would taking the mcat on may 21st put me at a disadvantage?

[fastfingers]

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would taking the may 21st mcat be too late for earlier application? I heard that the earlier you apply to med school, the better your chances are. Would it be a bad idea for me to take the may 21st mcat instead of a April 23rd mcat?

I guess my overall question is, assuming I was the same exact applicant as another person, how much of a disadvantage would it be if I took the mcats on may 21st (and presumably submit my application june 21st to schools) compared to somebody who took the test on april 23rd and submitted their app on june 1st.

Another question is, if lets say 50% of the applicants submit the app on june 1st, would they look at all their apps before mine, thus taking longer for me to start on my secondary and getting later interviews?

at this point, i'm not 100% ready for the april 23rd test date, but i'll be ready by may 1st. However, the may 1st test location is nearly 1 hour away and I think it might impact my score if I had to wake up 2 hours early.

any advice would be great.

 

[captain classy]

i would wait. if i remember correctly, we couldn't submit our amcas apps last cycle until june 15. from there it took about 10 days to process it. So, assuming you get your scores back within a month as advertised, you would only be about a week behind, which is not a big deal at all...just make sure you stay on top of your secondaries. a bad score on your mcat would hurt you a lot more than being a week behind, so i would wait until you're 100% ready to take it.

i'm not sure how much longer (if at all) it would take to process your amcas app if you submit it a week later than the first day, but i would still argue that the delay would be less harmful than a bad mcat score.

also, and please check on this because i'm not sure, you might be able to submit your amcas app before you get your scores back. if that's the case, taking the may 21st mcat wouldn't delay amcas at all. but please please please check on that if you decide to go that route because i'm not sure.

 

[softmed]

Take the later date.

You can't submit your primary until mid June and the earliest secondaries are in July. As long as your MCAT score is available to schools in July you'll be plenty early for applications.

 

[justinbaily]

I took the MCAT on the 28th of May last year and it was more than early enough. I submitted my AMCAS application before I got my score though because I was averaging 38-39 on the full length practice tests, so I was confident that I wouldn't have to retake the test. As long as you have your application set to go by the time that you receive your scores, I would say that May 21st is an ideal day to take the MCAT.

 

[DrSmooth]

I might have misunderstood these posters, but they don't seem to know that your AMCAS primary can be submitted on June 1, which it can, or at least close to that. Definitely not mid-June. You should still submit your app on June 1. It will be verified and sent to your schools on or around June 23, which is right around when schools will receive your MCAT grade, so you will not be any later than those who took an earlier MCAT. You would actually be fine even taking the June 17 MCAT, especially if you think the extra month of studying would bump up your score significantly.

 

[fastfingers]

oh alright cool. so could i actually submit my app before having my mcat score ready?

I feel like i should be ready by may 1st and any studying after that may increase my score by at most 1-2 points. with that being said, is may 21st be the very very latest date i should take the mcat and still be in the pool of applicants considered to have applied early?

 

[ahowardmd]

oh alright cool. so could i actually submit my app before having my mcat score ready?

I feel like i should be ready by may 1st and any studying after that may increase my score by at most 1-2 points. with that being said, is may 21st be the very very latest date i should take the mcat and still be in the pool of applicants considered to have applied early?

Yes, definitely submit your primary as soon as you can, so that it gets verified. Then once you take your MCAT, the schools will automatically get your scores.

For example, I submitted my primary in June, took the MCAT in early August, and still got accepted to 2 MD schools. It would definitely be to your advantage to take the later exam, because you don't want to take it if you don't feel ready. Better to study all 3 months of summer and get a 34 then to take it earlier and get a 28.