMAS was then verified late Sept. and I had all my secondaries in by early October.

The result has been that I have been invited to a ton of interivews but have been put on many waitlists and received 2 acceptances.

You just have to understand that as time goes by they have fewer spots to offer. So in my case for example, my application was strong enough to receive a ton of interview invites, but since many seats had already been given away by the time I had my interviews, many schools decided to waitlist me.

If you have extremely competitive stats, being on the late side won't hurt you too much, but if you have just standard competitive stats, it will be hard to be the "standout" of an interview group who is offered one of the few seats.

Early on you don't have to be a standout. They accept the vast majority of those who interview early in the season.

 

[FitnessDoc2012]

Do you guys mind posting your stats? Were you concerned that if you did not do as well as you liked on the mcat in august that then you would be completely out of the running for the application cycle? My two options are:

1) take MCAT in mid June after finishing just organic chem I this summer and have app completely verified by late July

2) take MCAT last week of July after finishing both organic chem I and II and have app completely verified by early september

any advice on which route to go?

thanks

 

[Rob C]

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[swimchick]

Do you guys mind posting your stats? Were you concerned that if you did not do as well as you liked on the mcat in august that then you would be completely out of the running for the application cycle? My two options are:

1) take MCAT in mid June after finishing just organic chem I this summer and have app completely verified by late July

2) take MCAT last week of July after finishing both organic chem I and II and have app completely verified by early september

any advice on which route to go?

thanks

Stats:

AACOMAS sGPA/cGPA: 3.26
MCAT 27Q

I also have some other items that I believed help me stand out.

I wasn't worried about taking the MCAT late because 1.) I was putting a lot of effort into my studying and 2.) since this was my 4th application cycle, I had already decided that if I bombed the MCAT, I wasn't going to try applying to med school again...I had a backup plan and I was done! Luckily, I never had to go to my plan B 🙂

I would finish orgo I and II and then take the MCAT. It's better to be fully prepped so that you give yourself every chance to score well on the test. Of course, this is all my opinion and ultimately this is all up to you.

 

[MLT2MT2DO]

If you read the AACOMAS instructions, you'll see the AACOMAS (the "primary" application) doesn't close. It looks like some schools will take a complete AACOMAS primary in May.

This is incorrect. OP: check the CIB for the schools you're interested. MSU's primary closes on Dec 1st of applying year and on the opposite end of the spectrum both LECOMs and Touro NY close on April 1st (though I wouldn't like you're odds if you actually waited until then).

 

[Kevin Baker]

It is so school dependent.

The first schools to start extending interviews are generally the LECOMs, sometime in middle July if I recall correctly. Meaning you want to be complete (primary) mid June to have the best shot everywhere. Most schools don't start interviewing until mid-late September if I recall correctly. Meaning you want to be complete mid July to maximize your shot.

Some schools are openly rolling, some say they aren't but are, and some aren't. I was complete mid July and attended a bunch of first interview days. Being complete earlier seems a waste, unless you are aiming for the LECOMs.

I consider being complete (primary) after September to be late. Your earliest interviews will most likely come in 4 weeks later, or late October to November, after quite a few acceptances have gone out. That's not to say you are seriously handicapped, and plenty of people do get in who submit around then, but you are handicapped at some rolling schools.

 

[swimchick]

This is incorrect. OP: check the CIB for the schools you're interested. MSU's primary closes on Dec 1st of applying year and on the opposite end of the spectrum both LECOMs and Touro NY close on April 1st (though I wouldn't like you're odds if you actually waited until then).

oops...I read the wrong column 🙂 Primary accepted until April 1st, secondary accepted until May 3rd at TouroNY. Thanks for pointing that out...don't want to be spreading bad info!

 

[Lijia4]

If you have solid EC's and LORs then having everything verified in September shouldn't be too much of an issue--but like TheOne said, the earlier you apply, the better chance you have of getting in. In my opinion, I see being complete in September to be a bit late, but if it means that you'll have a much better MCAT score, then go with that.

I wouldn't take Rob's advice to be universal. Getting your secondaries complete in December isn't ideal at all. While some people get lucky with this, it really isn't sound advice....

Do what you need to do so you can be the strongest applicant possible, while also getting your application complete as early as possible.

 

[MLT2MT2DO]

It is so school dependent.

The first schools to start extending interviews are generally the LECOMs, sometime in middle July if I recall correctly. Meaning you want to be complete (primary) mid June to have the best shot everywhere. Most schools don't start interviewing until mid-late September if I recall correctly. Meaning you want to be complete mid July to maximize your shot.

Some schools are openly rolling, some say they aren't but are, and some aren't. I was complete mid July and attended a bunch of first interview days. Being complete earlier seems a waste, unless you are aiming for the LECOMs.

I consider being complete (primary) after September to be late. Your earliest interviews will most likely come in 4 weeks later, or late October to November, after quite a few acceptances have gone out. That's not to say you are seriously handicapped, and plenty of people do get in who submit around then, but you are handicapped at some rolling schools.

Last year it was Touro-NV who was the early school to the punch. I fully expected to have to have my deposit sent into Touro-NV before I got an interview elsewhere, it turned out that Touro didn't even send out secondaries until September (if I remember right) this year. LECOM had their first interviews out June 29th this cycle, but have a huge class to fill.

I think if you're complete in September you're fine for the most part. Your August MCAT will be just fine.