WHY May 15th?

[MedStudentWanna]

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With both AMCAS and AACOMAS opening in early May, why is it that med schools give the deadline for making your decision as May 15th? I'm on two waitlists, one in the top half and the other is unranked, and have no idea if I should start filling out the application when it becomes available or not.

Now that the applications are opening earlier, I think the May 15th date should be moved up to maybe April 15th? What's the reason that can't be done?

 

[funkymunkytoes]

Wait, you want LESS time to make a decision between schools? Hmmmm.

 

[MedStudentWanna]

Re-read the post.

 

[pianola]

Wait, you want LESS time to make a decision between schools? Hmmmm.

I think most people want that?

Raise your hand if you want to prolong the decision between 4 schools from October and May.

They'd have to make the finaid dates earlier, too, of course, which would mess with taxes and W2s.

So I guess maybe it is a bit hairy, but in principle I agree with the OP.

Maybe they should just move the whole application season forward in the calendar year.

Of course, then it means people are taking the MCAT during the school year instead of the summer, but that's not really such a bad thing, perhaps?

 

[tdittyx2x3]

Wait, you want LESS time to make a decision between schools? Hmmmm.

What?

There's no reason this parade needs to go on this long. The schools should be done with their decisions by April 1. That's a TEN month application season. Just send me my freakin rejections already.

It would be much fairer to both waitlisted and accepted applicants to have a set date, an end all be all "find out if you got in this year" date and have it earlier in the year.

Though let's be realistic here we all know this will never happen.. "they" don't care and they never did.

 

[MedStudentWanna]

Right or AMCAS should wait to open the new application in August. The way things are now, waitlisters have two choices -- spend money they don't have on a new round of applications, knowing they could be called in off the waitlist anytime from June - August or risk waiting it out and applying late if they're not pulled from the waitlist.

 

[235009]

Now that the applications are opening earlier, I think the May 15th date should be moved up to maybe April 15th? What's the reason that can't be done?

Right or AMCAS should wait to open the new application in August. The way things are now, waitlisters have two choices -- spend money they don't have on a new round of applications, knowing they could be called in off the waitlist anytime from June - August or risk waiting it out and applying late if they're not pulled from the waitlist.

1. you are fantastically self-absorbed. i guess now that ONOY has finally gotten off a waitlist someone needed to step in and bitch irrationally.
2. it's not their fault you couldn't get in right away ....i don't want to sound harsh but you're the one who put yourself in this position not AMCAS.
3. as people have suggested before, you should just add 1 school to your AMCAS application when you submit, pay the 160 bucks and then after your application is processed you can add more schools as time goes on if you don't get off the waitlists.

 

[MedStudentWanna]

1. you are fantastically self-absorbed. i guess now that ONOY has finally gotten off a waitlist someone needed to step in and bitch irrationally.
2. it's not their fault you couldn't get in right away ....i don't want to sound harsh but you're the one who put yourself in this position not AMCAS.
3. as people have suggested before, you should just add 1 school to your AMCAS application when you submit, pay the 160 bucks and then after your application is processed you can add more schools as time goes on if you don't get off the waitlists.

Excuse me???? How is it being self-absorbed to ask that the application cycle to be shorter? I'm not telling people to pick sooner. I'm saying that AMCAS shouldn't start the new application cycle before the old one is finished. Why should it take a whole year to get through an app cycle anyway? It opens in May and ends the next May? Why? I bet you don't have a logical answer on why it takes so long because it makes absolutely no sense and you know it. But hey, don't let that stop you from bitching.

 

[nancy0223]

With both AMCAS and AACOMAS opening in early May, why is it that med schools give the deadline for making your decision as May 15th? I'm on two waitlists, one in the top half and the other is unranked, and have no idea if I should start filling out the application when it becomes available or not.

Now that the applications are opening earlier, I think the May 15th date should be moved up to maybe April 15th? What's the reason that can't be done?

I'm kinda in the same boat as you are; no outright acceptances, on a roll of waitlists 🙁. But I mean we kinda just have to accept the ways things are laid out by the AAMC. Don't hate the players, hate the game 😉.

 

[fizzle]

1. you are fantastically self-absorbed. i guess now that ONOY has finally gotten off a waitlist someone needed to step in and bitch irrationally.
2. it's not their fault you couldn't get in right away ....i don't want to sound harsh but you're the one who put yourself in this position not AMCAS.
3. as people have suggested before, you should just add 1 school to your AMCAS application when you submit, pay the 160 bucks and then after your application is processed you can add more schools as time goes on if you don't get off the waitlists.

Actually, MedStudentWanna's points apply to probably thousands of applicants every year. Are you blaming the applicants for getting on waitlists and spending, possibly wasting, additional money on uncertain terms simply because the process is dragged out for so long? This doesn't have anything to do with him/her being "fantastically self-absorbed."

As tditty said, though, med schools hold all the cards here, and as a result they don't really have much incentive to change the system.

 

[pianola]

I'm kinda in the same boat as you are; no outright acceptances, on a roll of waitlists 🙁. But I mean we kinda just have to accept the ways things are laid out by the AAMC. Don't hate the players, hate the game 😉.

I think that's exactly what he is doing...hating the game? We all do. I'm holding multiple acceptances right now and STILL waiting for finaid packages that have been promised before May 15th.

I don't think anyone wants this deadline -- accepted or waitlisted.

Actually, MedStudentWanna's points apply to probably thousands of applicants every year. Are you blaming the applicants for getting on waitlists and spending, possibly wasting, additional money on uncertain terms simply because the process is dragged out for so long? This doesn't have anything to do with him/her being "fantastically self-absorbed."

As tditty said, though, med schools hold all the cards here, and as a result they don't really have much incentive to change the system.

Yeah. Many thousands of applicants. 👍

 

[MedStudentWanna]

I'm kinda in the same boat as you are; no outright acceptances, on a roll of waitlists 🙁. But I mean we kinda just have to accept the ways things are laid out by the AAMC. Don't hate the players, hate the game 😉.

How am I hating the players? I'm not. I'm blaming AMCAS for not making the application cycle shorter. They're not the players in this.

 

[Typical Premed]

Excuse me???? How is it being self-absorbed to ask that the application cycle to be shorter? I'm not telling people to pick sooner. I'm saying that AMCAS shouldn't start the new application cycle before the old one is finished. Why should it take a whole year to get through an app cycle anyway? It opens in May and ends the next May? Why? I bet you don't have a logical answer on why it takes so long because it makes absolutely no sense and you know it. But hey, don't let that stop you from bitching.

It is definitely possible to make the app. cycle shorter. In Canada the applications are due in Oct or Nov (non-rolling), the interview invites are sent out in early-mid Feb., all interviews are conducted over 1, 2 or 3 weekends in March or April and decisions are released mid-May. I think that the rolling admissions process in the US isn't always the most fair to reapplicants or others who are unable to apply early due to other extenuating circumstances.

 

[Revilla]

I'm in the same situation -- two waitlists and one school still pending (interviewed this past week). I'm not sure what I'm going to do yet. I've been thinking all the same things about the application cycle, especially now that AMCAS and AACOMAS both open in May.

 

[235009]

Excuse me???? How is it being self-absorbed to ask that the application cycle to be shorter? I'm not telling people to pick sooner. I'm saying that AMCAS shouldn't start the new application cycle before the old one is finished. Why should it take a whole year to get through an app cycle anyway? It opens in May and ends the next May? Why? I bet you don't have a logical answer on why it takes so long because it makes absolutely no sense and you know it. But hey, don't let that stop you from bitching.

it makes lots of sense....unlike other professional school programs med schools interview every single student who they accept or waitlist. it is an extremely time consuming process and if the cycle was shorter it would get alot more expensive as invitiations would be made on even shorter notice and changing appointments might be extremely difficult if not imposible at some schools. also some schools interview well into march or even april....so AMCAS had to choose a date that guaranteed that all schools were done interviewing. and what about the verification process of AMCAS....already verification takes a month or two if you submit during the peak period of july-august....so if they shortened the app cycle it would take alot longer to get verified. and don't forget that applying is a two step process where you do the primary and then they have to send you secondaries...that takes time. finally there is financial aid and making a decision...though u may think it is easy to send out financial aid decisions it is probably extremely difficult to try to accomodate student need while accounting for the amount of money you have...it is probably tons of number crunching that takes lots of time....so having a later date makes it more likely that you will have financial aid offers from schools before you have to make your decision (though some schools still dont get them out before may 15th).

are those enough logical explanations for you?

 

[JJMrK]

Wait, you want LESS time to make a decision between schools? Hmmmm.

The OP wants others to have less time to make a decision so that he'll get some waitlist movement.

May 15th is as good a day as any. If it were another date you'd still probably be complaining about it.

 

[Revilla]

it makes lots of sense....unlike other professional school programs med schools interview every single student who they accept or waitlist. it is an extremely time consuming process and if the cycle was shorter it would get alot more expensive as invitiations would be made on even shorter notice and changing appointments might be extremely difficult if not imposible at some schools.

Can't that be curtailed by making the deadlines sooner? Some schools have February deadlines, for instance. If their deadlines were all in November/December, they wouldn't need to interview into March/April, right? Don't get me wrong, I'm a beneficiary of the later deadlines as I took the January MCAT, but I'm wondering if ultimately the schools set their deadlines earlier, it could help shorten the cycle.

and don't forget that applying is a two step process where you do the primary and then they have to send you secondaries...that takes time.

If the secondaries had earlier deadlines, I think students would manage.

finally there is financial aid and making a decision...though u may think it is easy to send out financial aid decisions it is probably extremely difficult to try to accomodate student need while accounting for the amount of money you have...it is probably tons of number crunching that takes lots of time....so having a later date makes it more likely that you will have financial aid offers from schools before you have to make your decision (though some schools still dont get them out before may 15th).

I think all of that could be worked out. It takes until May now because schools interview into March and April. If interviews were done by February or sooner, why couldn't financial aid packages be sent out by April? I'm really asking. I'm not trying to be a jerk.

 

[Gabby]

The OP wants others to have less time to make a decision so that he'll get some waitlist movement.

May 15th is as good a day as any. If it were another date you'd still probably be complaining about it.

That's a gross misinterpretation of what the OP said. All he's saying is that the new application cycle should open AFTER the old application cycle is over. It makes perfect sense.

 

[JJMrK]

That's a gross misinterpretation of what the OP said. All he's saying is that the new application cycle should open AFTER the old application cycle is over. It makes perfect sense.

.

I'm on two waitlists, one in the top half and the other is unranked, and have no idea if I should start filling out the application when it becomes available or not.

 

[Gabby]

You're still wrong. The OP's post wasn't about giving students less time to decide. It was about making med schools end the process earlier. There's a big difference in those two things, which is why your post was a gross misinterpretation of the original.

 

[ThaliaNox]

It frustrated me that while the primary application is open in May, many schools do not release secondaries until July, and do not interview until September. The reason why is probably that the admissions offices are probably still trying to finalize their matriculating classes from the year before, talking about waitlist candidates, etc. Seems like it would be sensible to move the primary opening dates further into the summer, especially since most schools barely look at them until August or so. That'd give possible reapplicants more time to figure things out.

 

[JJMrK]

you're still wrong. The op's post wasn't about giving students less time to decide. It was about making med schools end the process earlier. There's a big difference in those two things, which is why your post was a gross misinterpretation of the original.

k.

 

[MilkmanAl]

it would get alot more expensive as invitiations would be made on even shorter notice and changing appointments might be extremely difficult if not imposible at some schools.

How do you figure? Not too many schools interview past January. Even being generous, there are at least 2 months of what is essentially dead time.

 

[evelknieveljaja]

it's just kinda depressing to me to think that i've been working and worrying for an entire calendar year lol. it would be nice to have a little buffer between waitlist movement and the primary date (6/2). the one way i could see them shortening the process is by having quicker deadlines especially over the summer...but i know that wouldnt make many people happy haha

 

[tdittyx2x3]

Eliminate rolling admissions:

June 1 - All primary applications are due for AMCAS
Aug 1 - All primaries verified, schools send out secondaries
Sept 1 - All secondaries are due back to schools
Oct 1 - Begin interviewing top priority candidates
Nov 1 - All interviews are scheduled
Feb 1 - All interviews are finished
March 1 - Final decisions are due from all schools.

 

[Raryn]

Eliminate rolling admissions:

June 1 - All primary applications are due for AMCAS
Aug 1 - All primaries verified, schools send out secondaries
Sept 1 - All secondaries are due back to schools
Oct 1 - Begin interviewing top priority candidates
Nov 1 - All interviews are scheduled
Feb 1 - All interviews are finished
March 1 - Final decisions are due from all schools.

Would be great for us... And hell for admissions offices.

 

[kakalak]

The OP wants others to have less time to make a decision so that he'll get some waitlist movement.

May 15th is as good a day as any. If it were another date you'd still probably be complaining about it.

Shut your mouth young one, you don't even know what the OP is dealing with having not applied yet.

 

[chessknt]

Its probably to give schools more time for their finaid. Most schools dont know their definite budgets for the next year even by may.

 

[kac714]

3. as people have suggested before, you should just add 1 school to your AMCAS application when you submit, pay the 160 bucks and then after your application is processed you can add more schools as time goes on if you don't get off the waitlists.

thats actually a really good idea...

 

[ThaliaNox]

Financially, all that may be involved with the "verify with one school" solution is 160 bucks (still a good chunk of money for us non-parentially supported people) but there are other "costs" to reapplying. These would include regathering letters of recommendation, rewriting personal statements and redoing all of the activity descriptions. Any serious reapplicant would do these things, and all take time.

I realize that financial aide makes putting the "one admission" date sooner problematic, but I don't see why we couldn't have the primary simply open later. Seems like that would help possible reapplicants without crunching time on anyone. Heck, it'd make life easier even for first time applicants. It'd be nice to take the MCAT after classes end, rather than practically during exams week, for example. Even the schools themselves shouldn't be affected too much. We all know they barely look at new applications until late July or August at the earliest anyway. Have the AMCAS open in June and allow verifications in July, with the rest of the application schedule unchanged.

 

[235009]

Eliminate rolling admissions:

June 1 - All primary applications are due for AMCAS
Aug 1 - All primaries verified, schools send out secondaries
Sept 1 - All secondaries are due back to schools
Oct 1 - Begin interviewing top priority candidates
Nov 1 - All interviews are scheduled
Feb 1 - All interviews are finished
March 1 - Final decisions are due from all schools.

but I don't see why we couldn't have the primary simply open later[/B]. Seems like that would help possible reapplicants without crunching time on anyone. Heck, it'd make life easier even for first time applicants. It'd be nice to take the MCAT after classes end, rather than practically during exams week, for example. Even the schools themselves shouldn't be affected too much. We all know they barely look at new applications until late July or August at the earliest anyway. Have the AMCAS open in June and allow verifications in July, with the rest of the application schedule unchanged.

some people seem to think that primary applications are magically going to get verified more quickly but of course for that to happen the application will get more expensive because AMCAS will need to hire more people to verify apps. combine that with a large drop in applications if, as tdittyx2x3 fantasizes, AMCAS were to CLOSE on june 1st....way to early for most people to get their stuff together and apply, the price of the primary app might have to double so AMCAS can turn the same profit it does now. welcome to the real world people!

 

[Gabby]

some people seem to think that primary applications are magically going to get verified more quickly but of course for that to happen the application will get more expensive because AMCAS will need to hire more people to verify apps. combine that with a large drop in applications if, as tdittyx2x3 fantasizes, AMCAS were to CLOSE on june 1st....way to early for most people to get their stuff together and apply, the price of the primary app might have to double so AMCAS can turn the same profit it does now. welcome to the real world people!

I think that if people knew the deadline was June 1st, they'd find a way to get all their stuff in by then. The only problem I see is with grades and transcripts from schools that don't end spring semester until late May, which is why I'd make the closing July 1st instead of June 1st. Actually, I wouldn't even do that. My suggestion is just to start the whole thing later.

Open AMCAS on August 1st. Let it run on rolling admissions as it does now. Schools can interview through January or February. Schools hand out all acceptances/waitlists/rejections by mid-March. By April, financial aid comes in. By May 1st, everyone has to decide. That gives a whole three months for waitlist movement. Those having to re-apply, apply again on August 1st or sometime thereafter.

It's ludicrous that AMCAS is going to open before May 15th, leaving some people alive in the 2009 cycle and the 2010 cycle at the same time.

 

[Raryn]

AMCAS might open in mid-May, but you can't submit it till the first week of June anyway. Schools don't even get a single (full) primary application until ~June 20th when theres a few decent sized packs ready.

Looking at past threads, the majority of waitlist movement happens in the 2-3 week period following May 15. So just fill out AMCAS and don't submit until you're more sure about your chances.

 

[Gabby]

AMCAS might open in mid-May, but you can't submit it till the first week of June anyway. Schools don't even get a single (full) primary application until ~June 20th when theres a few decent sized packs ready.

Looking at past threads, the majority of waitlist movement happens in the 2-3 week period following May 15. So just fill out AMCAS and don't submit until you're full.

As others have pointed out, it's more than just filling out AMCAS and hitting submit -- it's re-writing personal statements, updating LORs, requesting transcripts, etc. And there's a lot of waitlist movement happening in mid-June by the way. It's only the first rash of movement that happens 2-3 weeks after May 15th. When people are shuffling around, it affects all kinds of movement well into July even.

 

[Raryn]

You'd still need to have a head start on rewriting personal statements and stuff even if AMCAS started on August 1st. Not only that, but if AMCAS started on August 1st, half of us wouldn't be verified before November!

It would be more realistic to require the individual schools to make the decisions before April instead of May, because, to be honest, the primary application isn't really the bottleneck here. But even that won't likely happen.

 

[Gabby]

If the application cycle goes from August 1st - May 1st and it's now July 1st and you still haven't been pulled from a waitlist, then you can start re-writing your PS. A re-write of a PS shouldn't take more than a month anyway. It's not like you're re-inventing the answer "why medicine."

And if some people are verified in November, so what? That only sounds bad now because the application opens in May and May - November is six months. If it opened in August, then November would be the "new" August and plenty of people are verified in August now.

 

[bka6827]

I received an email today from one of the schools I accepted saying that I am currently holding spots in two classes and need to withdraw from one by May 15th. This leads me to assume that schools have already received the lists of schools to which students have been accepted. I always thought the list became available on May 15th. Does this mean possible early waitlist movement?

 

[Raryn]

I received an email today from one of the schools I accepted saying that I am currently holding spots in two classes and need to withdraw from one by May 15th. This leads me to assume that schools have already received the lists of schools to which students have been accepted. I always thought the list became available on May 15th. Does this mean possible early waitlist movement?

They get the first list of places students have been accepted on *March* 15 (but only for students they have also accepted)

 

[majahops]

Sorry you're in this position, man. I agree with you.

With both AMCAS and AACOMAS opening in early May, why is it that med schools give the deadline for making your decision as May 15th? I'm on two waitlists, one in the top half and the other is unranked, and have no idea if I should start filling out the application when it becomes available or not.

Now that the applications are opening earlier, I think the May 15th date should be moved up to maybe April 15th? What's the reason that can't be done?