My understanding is the score can be sent after the application has been sent -when would it be considered to late to take the exam for residency programs, assuming it takes 3 weeks to receive the score?
Depends on the specialty (as mentioned above), for surgical subspecialties, most care more about Step 1 score than Step 2. I submitted mine in December when I got it back from taking the test in November and no one really cared or asked about it.