when to apply

[alikarimi]

hey guys
listen i was wondering if i apply in august is that too late?

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[a817]

it is late, because you will be complete in september or october. If you are not applying because of the mcat, i would apply now without the mcat, and when your scores come in, your app is already complete.

 

[EEL08]

I don't think that's late. I submitted in August and was complete at all my schools around the end of October, including secondaries.

 

[a817]

I don't think that's late. I submitted in August and was complete at all my schools around the end of October, including secondaries.

yea its not severely late, but i wouldn't recommend anyone doing it unless they have a good reason. If you are taking the august mcat, you can always apply early.

 

[DannMann99]

its just not worth it to apply that late. At that point secondaries are already being sent out and you are behind the game. Plus, i remember waiting on aacomas to verify all of my information was such a peach...
that takes 3 wks in itself (I applied in august as well).

If you have the grades where you're not worried about rolling admissions I wouldn't worry. (>3.5gpa, >27MCAT ballpark)

Otherwise, it only helps to apply earlier

 

[BCLumas]

I am going to disagree with that completely. Although it isn't to your advantage to apply that late, I wasn't complete with my primaries until late July (July 27) and didn't have my secondaries done until mid-August. I got 3 acceptances. I had a 3.17 GPA and a 27N MCAT. If you feel that you're a solid applicant, apply. If you have reservations, contact the schools and see what they would suggest. August is definitely NOT too late. It's not early, but you definitely have a shot. Think of it this way: why would August be too late if schools still offer interviews through next March?

Good luck in your application!

 

[DannMann99]

Once august hits though I remember waiting about 3 weeks for aacomas to verify my transcripts. wtf was with that.

I feel like it gets bottlenecked around then, on a personal standpoint I would have rather applied first so I didn't have so much wait time doing nothing but checking aacomas every day.

If you have enough time to post on SDN you have enough time to fill out aacomas. Hardest part was the PS and come on... in retrospect that was kind of simple.

Might as well do it now, relax for 2 months till school starts, then tackle those secondaries.

my 2 cents

 

[EEL08]

its just not worth it to apply that late. At that point secondaries are already being sent out and you are behind the game. Plus, i remember waiting on aacomas to verify all of my information was such a peach...
that takes 3 wks in itself (I applied in august as well).

If you have the grades where you're not worried about rolling admissions I wouldn't worry. (>3.5gpa, >27MCAT ballpark)

Otherwise, it only helps to apply earlier

I completely disagree. I received two interviews and two acceptances with only a 22 MCAT and my shining personality . I'm glad I didn't think it wasn't worth it to apply that "late".

 

[DannMann99]

You guys are completely misunderstanding me. I'm not saying you wont get in at all, by any means.

What I was saying was that scores that were below those would probably benefit from rolling admissions, as those are pretty competitive for DO schools.

I'm sure there are plenty who applied later then that with worse scores...

 

[TexasTriathlete]

I completely disagree. I received two interviews and two acceptances with only a 22 MCAT and my shining personality . I'm glad I didn't think it wasn't worth it to apply that "late".

Yeah, but you went to the notorious pre-med powerhouse, Johnson Bible College. Their students always get the benefit of the doubt from adcoms.

 

[a817]

what i meant form my first post is if you are not applying now due to laziness or something like that, it is stupid. If you are not applying because of mcat scores, i would still apply and get verified. If it because of summer course then i would apply and it will take a month anyway to get verified and you can resend your transcripts and you will be updated

If you are not applying because you haven't started your PS, then yes wait and get that done. Yes many people who applied in august have gotten in. Where its going to hurt you is in schools that are not OOS friendly and get 4-5k of applicant ex pcom, nycom, msu. For those schools, it is better apply early before the apps come pouring in.

For what its worth i took the january mcat, got the score in march and still got an acceptance, and a waitlsit from my top choice (a state school) which i had a better chance of getting in if i applied earlier.
It always better to be on time, but if you have to wait they are still some success stories.

 

[MichiganEMTInt]

Regardless of your reason to apply in August, try not to. Do what everyone is saying, and do your primary application now. You don't want to do it while you're taking your fall classes and honestly it will put you at a slight disadvantage if you are complete that late (again I'm referring to primaries). Get ahead, keep on top of things, do all you can now so you can get secondaries asap and therefore interviews before classes fill up.

 

[a817]

I completely disagree. I received two interviews and two acceptances with only a 22 MCAT and my shining personality . I'm glad I didn't think it wasn't worth it to apply that "late".

I think we are arguing about different things . My only point you should have a good reason to apply in august, don't do it out of laziness

 

[EEL08]

You guys are completely misunderstanding me. I'm not saying you wont get in at all, by any means.

What I was saying was that scores that were below those would probably benefit from rolling admissions, as those are pretty competitive for DO schools.

I'm sure there are plenty who applied later then that with worse scores...

Yes but you did say that applying that late isn't worth it. That's what I had a problem with.

Yeah, but you went to the notorious pre-med powerhouse, Johnson Bible College. Their students always get the benefit of the doubt from adcoms.

That's right baby!!

I think we are arguing about different things . My only point you should have a good reason to apply in august, don't do it out of laziness

I was actually arguing against what Dann said. I agree with what you're saying. For the OP, generally speaking it is best to apply as early as possible but applying in August is far from being the kiss of death.

 

[alikarimi]

ok this may clear things up
so my GPA is a 3.0 and my previous MCAT was a 24R but im writing it again and im sure i can nail it if i have the time and energy to spend on it, last year i tried doing too much i applied to med schools, i got reference letters all that while studying for the mcat and my grade suffered, so this year i dnt wana make that mistake
i just wana spend time on my application and make sure there no problems with it cuz last year i think i converted the semester hours wrong and it got resent and all
i guess i can get everything done with by the end of june

ok i got another question, at my schools i took a full year of physics plus lab and its worth one full credit hot many AACOMAS semester hours is that? i made a mistake in that and no one seems to know

thanks u guys

 

[DannMann99]

You're right. I did say it wasn't worth it... I was assuming the op was just being lazy though and wanted to wait the summer out. In comparisson to doing it now, its better earlier then later.

It was a long day, sorry.

As far as the new question posed:

All that transcript jazz should take you a solid day to work out. I think I put a couple of straight hours typing it in and making sure everything was right... Your essay is probably going to be the same... That should save you some time sans the revision. Should definately do it in June.

When you say "1 full year" do you mean 2 semesters worth?

Did your school follow the 2 semesters / yr setup?

Did you take Physics 1 and Physics 2?


In general: 1 Full year of the Physics introductory series includes Physics 1 and Physics 2. Both of which are 4 credits for a total of 8 credits. In general the lab and lectures for physics are linked in that you have to take them together in the introductory series so you get 4cr/class.

Your question is kind of vague. Do you mean the full year of lab was worth only 1 credit? or that the lab in general was worth 1credit per semester?

What school did you go to.

 

[alikarimi]

ok so at my school (university of toronto, canada)
one full year of physics (two semesters) plus the lab which runs for the two semesters is worth one credit and i dunno what that is when i convert it
cuz like one semester of chemistry plus lab is i think 4 credits right? or 3? its soo confusing cuz im also applying to allopathic schools and AMCAS has another way of converting these credit hours and i confused them all and no one at the centers knows the correct answer
thanks

 

[DannMann99]

In general for american courses:

1 credit = 1 semester hour

entering medschool you need
8 hours of: Physics, Chemistry, Biology, O.chem

Each semester of physics you've taken was 4 credits, for a total of 8 credits.

In general, courses w/o labs are 3 credits, labs are 1 credit.

You have most probably taken Physics 1 (4 credits), and Physics 2 (4 credits) for a total of 8 credits.

 

[Reyna]

so if i submit my application in july and indicate that I am taking the mcats in august on my application...will that hurt my chances of getting in if they see such a low mcat score in the first place?

 

[Cp22kjer]

I'm submitting today or tomorrow but still working on LORs. I hope its not a bad idea. I want to get it in and have nothing holding me back besides LORs. AHHHH.

 

[DannMann99]

Reyna:

all schools will give you a secondary application. Secondary apps usually dont come until beginning of school year. By then you should have your new MCAT scores.

By applying early you beat the aacomas bottleneck of a ton of applicants, and get your secondary before others (relatively speaking).

It shouldn't hurt your chances.

 

[a817]

I'm submitting today or tomorrow but still working on LORs. I hope its not a bad idea. I want to get it in and have nothing holding me back besides LORs. AHHHH.

Its fine, try to finish the LOR ASAP thou. some schools interview you with your LOR, but require it to be except, some school dont interview you unless your complete.