When to start preparing for reapplication and how?

[HopeP]

I completely agree that more people tend to apply when the economy tanks, but I don’t understand how this would be reflected in the current cycle. COVID didn’t pick up until March, how is it possible that tens of thousands of applicants had their MCATs, ECs, and LORs ready to apply 4 months later. The timeline just doesn’t make sense. Maybe there was a large number of people who had gap year jobs lined up that were planning on applying next cycle, but due to cancellations made a change of plans? Either way, I don’t see how next cycle will not be significantly easier due to EC cancellations this year.

I am guessing covid will be blessing in disguise to multi-years gap applicants next year as traditional/1-year gap applicants will have lesser strong profile than those with multi-years gap. I also guess next year, overall profile of applicants will be less stronger than this year, so everyone at disadvantage on relative terms.

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[AnitaZ464]

Top heavy school list comes out of using tools such as medical school predictors which would have - for your stats - indicated all the top schools are "target". Hence my other post trying to understand the applicability of the LM and WARS scores etc.

Exactly. These predictors were telling me that I would be wasting my time to apply to many very good schools due to my high Lizzy Score due to yield protection. That is obviously no excuse for me to apply relatively late (although I will say that I was working many hours in a hospital with COVID patients and felt that was the real priority).
I think those tools can be your worst enemy at times. It was telling me I could go almost anyplace which is not what I needed to hear. But I am learning (the hard way). Now I am hoping that a few recently added schools will give me a chance late in this cycle and not assume that I am not interested. I AM!!! Apply broadly folks. Worry about the possibility of "YIELD PROTECT" later. Ironically, my good fortune with the MCAT made me into a dum dum. This process teaches many life lessons.

 

[LindaAccepted]

Hey SDN,

[Stats] CA applicant here with pretty decent ECs (multiple advisors, physicians, and pre-meds reviewed my app), applied to 37 schools and have only received 1 II, 2 holds, and 4 Rs. All of my schools were complete between late July and early Sept. Was hoping for 3 IIs or so by Thanksgiving but that doesn't seem to be happening. If things remain bleak, when should I start preparing for reapplication, and how would I go about that? I've heard that the end of Nov. is a good time to start, but would appreciate any advice/feedback.

Also, drafting up an update letter to let schools know about my new job and my continued interest in them. When's the latest I should send that out by? Thanks!

Partially motivated by this exchange on SDN I decided to survey the med schools and publish the results. So far we have 22 responses. NOT ONE said that they are stopping to send out interview invitations in November. Most said January and several will be sending out IIs later than January. For the details , please see Medical - When Will Medical Schools Give You an Answer? .

We are also asking them if they accept updates and the results show there.

 

[benignradical]

Partially motivated by this exchange on SDN I decided to survey the med schools and publish the results. So far we have 22 responses. NOT ONE said that they are stopping to send out interview invitations in November. Most said January and several will be sending out IIs later than January. For the details , please see Medical - When Will Medical Schools Give You an Answer? .

We are also asking them if they accept updates and the results show there.

That's a little reassuring, definitely nice to see that the cycle is not "over" for several schools. The thing that still worries me is the idea that later II's don't convert into A's as well as earlier ones; I believe schools still maintain that it is not the case however.

A little update on my status to everyone on this thread, I'm still at 1 II, have received nothing but 2 (expected) R's since, which puts me at 1 II, 2 Holds, 6 Rs; still awaiting responses from ~30 schools. Not exactly sure how to read into this. Still hoping I can hit my goal of 5 IIs this cycle.

Have been working since submitting my application, got a new position recently too. Plan on updating schools with that later this month. This will likely be my plan for reapplication since I've gone through my app with several others, and no real weak points could be could (the narrative could use a bit of work, can't do much about LORs, but none seem to be negative based on my relationship with my writers and my 1 II).

 

[LindaAccepted]

The video at the end of the post really lays out what I think applicants who don't have any (or enough) IIs for them to be confident of acceptance should do at this point in the cycle.

The idea that later II's don't convert as well is one of those things you don't have control over. I haven't seen data on that. but it sounds plausible. Regardless focus on what you can do now:

1. Send in update letters if appropriate.
2. Continue to attend events that demonstrate your interest. Obviously, online is fine now.
3. Prepare for reapp, while hoping you don't need to do so.

Finally I was surprised to see that your goal is 5 interviews. I thought it was med school acceptance. And you can get that with one II.

Best,

 

[KnightDoc]

Partially motivated by this exchange on SDN I decided to survey the med schools and publish the results. So far we have 22 responses. NOT ONE said that they are stopping to send out interview invitations in November. Most said January and several will be sending out IIs later than January. For the details , please see Medical - When Will Medical Schools Give You an Answer? .

We are also asking them if they accept updates and the results show there.

Thank you very much. This is very helpful, but I don't think anyone was suggesting that med schools would be done sending IIs in November. Thanksgiving is just a traditional milepost because it IS significantly deep into the cycle (depending on the school, typically 75%+ of IIs have gone out by Thanksgiving), so it's just a time to start thinking about a reapplication if things aren't going well.

I think most folks on SDN are very aware that IIs always continue to go out through January and February, sometimes into March, and that it might even skew a little later this year due to COVID, the huge increase in apps, and speculation among some that yields might go down due to people not cancelling IIs in the numbers they did in the past (due to interviews being cost-free this cycle), possibly causing some schools to extend their cycle in order to interview more people to mitigate this.