When is it considered “late” to submit a secondary?

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calipremed5768

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I am thinking about adding 5 to 10 more schools just to be safe. If I submit the secondary within the next two weeks is it just a waste of money because I’m not applying early?
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Okay thanks. By the way Am I throwing money away by applying to any of the following schools. Might submit primary to these

SUNY downstate
Maryland
Wisconsin
Ohio state
Iowa
Minnesota
Rosalind Franklin
Drexel
UPENN
UFlorida
 
calipremed5768 said:
When is late? I might end up adding 15 more because I’m worried about messing up nyu interview and then won’t get another II
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What makes you think you will mess up your NYU interview and/or that you won't get others? Alot of places don't even start reviewing apps for interviews until like August.
 
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Calizboosted76 said:
Would there be a point in submitting to MD schools after labor day? I know it is late but do people still receive interviews if late?
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I had a friend who submitted primary September 25th and all secondaries by mid October. They got II at both our state schools, one R, one WL. So yes, you can apply late. But anecdotally, it does not yield success
 
MemeLord said:
I had a friend who submitted primary September 25th and all secondaries by mid October. They got II at both our state schools, one R, one WL. So yes, you can apply late. But anecdotally, it does not yield success
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were they a high stats applicant?
 
LabileEmotions said:
N of 1. I submitted all my applications in August, except for one which I submitted in early September. Got 9 IIs, most at T10s. Four acceptances. Going to the school I submitted in early September, a T-3.

There is a reflexive impulse on SDN to get everything in by the end of July. This, imo, tradeoffs quality for efficiency. To attempt to get 25+ secondaries completed in 3-4 weeks and to get them done well is sheer madness. Many of these essays, I know, will *&ck.

There are reasons to get a very few done early, for those schools exquisitely sensitive to yield (e.g. Chicago) but most schools are OK with getting them in by Labor Day.

The breathlessness evinced on SDN regarding this and other issues is staggeringly ignorant, shows a remarkable lack of critical thinking, and does not bode well for most.
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What's the connection? I don't get it.
 
LabileEmotions said:
Read the OP's post.

He is asking if he has time to submit more secondaries, fearing that he will be wasting his money if hasn't already submitted. Last I checked it is July 28th.
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I don't understand the connection to U Chicago's yield sensitivity or any school's yield sensitivity.

One has to submit earlier to those schools? Why?
 
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LabileEmotions said:
If a school has low yield as Chicago does (it competes for top students, many of whom come from high population areas on both coasts, and competes with top schools from those coasts), why do YOU think it would be important to apply as early as possible?
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Essentially all the T20s are in the same boat. That’s why I don’t understand why you’re singling out U Chicago.
 
gonnif said:
Understand this process: Schools get 5000+ applications and are only able to fully process at max 500 per week when they are are full capacity. With it still being summer at academic institutions, with many faculty away until late August, the vast majority of schools are not at full capacity. So with all these thousands of applications, the "timing" here is to make sure you get into the application queue early enough to get reviewed by Thanksgiving or thereabouts. By that point, the admissions committee must start moving their focus from interview invite decisions to admissions decision

So as I have said time and time again, to insure that application timing/lateness doesnt have an impact on your chances:
For all applicants at all programs, even highly competitive ones, being complete by Labor Day is considered safe
For solid applicants at most other programs, being complete by mid-to-late September is considered safe
By Oct 1, you start running into the the impact of lateness that will vary widely across schools and cannot be discretely measured.

Also realize that the processing queue order is not static but dynamic. Application and candidate evaluations timeline varies widely by school may not done in a linear, chronological order. EDP, High achievers, URM, family of alumni, feeder schools, associated UG programs, linked postbaccs, and other factor may push an app forward in the process.

********AMCAS 2020 Timeline Summary (post count #026)************
-AMCAS May 1, 2019, Primary application opens up. Can send formal requests for transcripts from your schools and letter requests to your letter writers.
-AMCAS May 30, 2019, Completed primary applications with all ECs, PS, and course information can be submitted.
-You enter the verification queue (“time to verify”) only when both completed primary application and all transcripts have been received.
-AMCAS does not, repeat, does not verify LOR or MCAT score. Your primary application will be verified regardless of LOR or MCAT score status
-AMCAS June 28, 2019, begins transmission verified applications (though some schools have secondaries sent to contact info upon submission to AMCAS)
-Verification peak is about August 1st and takes 20 days
-Most Primary Apps are transmitted early July thru early September
-Secondaries timelines can vary widely as to when to they are sent out from almost immediately upon submissions to 3 months, though most are in the range 1-3 weeks after transmission.
-Letters via AMCAS are processed/transmitted separately from primary
-Letters can be added after primary has been submitted and transmitted and are mostly not needed until secondary reviews at the earliest.
-While applications are transmitted at end of June, most schools do not start any processing until at least mid-July at the earliest; even then, most dont get up to full speed until mid-August.
-There are usually 3 main phases in processing application
----1) Initial Screening/Evaluation: A hybrid of automatic GPA/MCAT screen plus human for "quick review" of application. Used to for general priority and, in some cases, which team/subcommittee gets application. At some schools, preset criteria or informal policy can lead to II at this stage.
----2) Full Evaluation: This is where evaluator/reader/team/subcommittee will fully evaluate all sections of primary, secondary, and LOR and generally summarize in broad categories or point system. This essentially becomes your priority for adcom review and II. This function may be split up among several evaluators and may go to a team or subcommittee for II decision. Application are not typically evaluated until complete with Primary, Secondary, MCAT, and LOR
----3) Full adcom: this is where your fully evaluated application is reviewed and voted on by adcom for II on later on for acceptance/WL/rejection
-Application and candidate evaluations timeline varies widely by school may not done in a linear, chronological order. EDP, High achievers, URM, family of alumni, feeder schools, associated UG programs, linked postbaccs, and other factor may push an app forward in the process.
-Most adcoms dont start meeting for review of evaluated applicants until at least mid-August, more likely September, though some reviews may be done earlier for groups mentioned above. Evaluation may start almost immediately at some schools.
-Schools receive 5,000-10,000 application but can only evaluate several hundred applications a week. Therefore, it can take anywhere from 4-16 weeks (1-4 months) or more to be evaluated, reviewed and invited for interview after your application is complete.
-Schools must reduce several thousand applications to several hundred interviews. Therefore at least 80% of applicants at any individual school must be rejected pre-interview.
-Applicants should check each applicant portal daily until application is marked complete, under review, or similar. After that, you should check applicant portal 2 to 3 times as week as schools may invite you for interview solely by portal; some schools do not send email for interview invite.
-Submitting Primary Application June is Early, July Medium, August Late
-Having Primary verified and transmitted to school by middle of August is normal speed
-Having Secondary and all LORs complete to school by Labor Day is early/ontime. By late or end of September is about middle/normal speed, by end of October is about late.
--After that point you will generally start getting impacted by the number of applications submitted, the finite number of interview slots, and seats given by rolling admissions. These aren’t absolute dates nor is it a fixed timeline. It should be used as a guideline
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MemeLord said:
UChicago is much less likely to attract high stats candidates due simply to resources available and location. They send out a LOT of interviews for their relatively small class size because they need to screen a lot of people to determine who is most likely to actually stay with them/matriculate them on campus
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Can you elaborate?
Are we thinking of the same Uchicago here? uchicago Pritzker which has some sky high stats? I would think they get the cream of the crop...
 
gonnif said:
Uchicago pritzker attracts the same level applicants as does Harvard Hopkins and other T20 but does not have as “prestigious” name as the others. So acceptees may choose other institutions over them. Additionally, Chicago maybe perceived as less of an attractive big city as other places.
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Verrrry interesting!
Okay tbh I also did not know that chicago pritzer was as high on the MSAR stats. If i rememeber correctly they have a very tight range also.
Now I know that school is extremely competitive but I also didnt know that students would forego Chicago just bc of the “name.”
Knowing this, I would assume maybe the candidates arent as super well rounded (relative to the other T10 etc) if the school is placing a huge emphasis on numbers... but I could be totally totally wrong.
 
gonnif said:
Actually I find Uchicago likes non trads but certainly is a research powerhouse
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Yes! They have a lot of $$$ too I bet.
Too bad they probably dont even look at the <518/520 MCAts but i guess they can afford to!
 
MemeLord said:
Can confirm - have an II here and I am <10% for their cGPA accepted. Just barely above for matriculates. Will follow up on their Non-trad preferences come Oct 15 :angelic:
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What is October 15?
 
gonnif said:
Lets word this a little differently; its the first day the medical school CAN give out acceptances. However, most acceptances will come out in small drips to well after the first of the year
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Yes, the rephrase is better. I know there are many schools that don’t even send out acceptances until March.
 
And also to just add to what i wrote earlier, to put it into perspective (also for any lurkers reading or feeling discouraged), given the proportion of the high stats on here, it’s a very self selected crowd and I think most of you guys will get IIs eventually even if not on the first day.

If nothing by next June, at least Trump University or LUCOM will be there for us
 
LabileEmotions said:
This is simple not true. And demonstrates the lack of critical thinking that I referred to originally. it also drives sub-optimal decision-making by frightened applicants.
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I had to check your status and confirm that you’re a premed. With your attitude, I would have thought that you were the Dean of Harvard Med.

There’s nothing inherently logical about your view that one should apply to au Chicago because it’s yield sensitive. That statement might be true if you make a number of assumptions. Chicago doesn’t have early decision AFAIK so you can’t show interest in a clear cut way by applying ED or EA as you can in the elite college admissions game.
 
LabileEmotions said:
@MyOdyssey

While I may be "a premed", I have spent the last three years as a consultant with a well-known management consulting firm. For over a year of my tenure, I was part of an engagement team that studied the major challenges facing academic medical centers (AMCs). These challenges are many and serious, brought about, in large part, by major changes in reimbursement policies and the growth of lower-cost, high quality hospital systems.

As part of this work, a colleague and I interviewed, fact-to-face, all of the medical school deans of what are generally considered the top 15 AMCs. We interviewed similarly all of their direct reports (e.g. heads of hospitals, heads of research, heads of education, COOs, etc.). As a result of these interviews and other analytical work I participated in, I have a pretty detailed understanding of the specific strategic, operational and financial issues faced by each AMC, including their competitive challenges across multiple domains (including, but not limited to, competition for medical students, and the tactics used to attract them.) I have had the opportunity to co-author 3 articles in a prominent management journal regarding the insights we found during this study and have been part of the team than has briefed senior leaders and board members of these 15 AMCs.

I answered the OP's question very specifically and offered, what I believe is very solid, non-controversial advice.

I would suggest this advice to you. When you have dug a hole for yourself, stop digging.
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Yet you can't explain why - logically - one should apply to U Chicago early and other T20s not so much - based on yield sensitivity.

Nor have you offered any experience based nuggets of wisdom from your time with McKinsey/Bain/BCG.

Rattling off your relevant experience isn't a substitute for explaining the logical underpinnings of your assertion.
 
Engrailed said:
Yes! They have a lot of $$$ too I bet.
Too bad they probably dont even look at the <518/520 MCAts but i guess they can afford to!
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Fwiw, managed to bag an II at Chicago with sub 520. Shoot my student host at Pritzker had the same range MCAT as me. So yeah, they can afford to do so but doesn't mean one is automatically shutout atleast from my experience. Pritzker was honestly one of my favorite programs but the universe had different plans for me.
 
LabileEmotions said:
Chicago and a handful of yield sensitive top schools use a number of variables including timing of submission of the secondary application to determine who is more likely to accept an offer of admission. Therefore, applying in July makes sense. Schools like Harvard and Penn that are not sensitive to yield do not use the timing of the secondary application submission or any other variable to determine who is likely to accept their offers . This is consistent with my answer to the OP's question.

@MyOdyssey. I am getting of tired of schooling you. But you seem completely resistant to thinking critically for yourself.
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@LabileEmotions -- unlike some others here, I actually am impressed with your experience and therefore have a lot of respect for your insights, but I also do not understand the correlation between yield sensitivity-high tier and preference for early applications. Assuming Chicago actually uses that, with a 35% yield, how is it working out for them?

Is the theory really that an early application indicates increased interest (I think the observed neuroses on SDN would readily refute that 🙂)? Is the expectation really that an early application, interview and acceptance would cause a candidate to withdraw other T20, T15, T10, or T-whatever applications, and consequently increase Chicago's yield, unless that candidate already had Chicago or wherever as their #1?

If so, that's counterintuitive to me, since I cannot imagine doing all this work and then suddenly stopping once I received a single offer. Sure, it would take the pressure off, because I would know I'm going to a US MD program, but I can't believe a single person who didn't already have Chicago as #1 would stop the process and give up a shot at any school they would rather go to just because Chicago looked more favorably on them because they submitted early.

Bottom line - given that the average candidate applies to dozens of schools, the timing of the applications likely has more to do with the urgency the candidate feels to get applications in as opposed to preference for one school over another. The school you preferred the most is the one you applied to last.

On the other hand, given what you previously said about why they overemphasize stats, that they have to make three offers of admission for every seat they want to fill, and that there are a finite number of candidates with top stats, I would think they would be more forgiving than Harvard or Penn about when an application was received.

tl; dr - I don't understand how favoring early applications helps a yield challenged, yield sensitive school, because if Chicago does it, it doesn't work. If they really cared about yield, they'd lower their stat standards and increase their yield by not competing quite as much with Harvard, Penn, Stanford, etc. for the same candidates.
 
LabileEmotions said:
Chicago and a handful of yield sensitive top schools use a number of variables including timing of submission of the secondary application to determine who is more likely to accept an offer of admission. Therefore, applying in July makes sense. Schools like Harvard and Penn that are not sensitive to yield do not use the timing of the secondary application submission or any other variable to determine who is likely to accept their offers . This is consistent with my answer to the OP's question.

@MyOdyssey. I am getting of tired of schooling you. But you seem completely resistant to thinking critically for yourself.
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As others (see, e.g. @KnightDoc) have pointed out, the timing of application submission is a weak signal of genuine interest. I point you to my earlier post in this thread comparing early submission in the medical school context to an early decision or early application submission in the selective college context. Therefore, one can't logically deduce that a medical school would place great weight on that factor in ascertaining interest.

Further, your self-described strategy of narrowly focusing early submissions on yield sensitive medical schools - as opposed to the SDN consensus strategy of applying as early as possible to all schools - doesn't work. That's because almost every private medical school has a reason to be yield sensitive - if that is to be defined as sensitive to the possibility that a higher ranking school will draw away your potential matriculants. That's true of any T20 except possibly Harvard, Stanford, Hopkins, Penn?, UCSF?. It's also true of private medical schools ranked below T20 - e.g. Emory, Case Western, etc. So, how exactly are we to narrow our early submissions in a meaningful way? We can't assume that schools will make their admissions considerations publicly and honestly known because for schools to do so would allow applicants to strategize around them accordingly.

You know, from your immersion in the field, that Chicago is one of the schools that currently looks at early application submission. That's not a result of reasoning out what their strategy must be; it's a result of your being an insider.

@LabileEmotions Keep patting yourself on the back and giving yourself high-fives. I bet all of your McKinsey friends do the same thing and think it's just the coolest.
 
LabileEmotions said:
I simply added that for some yield sensitive schools, it is best for applicants to submit in July.
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That's the part I've been interrogating and that you continue to struggle to defend. As I've pointed out, and you can't deny, just about any T5-T35 can be described as yield sensitive insofar as they face competition from other private medical schools that are in their tier. You've had multiple opportunities to explain this.

You have a hard time distinguishing between (a) you know something because you worked intensely in the field and (b) you figured something out based on information widely available to the public at large.

Paraphrasing Kenny Rogers doesn't make you a tough guy cowboy or cool. Neither does repeatedly high-fiving yourself.
 
409.gif
 
LabileEmotions said:
I defended it very clearly. When you have NO basis for authority, as you clearly don't, and you don't have the ability to reason criticality than you ought not to engage. All your tricks have failed. You are best to withdraw.
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The McKinsey/Bain/BCG consultants I know were way too busy to be defending themselves on a message board the way you're doing here.
 
Engrailed said:
You guys are alllll very adorable honestly. Take two of these....(xanax)
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Are you not entertained? Just call me "The Spaniard [or the Gaul]"?

If you look closely, you can see a woman with T-shirt and jeans standing next to a camera on the far left hand side of the screen. Is that you @EmbryonalCarcinoma?
 
MyOdyssey said:


Are you not entertained? Just call me "The Spaniard [or the Gaul]"?

If you look closely, you can see a woman with T-shirt and jeans standing next to a camera on the far left hand side of the screen. Is that you @EmbryonalCarcinoma?
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This almost reminds of that other thread where ppl were talking about how they taught zeus the basics of lightning
 
LabileEmotions said:
@KnightDoc. Thank you for your compliment, albeit left-handed. Your post is tedious and a bit confused, imo, but I'll attempt to address your questions/issues/concerns.

First, you make an assumption that at 35% yield that the strategy Chicago is pursuing is not working. The relevant question to ask is "What would Chicago's yield be if it didn't follow a deliberate strategy?". It's entirely possibly it would be 25% or even 20%. That would not be a good look for prospective students, for donors (who are increasingly important as a source of funding) and for top talent that it is trying to recruit.

Yes, applying early is one, but only one of the variables, it uses to attempt to determine whether an admitted applicant is likely to accept. There are others that I'm not at liberty to share here. But this one variable is public and fairly well-known. They do not expect nor require accepted candidates to withdraw from other schools. The point of their strategy is that they will have accepted enough of the types of candidates that have a PROPENSITY to choose them, and thus enough of the candidates will.

Pursuing high MCAT candidates is not inconsistent with wanting to increase or maintain yield. It is very consistent with the signaling and positioning need that "we are a premier institution, just like (you name your top schools)". They and other top schools get more than enough high stat applicants. Their issue is not getting enough of these candidates, it's getting enough of the accepted ones to accept them.

In your last paragraph, you posit that they should lower admissions standards so as to not go head-to-head for students with other top schools. A few points on that. You need to open your aperture a bit. A school like Chicago competes on multiple fronts, not just for medical students. Importantly, it competes for funding from donors (increasingly), federal agencies and public and private companies. It competes for top talent - researchers, faculty, and administrators. Admissions policy is only one part of a broad holistic strategy of competitive positioning as a top tier academic medical center. Pursuing your admissions approach would be counter productive to what Chicago is attempting to do.

BTW, have you taken me up on my suggestion to open your own thread on the ins and outs of AMCAS's new traffic rules?

@EmbryonalCarcinoma - You are Thumbs Upping and Wowing all over the place. If you have something to add, why don't you throw your hat in the ring? Get out of the bleachers and onto the field!
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@LabileEmotions -- my compliment was totally meant to be right-handed, so I hope you take it that way. You have gone through the process way more successfully than most, and you have an insider's perspective from your consulting work that needs to be valued. My disagreement comes not from a lack of respect to what you bring to the table; rather, it comes from my just not seeing the supposed correlation.

I will try to address your points in order:

1 - Does any T20 school have a yield below 30%? If not, why would Chicago think its yield might otherwise be there? I made a spreadsheet of 35 schools I'm looking at, from #1 to RNP and Unranked, and none has a yield lower than 30%.

2 - Is there any evidence at all to support the contention that an early application, interview or acceptance increases anyone's propensity to choose any school over what it would have been anyway? Again, if people don't withdraw from other schools, what evidence is there that it has any effect at all?

3 - I totally get all of the reasons why they want a high MCAT class, and all of them are legitimate and I'm sure contribute to their T20 ranking. My point was not to suggest that they lower their standards to achieve what they are trying to do; rather it was only that their high standards are inconsistent with achieving a high yield when they are competing with #s 1-15 on the coasts for the exact same students. Their yield would certainly go up if the people they accepted didn't have as many perceived better options (i.e., if they were competing with Emory and Rochester for candidates, their yield would be higher than when they compete with Harvard and Penn).

There is a reason 2 out of every 3 people they accept don't go there, and I cannot believe it has anything to do with (or is foreshadowed by) when they submit their secondaries. (Have you seen anything to suggest that their yield is higher among candidates who were complete in July versus August?) I know you studied it at a big consulting firm and I'm only studying it here, but I'm not convinced that applying early anywhere is an indication of likelihood to accept, unless it's early decision. Applying early seems to be a function of perceived advantage in getting an II, not an indication of school preference, since it seems as though those that apply early do so everywhere, not just at the schools they are most likely to attend. Again, aren't you living proof of this?

Everything you have said makes a ton of sense, other than the fact that Chicago thinks favoring early applications increases their yield, since their yield is on the low end for a T20 school even though their stats are near the top. This indicates they are chasing stats at the expense of yield, not that they are successfully increasing yield by using application timing as a proxy for interest in the school.

As far as your traffic rule suggestion - not yet. Nerves are still kind of raw on the WL thread, so I don't see the value of opening it up at the very beginning of the next cycle. I got 90% of what I was looking for in the discussion, insofar as I have a pretty good understanding of how everything works, and my expectations are set going forward.

From the schools' perspective, the new system worked great, because by and large they held the line and did not interfere with commitments made to their peers. When the time comes, if it doesn't happen organically, I will lobby for a change that does not require some candidates to withdraw from WLs before others. Given that there was no chaos at the end, there is no reason they cannot have a common date earlier in the cycle (May-June) in which all accepted candidates are committed to one school, and allowed to accept any offers off WLs, just like undergrad. Also, since AMCAS doesn't want to be in the enforcement business, it should give tools to the schools to allow them to enforce their own rules regarding CTE and WLs (i.e., allow the schools to see which of their accepted candidates have acceptances or WLs elsewhere, without letting them see the specific schools). That would clean up the inequities this year in which some people played by the rules and others gamed the system, while some schools had early deadlines and others had no deadlines at all.
 
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gonnif said:
If everyone has now fully emptied their bladders and compared volume discharged and distance achieved, can we simply reiterate the guidance requested by OP. To insure that timing or “lateness” has little to no impact upon your chances:

1) For all applicants at all programs, including highly-selective, top schools, complete by Labor Day is rule of thumb

2) for solid applicants at most programs, complete by end of Sept is rule of thumb

3) after that, lateness may start impacting your chances but it varies widely by program and applicant and there is no way measure it

Just ignore the posts with copious amounts of water-vaporizing, male-bovine excrement
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:laugh:
 
gonnif said:
male-bovine excrement
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Fun fact that I for some reason remember from my “Urine and body fluids” class: bovine semen has been utilized in the manufacturing of Hyaluronidase (an enzyme for reducing viscosity of tissue fluids) since the 1940’s. Apparently, since I learned this back in 2013, a recombinant product made from hamster ovaries infused with the gene for human Hyaluronidase has now overtaken the market.
 
gonnif said:
If everyone has now fully emptied their bladders and compared volume discharged and distance achieved, can we simply reiterate the guidance requested by OP. To insure that timing or “lateness” has little to no impact upon your chances:

1) For all applicants at all programs, including highly-selective, top schools, complete by Labor Day is rule of thumb

2) for solid applicants at most programs, complete by end of Sept is rule of thumb

3) after that, lateness may start impacting your chances but it varies widely by program and applicant and there is no way measure it

Just ignore the posts with copious amounts of water-vaporizing, male-bovine excrement
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Hey @gonnif , what if we receive secondaries after labor day and perhaps even into October, for schools that screen heavily, like the UCs. Would it be worth completing them or no?
 
calipremed5768 said:
Okay thanks. By the way Am I throwing money away by applying to any of the following schools. Might submit primary to these

Maryland
Wisconsin
Ohio state
Iowa
Minnesota
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These schools are very IS-biased, and OOS unfriendly. Even as OOS with stellar stats/EC, youre still gonna need some connection to the state (Went to UG, family, SO, Born there).
 
gonnif said:
Understand this process: Schools get 5000+ applications and are only able to fully process at max 500 per week when they are are full capacity. With it still being summer at academic institutions, with many faculty away until late August, the vast majority of schools are not at full capacity. So with all these thousands of applications, the "timing" here is to make sure you get into the application queue early enough to get reviewed by Thanksgiving or thereabouts. By that point, the admissions committee must start moving their focus from interview invite decisions to admissions decision

So as I have said time and time again, to insure that application timing/lateness doesnt have an impact on your chances:
For all applicants at all programs, even highly competitive ones, being complete by Labor Day is considered safe
For solid applicants at most other programs, being complete by mid-to-late September is considered safe
By Oct 1, you start running into the the impact of lateness that will vary widely across schools and cannot be discretely measured.

Also realize that the processing queue order is not static but dynamic. Application and candidate evaluations timeline varies widely by school may not done in a linear, chronological order. EDP, High achievers, URM, family of alumni, feeder schools, associated UG programs, linked postbaccs, and other factor may push an app forward in the process.

********AMCAS 2020 Timeline Summary (post count #026)************
-AMCAS May 1, 2019, Primary application opens up. Can send formal requests for transcripts from your schools and letter requests to your letter writers.
-AMCAS May 30, 2019, Completed primary applications with all ECs, PS, and course information can be submitted.
-You enter the verification queue (“time to verify”) only when both completed primary application and all transcripts have been received.
-AMCAS does not, repeat, does not verify LOR or MCAT score. Your primary application will be verified regardless of LOR or MCAT score status
-AMCAS June 28, 2019, begins transmission verified applications (though some schools have secondaries sent to contact info upon submission to AMCAS)
-Verification peak is about August 1st and takes 20 days
-Most Primary Apps are transmitted early July thru early September
-Secondaries timelines can vary widely as to when to they are sent out from almost immediately upon submissions to 3 months, though most are in the range 1-3 weeks after transmission.
-Letters via AMCAS are processed/transmitted separately from primary
-Letters can be added after primary has been submitted and transmitted and are mostly not needed until secondary reviews at the earliest.
-While applications are transmitted at end of June, most schools do not start any processing until at least mid-July at the earliest; even then, most dont get up to full speed until mid-August.
-There are usually 3 main phases in processing application
----1) Initial Screening/Evaluation: A hybrid of automatic GPA/MCAT screen plus human for "quick review" of application. Used to for general priority and, in some cases, which team/subcommittee gets application. At some schools, preset criteria or informal policy can lead to II at this stage.
----2) Full Evaluation: This is where evaluator/reader/team/subcommittee will fully evaluate all sections of primary, secondary, and LOR and generally summarize in broad categories or point system. This essentially becomes your priority for adcom review and II. This function may be split up among several evaluators and may go to a team or subcommittee for II decision. Application are not typically evaluated until complete with Primary, Secondary, MCAT, and LOR
----3) Full adcom: this is where your fully evaluated application is reviewed and voted on by adcom for II on later on for acceptance/WL/rejection
-Application and candidate evaluations timeline varies widely by school may not done in a linear, chronological order. EDP, High achievers, URM, family of alumni, feeder schools, associated UG programs, linked postbaccs, and other factor may push an app forward in the process.
-Most adcoms dont start meeting for review of evaluated applicants until at least mid-August, more likely September, though some reviews may be done earlier for groups mentioned above. Evaluation may start almost immediately at some schools.
-Schools receive 5,000-10,000 application but can only evaluate several hundred applications a week. Therefore, it can take anywhere from 4-16 weeks (1-4 months) or more to be evaluated, reviewed and invited for interview after your application is complete.
-Schools must reduce several thousand applications to several hundred interviews. Therefore at least 80% of applicants at any individual school must be rejected pre-interview.
-Applicants should check each applicant portal daily until application is marked complete, under review, or similar. After that, you should check applicant portal 2 to 3 times as week as schools may invite you for interview solely by portal; some schools do not send email for interview invite.
-Submitting Primary Application June is Early, July Medium, August Late
-Having Primary verified and transmitted to school by middle of August is normal speed
-Having Secondary and all LORs complete to school by Labor Day is early/ontime. By late or end of September is about middle/normal speed, by end of October is about late.
--After that point you will generally start getting impacted by the number of applications submitted, the finite number of interview slots, and seats given by rolling admissions. These aren’t absolute dates nor is it a fixed timeline. It should be used as a guideline
Click to expand...

Gonnif, I have read many of your posts and always appreciate your knowledgeable inputs very much. I would like to ask you some questions:
(1) You said "having Secondary and all LORs complete to school by Labor Day is early/ontime. By late or end of September is about middle/normal speed, by end of October is about late". As I am a Canadian, wonder if the above rule also applies to international applicants. Many posts say it is late after Labor Day. I have submitted 15 secondaries from early Aug to mid-Sept, while working a very demanding job. Now I still have seven schools left. Wonder if it is still worth to submit them, suppose I can complete all by end of Sept.
(2) I initially assigned 4 recommendation letters to all schools I applied for (probably a mistake). Three of them were submitted by Aug. 17, satisfying the minimum # of letters required by most schools. But the 4th letter has not arrived yet. I am not sure if this letter will come eventually. In case it never comes, how this impact the process of my files for schools which require min 3 letters? I am afraid they will not release my files because I assigned 4 letters initially.
BTW, my LizzM 75.5, 8 publications, lots of doctor shadowing and volunteering, ORM. Thank you very much for your time.
 
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