When is the best time to apply?

[Negrodamus]

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I'm in a bit of a predicament. I'm currently in my sophomore year and I won't be able to take organic chemistry until I'm a junior. So I won't be able to take the MCAT until the summer after and I had planned on taking SN2ed advice. To add the problem, most medical schools in my state require a letter of recommendation from a pre-health advisory committee and of course they require my MCAT scores before they even put pen to paper. Odds are, I won't be able to submit my application until the latter part of September, later if any professor also requires my scores. How bad is to submit in September as opposed to June and would it be worth it to wait till the June after to apply?

 

[4ksibe]

I'm in a bit of a predicament. I'm currently in my sophomore year and I won't be able to take organic chemistry until I'm a junior. So I won't be able to take the MCAT until the summer after and I had planned on taking SN2ed advice. To add the problem, most medical schools in my state require a letter of recommendation from a pre-health advisory committee and of course they require my MCAT scores before they even put pen to paper. Odds are, I won't be able to submit my application until the latter part of September, later if any professor also requires my scores. How bad is to submit in September as opposed to June and would it be worth it to wait till the June after to apply?

I dont know how your school does it but our prehealth requires us to have everything in by april. You can very much take the MCAT during the spring of your junior year its gonna be at the end of the semester and if you are studying from other books you should not feel behind. You can send in your primary while waiting for your letters so depending on the policy of your pre health committee, you might be able to get them the score in July let say if you take the MCAT in June and they should be plenty of time to write the letter. Individual recommenders dont NECESSARILY need your MCAT unles they insist. But you can fill out your AMCAS in june do your secondaries and wait for your MCAT/LOR to be submitted to the school. MY letters got submitted to the schools in September and that was not late since I had everything else turned in and I had interviews as early as first week in October.

However, if you totally feel like you are not going to be ready to take the MCAT that early and you will not be able to submit your app early enough, it is worth waiting. I dont know how people do it, but I would have hated to have to reapply (I have no idea what i would have added to my apps) YOu wanna be as ready as you can the first time around and if it means takin a year off hey a lot of us do it. I was very disappointed when I had to wait a year cuz of my premed advisor requirements but im so glad I did it.

 

[Onres]

I'm in a bit of a predicament. I'm currently in my sophomore year and I won't be able to take organic chemistry until I'm a junior. So I won't be able to take the MCAT until the summer after and I had planned on taking SN2ed advice. To add the problem, most medical schools in my state require a letter of recommendation from a pre-health advisory committee and of course they require my MCAT scores before they even put pen to paper. Odds are, I won't be able to submit my application until the latter part of September, later if any professor also requires my scores. How bad is to submit in September as opposed to June and would it be worth it to wait till the June after to apply?

Here's my advice. I took all my pre-med reqs my junior year (yes, all of them) because I'm a psych major. Needless, to say that was somewhat of a heavy course load, I decided to take the MCAT during the summer. I planned for July 30th, but due to health issues I had to move it up a month, which I don't recommend.

If you take it in july You'll have plenty of time to study, assuming you don't waste time. You can complete and SUBMIT your primary apps, and whatever secondary apps you can BEFORE the MCAT scores are released. This means You don't have to wait to have your scores to submit your app. Of course, schools don't consider your app until your scores are in, but they still have everything and once your scores come in, everything else is ready. Make sure you give yourself enough time to prepare for the MCAT, you don't want to retake it. You want to do it once, and you want to make it count.

 

[Kevin Baker]

Does your pre-req commitee really require MCAT scores? That sounds so inane as the typical pre-med schedule is to take the MCAT spring of, or summer after, Junior year, and apply that summer. I'd try and speak to individual members of the board or your advisor and see if they can make an exception, though maybe there was some miscommunication and you heard wrongly.

Optimally, you want to have your primary in sometime in May-June, meaning taking the MCAT sometime in April-May at the latest. Being done in September isn't terrible, but by that point, most schools are offering interviews and rolling admissions stops working in your favor. My main concern with your scenario is how long it would take the committee to write a letter. It took me four months to get all my letters in, get the committee letter written, and upload it all to interfolio, though I wasn't on a strict timeline. But if your school breaks for Summer and starts up mid-late August, that letter might not be done until AFTER September.

Professors should not require a score, but it is nice to hand them a resume. It gives them something to talk about.

 

[4ksibe]

Does your pre-req commitee really require MCAT scores? That sounds so inane as the typical pre-med schedule is to take the MCAT spring of, or summer after, Junior year, and apply that summer. I'd try and speak to individual members of the board or your advisor and see if they can make an exception, though maybe there was some miscommunication and you heard wrongly.

Optimally, you want to have your primary in sometime in May-June, meaning taking the MCAT sometime in April-May at the latest. Being done in September isn't terrible, but by that point, most schools are offering interviews and rolling admissions stops working in your favor. My main concern with your scenario is how long it would take the committee to write a letter. It took me four months to get all my letters in, get the committee letter written, and upload it all to interfolio, though I wasn't on a strict timeline. But if your school breaks for Summer and starts up mid-late August, that letter might not be done until AFTER September.

Professors should not require a score, but it is nice to hand them a resume. It gives them something to talk about.

My school does require everything by April of the year you are planning to apply, including LORs. And they dont upload the committe letter till late august early september. so the OP is probably right Mine were uploaded in september and was complete at most if not all schools by mid/late september since everything else was in. I got interviews very shortly after so it did not work agains me. I think we like to blame our letter's late arrival but if you got everything else turned in, schools understand that you finished all UR part in a timely manner and you cant really control when the committee uploads your letter.

 

[Political]

before december 21 2012 would be ideal