<p>And two days at the very beginning of the app process isn’t going to do anything to your app. Yours will still be verified and in the first batch sent to schools.</p>
<p>When exactly is the first batch sent? I read somewhere it’s around June 24th, but I don’t know how true that is. Get verified by then, you’re golden…</p>
<p>For the descriptions of activities, should I just describe what I did or do I talk about what I got out of each activity? I’m leaning towards the former.</p>
<p>Any of you current med students mind glancing over my personal statement and telling me what you think? I have several advisors who have commented, but I figure insight from those who have gone through the process couldn’t hurt…</p>
<p>The primary is made available to med schools around June 22nd. I turned mine in around June 12th or so and it only took 2 days to verify.</p>
<p>BDM - Do you recommend a week between when the AMCAS application opens for submission and actually submitting it? I thought I remembered reading somewhere that was the timeframe you recommended.</p>
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<p>Same here, I located, organized and analyzed data for 30+ years professionally, I don’t see why I shouldn’t apply (and teach to my kid) the same methods for college/Med school admissions. I’ve actually always been pretty amazed that most of my professor friends know squat about current college admissions and only realize at the last moment that they aren’t going to qualify for FA and that those test scores really do matter.</p>
<p>MWP: Yeah, I recommend a week. Anything from 5-9 days, usually. Obviously more if something does in fact go wrong and is taking time to fix, but 5 days is enough to give you a heads-up on that.</p>
<p>DD did sign on to TX apps the first morning it opened and had most of her info in before the crash, though it took several days to be able to access the transcript cover sheet.</p>
<p>DD will not be available on the 2nd and so about the 6th or 7th will be her soonest date to submit, but she has to decide whether or not to wait for spring grades to post and the transcript to be released June 11th or to enter those as current…since they are likely to be all or 3/4 As all in tough upper div science courses, she is inclined to wait. Therefore she would keep fine tuning the app.</p>
<p>Though she has known the the timing since last summer, she is still not as done as Mudgette; DD will do a final tune up on the PS next week on a camping trip, but also needs to review the ECs explanatory paragraphs, so she really has a couple more days to work on it, but has been distracted by little things like finals, graduation, clean up and move out of the apartment, etc. She’ll be done by the 6th as planned, but if she waits until the 11th she will take a bit more time to review the tiny details.</p>
<p>DDs most amazing news this week (and big time sink) is the offer of a paid research assistant position in a university lab working with a prof she found via profs at her primary university and her study abroad university. It is in her study abroad country and she will be paid enough to pay living expenses and seems to have university sponsorship for a work visa. She will coordinate and work hands on with stroke cadaver dissection as well as a study with children who have cerebral palsy. She is very excited and in a mad rush as this changes all the plans she had made for the summer (this was her first choice and she has been actively pursuing it since last fall, yay for tenacious DDs) and she must be ready to begin work by the 20th-30th of June including obtaining a visa and moving to a foreign country. </p>
<p>3 of 4 transcripts are already received and LORs are mostly at her school letter service, just waiting on one final science one and one shadow one, but she already has a couple of science ones in, so is now after those extras.</p>
<p>Somemom, What an exciting (and app enhancing) opportunity for her! Many congratulations. I agree with her waiting for final grades. </p>
<p>I had written down “before 6/12” as D’s AMCAS submit date long ago and she might move that up a few days. Seems like there is little to gain by applying earlier than that. </p>
<p>D (who is visiting her bff) said that you had asked whether she was going MD/PhD and the answer is…not anymore. For several reasons she now prefers the formal (and informal) research intensive 5 year programs at the heavy research schools, some of which require separate applications on the front end , some after matriculation, while some appear to just morph into it. The advice she has received suggests that (if she is determined) she can find significant research opps at any of her chosen schools. </p>
<p>She is also a school supported-candidate for post-graduate scholarships where (in the highly unlikely event that she is selected) she can do a research year (or 2 or maybe even 3). Most of her med schools would allow her to defer her matriculation year if indeed Hell does happen to freeze over.</p>
<p>Somemom - My D is a rising junior and is abroad right now. She is shadowing a surgeon and living with her and her family. She is also participating in the research she and her colleagues are conducting. She will be returning home soon to head back to her college for summer school. She has already been dropping hints that she would like to go back to the country (different area though) and do research next year. The only thing that gets in the way are the secondary applications. How does you D plan to handle those being out of the country?</p>
<p>Midwest- DD assumes she can handle it all online and if she must have a hard copy mailed she can email me a PDF to print and mail…just call me Gal Friday ;)</p>
<p>Curm- thanks for the encouragement, it’s been a bit tricky nailing down whether or not that extra 10 days or so makes a difference or not in the time to verification. We think the very strong senior year is important to show, either 4.0 or maybe one B+</p>
<p>DDs job is a real tribute to both tenacity and being unafraid to ask every one for connections. This school is not her abroad university, it is far away from that city so she was intense in pursuing connections and lucky that the city where she wanted to be was a place where she found a confluence of connections from whom she got stellar recs.</p>
<p>This is what we hope will overcome her lowly 29 MCAT, the uber strong LORs and the great finish un upper div bio.</p>
<p>Somemom, with her unique sports background, her way upward GPA trend (way to go kiddo) at a tough UG, her recent app enhancements, and the rest of the package we’ve discussed …plus the fact that female matriculants have on average a MCAT score approximately 1.5 points lower than male matriculants I’m optimistic. All that combined with a realistic school list (that I am more than willing to comment on FWIW) and I’ll move that to “real optimistic”. ;)</p>
<p>DD has gotten 3 grades back, A, A, A+ so I guess we will wait for the final transcript :D</p>
<p>Yeah. I thinks that’s a good i-dee. ;)</p>
<p>Well, here she goes! After having her PS reviewed by some thoughtful and generous folks and gaining insight from their comments and making a few final “meticulous” changes 
my D is now officially an applicant to 5 Texas medical schools. She has her first 2 (automatic) secondaries to fill out. Uggh. So it begins. </p>
<p>These 5 apps are of great importance as it is likely that she will be attending one of them …and that will be just fine with her dad. She leaves at 7:00 a.m. for her 10 week summer research fellowship. Lots of things will be happening in that 10 weeks. I trust she’s ready but I’ll fret nonetheless. I’m a fretter. I’ll stop about a week after I’m dead.</p>
<p>Congrats on hitting the submit button Curm!</p>
<p>Interesting week here, too, TX & AMCAS apps will both go in together in about a week, after final PS revisions.</p>
<p>DD thought she would have some extra time after finals, or after grad weekend, or after apartment move out, but then she got the foreign job offer which has been on again off again as they navigate through the worlds of work visas & unions. Looks good right now, but she won’t know for sure until she submits the paperwork.</p>
<p>Simultaneously she got a phone interview for an internship she thought was long gone, I guess layoffs delayed processing. So, she is trying to figure out what to do and juggle both. </p>
<p>Last week she thought she would not have a summer formal job and would just be home to focus on secondaries, now she will be some where doing something lab related some time this month, maybe ;)</p>
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<p>That’s what I like…certainty. That way you can plan. LOL.</p>
<p>are any of your kids taking a gap year/have taken a gap year?</p>
<p>^ My kid plans to take a gap year. This is what he wants and we fully support his decision.</p>
<p>As regard to the question of whether or not it is “better” to take a gap year, I think it depends on the individual. In my kid’s case, I think his college life outside of his premed work would likely suffer if he chooses to not have a gap year. Some other kids might be OK without a gap year, but not him. Also, because he is definitely not a kid who knows he would be a doctor in the future when he was a high schooler, we prefer that he has one extra year to choose his career path.</p>
<p>We also hope that some day he will have a very good memory about his college experience. Like one of the medical school students here said recently about her college life: “It was a blast!” We hope he will feel the same in the future. (I do not imply that the kids without a gap year will not feel the same though.)</p>
<p>DD just graduated from Berkeley, she did not decide on med school until spring/summer of junior year so she was not ready to apply on many levels. She is applying this summer and after applying for 3 summer internships she got one summer offer in a genetics firm and the same week she got a 1 year paid offer in a lab working with cadavers. She chose the cadavers for a year and now at least has a start date of July 1 so can begin planning. ;)</p>
<p>Cadavers. Yummy. :eek: </p>
<p>Well, for better or worse D hit submit last night on her AMCAS. Seemed like all was well with the system based on studentdoc reports. She has finished her two Texas secondaries and submitted them also. She still needs a couple of LOR’s and then 346 secondary essays and $1.2 million for secondary fees.</p>