When to submit AMCAS?

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bball1984

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I have completed my AMCAS in its entirety, but have not yet submitted because of my MCAT score. I have a good GPA (3.8+ overall and 3.7+ BCPM), have good clinical experience, etc. However, I scored poorly on the April MCAT, and am retaking in August. The majority of the schools I have talked to have said that I should go ahead and submit my application, mark that I am retaking the test in August, and then do well on it in August. That way, when the scores are uploaded in October, all they have to do is see if my score improved to what it needs to be, and go from there. I don't meet the minimum MCAT cutoff for receiving secondaries at several of the schools, and am worried that if I submit they will toss it out b/c of the April score, even though they say they will put it aside and wait until new scores come in. Should I submit now, or do they just want my money? Also, does anyone have any success stories of retaking the August test, doing well, and getting accepted, even though it puts you a little behind in the process?

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bball1984 said:
I have completed my AMCAS in its entirety, but have not yet submitted because of my MCAT score. I have a good GPA (3.8+ overall and 3.7+ BCPM), have good clinical experience, etc. However, I scored poorly on the April MCAT, and am retaking in August. The majority of the schools I have talked to have said that I should go ahead and submit my application, mark that I am retaking the test in August, and then do well on it in August. That way, when the scores are uploaded in October, all they have to do is see if my score improved to what it needs to be, and go from there. I don't meet the minimum MCAT cutoff for receiving secondaries at several of the schools, and am worried that if I submit they will toss it out b/c of the April score, even though they say they will put it aside and wait until new scores come in. Should I submit now, or do they just want my money? Also, does anyone have any success stories of retaking the August test, doing well, and getting accepted, even though it puts you a little behind in the process?


How poor of an MCAT are we talking about??? You have a good science gpa so that's why I'm asking. If you got a high 20's or low 30's I would just apply right now! Your gpa is very good and if you have good ec's you should be a good candidate for MANY, many medical schools.
I think it would be better if you do that than if you retake and improve from a 25 to a 28, because by October, you are already at a disadvantage with regards to the earlier applicants.
Now, if you go from 25 to 32 or something like that maybe you'll be ok.

That's just my opinion, you should ask your schools and other better informed people on SDN as well.
 
first of all. submit it now. when you check off that you will be taking august mcats, your application wont even be looked at until those scores are available in october, since your application will be put on hold. Thus the possibility of being screened based on your april mcat is moot. you should submit it now so you can be verified after sending in your transcripts. Then since you are getting it verified now, you can submit your primary instantly the very second your new august mcat scores are uploaded to amcas instead of waiting til verify it then. You also mght want to take a look into some of the secondary essays of schools that do not screen so you can have an essay prepared, so you can be ready to submit your secondaries the second you get them back. You must understand that you are now at a slight disadvantage because you are going to be applying later, and thus it will serve to your advantage to send in everyting as soon as possible. I say focus on MCAT now, and ater MCAT start on secondaries, You can probably find links online, or essay topics here online at SDN.

Im sure there are many success stories of people taking August mcats. you just have to realize that by the itme your application is submitted in October, and all the while, still waiting for secondaries, many APril MCATTers who submitted july or earlier will have already started to interview. Expect interviews in the winter and spring if you submit in october. Just make sure you are ahead of every other august mcattaker by having your secondaries pretty much completed, and everyting verified, and sent. Send your secondaries either the same day, or the next day back to the school. If you do so, you'll be early in line for interviews out of all august mcat takers and wont really be much at a disadvantage
 
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Well, I'll just say my MCAT score was so low that I thought I might have gotten off on filling in my bubbles or something after I got my scores back. I was making 28-30 on my practice tests and got nowhere even remotely close to that on the real thing.
 
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