When to apply to Med School?

[dean11]

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I'm wondering when I should apply to med schools, my situation is difficult as I'm working right now and I would need to go back to school, finish my premed reqs (bio classes) and take the MCAT. I'm guessing this process could take 2 years???

 

[DrMom]

How long it will take depends a lot on how many classes you need to take.

You take your MCAT in April or August. Application services are up in June.

 

[dean11]

If I take summer school and fall semester I can be done with my premed reqs by x-mass time, and I can probably take the MCAT the following April.
So the application June deadline is for the same year or the following one?

 

[DrMom]

June isn't the deadline, it is when you can start the application. I was referring to the same year.

If you take the April MCAT, you can get the ball rolling early. You can start before your MCAT scores are back & then submit after you get the scores (unless you're just overly confident that you did well enough). The April scores get back to you in June (mid).

Once you submit your centralized application, the info is sent to the schools you're applying to and secondaries are sent out. You'll get those back to the schools...along with letters of recommendation.

 

[dean11]

That's excellent news, so I'll only need one year to apply.
Thanks a lot for your help!

 

[DrMom]

That one year is assuming that you are able to get the classwork done. Also keep in mind that it takes another year from application to med school (assuming you get in first try).

 

[umass rower]

You will want to finish the premed classes before you consider taking the MCAT. So your timeline will depend on how many classes you can take per semester. If you're working full-time, I would guess that you wouldn't want to take more than 2 classes per semester, and even that might be tough when you factor in the requisite lab time. But if you could manage the two, a good plan would go something like:

Semester 1-Intro Bio 1, Gen Chem 1 (with labs)
Semester 2-Intro Bio 2, Gen Chem 2 (with labs)
Semester 3-Intro Physics 1, Orgo 1 (with labs)
Semester 4-Intro Physics 2, Orgo 2 (with labs)

I wouldn't really suggest taking the MCAT until after you finish the courses. So if you were to start this fall, you would finish in the spring of 2005, and I would recommend taking the MCAT that August, after taking a prep course.

 

[dean11]

So just one point of clarification (please excuse my ignorance on this point), if I start taking classes summer '04, finish premed reqs by Dec '04, take the MCAT Apr '05 and apply to med schools in Jun '05, then I could potentially get in fall '06?