<p>So is it really bad to not get verified until into August? Does this put the applicant at significant disadvantage? </p>
<p>Very new to all this. Had no idea son was applying!</p>
<p>"Very new to all this. Had no idea son was applying! "</p>
<p>Then you found CC and can’t sleep anymore at night knowing he is behind compared to them CC overachievers! :p</p>
<p>If he is not a Texas native, he might be fine, especially if he started receiving secondaries already.</p>
<p>
They’re actually verifying those that were “ready for review” on 6/24 today. It seems like they’re picking up the pace ever-so-slightly. </p>
<p>@mammal…AMCAS is working really slow this year. I’m sure the med schools are aware of the delay. I have no clue how they’ve adjusted the dates denoting “early” or “late” applications, but I imagine most have extended grace to applicants for something that is out of their control. Of course, this is pure speculation on my part.</p>
<p>I’d say mid-August is not too late. Esp if his LORs are all uploaded and he’s diligently pre-writing his secondaries while he’s waiting to be verified so he get complete quickly once he is verified. </p>
<p>A number of colleges (including some elite privates) don’t even send out committee letters until mid-August. </p>
<p>Also it depends on what state you live in. TX admissions are in full swing and schools are busily scheduling interviews. Someone mentioned the NJ publics start interviewing in mid-August. But some western public med schools haven’t even sent out secondaries and won’t start interviewing until October.</p>
<p>BTW, I saw an armchair analysis (meaning based upon perceptions with not a whole lot of data to support it) that suggested that being among very first applicants interviewed may not be the best thing either. It’s like speed dating–you keep rejecting/down-ranking the early interviewees because you’re hoping something better will come along. A little later in the season, you’re not quite so picky…</p>
<p>Probably picking up the pace because they’ve already waded thu the bulk of the apps already and the daily number of new applications goes down as the cycle progresses.</p>
<p>^ I think that is not true in Texas. From what I heard, med schools go around to Texas state schools and tell them you snooze you lose or if you don’t apply early you have a low chance of getting in.</p>
<p>Thanks, this is helpful info.</p>
<p>Believe all letters, transcripts, application and mcat fully submitted. So it’s just AMCAS verifying at this point. What an interesting process . . .</p>
<p>def disagree with that armchair analyst. Early rejections are reserved for people who have no shot. If you’re among the first and you’re good enough but the school thinks you could do better you’ll most likely just go back to the bottom of the pile or just be waitlisted. Think about it from their end: You can always go back on a waitlist or re-review someone’s app but once you reject it’s game over.</p>
<p>That’s also not how speed dating works anyway, you do the ranking and such at the end. It’s like the standard college admissions system, not the rolling one most med schools use.</p>
<p>My pre-med advisor always said that a june submission was ideal, july ok, august late and september = gap year. Since you’re talking verification you can shift all of those one month later.</p>
<p>If the earliest submission date was 6/10 (later than last year) and they’re currently on 6/24, would you guess they’re 1/3 of the way down the list? 1/2? It looks like the last two years the median has been around 8/23 or so, but I believe AMCAS was working at a faster pace then.
<a href=“http://i.imgur.com/7trX5.png[/url]”>http://i.imgur.com/7trX5.png</a></p>
![http://i.imgur.com/7trX5.png[/url]](http://i.imgur.com/7trX5.png%5B/url%5D){kind=link}
<p>I had hoped D could get some interviews scheduled in Sept. Before the fall quarter starts. She doesn’t want to miss too many classes or days at her job. But the verification process is sooooo slow.</p>
<p>^ I was verified less than 6 hours after I submitted 
</p>
<p>As for interviews, since each of my interviews will span 3 days, I’m having a terrible time trying to redo my Fall schedule. It seems not every professor is willing to play along :(</p>
<p>Application processing delays, like cosmic rays, seem to come from every direction. First it was the delay in the arrival of the transcript from the school, then it was the AMCAS processing delay and the latest is the delay with his committee packet. Son’s letter was done 2 weeks ago, according to his advisor. however, it is not uploaded yet. </p>
<p>It looks like all the anxious applicants have been bombarding the beleaguered pre-health folks with inquiries. Finally today they blasted out an e-mail to everybody asking them to be patient. Apparently there is going to be a large upload of committee packets on this Friday. If son’s packet doesn’t get through in that batch, its going to be August 17th at the earliest. Apparently they are all going on a 2 week vacation! Anyways, they tried to assuage the anxieties of the applicants by saying that letters arriving in latter part of August should not cause any problems with Interview Invites. </p>
<p>On the positive side, son is done with 2/3 of his secondary apps.</p>
<p>^Just to toss in my little anecdote: in 2010, I sent in AMCAS in early July. I was verified by mid-end July. My committee interview was at the end of Aug, my committee letter went out early Sep, and my secondaries were complete/submitted late Aug-mid Sep. I collected a nice array of 3 top 20 interviews and 1 state school interview out of 13 applications. I was accepted to the school I currently attend in early Dec. </p>
<p>So, while it will certainly be the dissenting opinion from the CC vets, I agree with your son’s counselors that August won’t hurt his application. It’s easy to get tied up in all of this and want things to go as smoothly and quickly as possible…but sometimes, that’s just the nature of the beast. All you can do is sit back and enjoy the ride. I’m sure things will work out in his favor sooner or later…and hopefully sooner! Good luck!</p>
<p>90% of recieved secondaries completed; still waiting for 3 more secondaries (none of which will be sent out until sometime next week). But secondary fatigue is setting in. (And the not-yet-received in-state secondary is a *****. A half dozen 2000 word essays that can’t be recycled/adapted from other secondaries.)</p>
<p>
Knock on wood… Thanks!</p>
<p>
Northwestern is one of my son’s schools that is taking it leisurely. I read over there at the other site, that one poor kid, who couldn’t wait anymore sent them an e-mail inquiring about the secondary. He got two replies in rapid succession. The first one, probably a canned response, said that they would start sending secondary apps out soon. The second informed him that his file was no longer under consideration! Poor guy was dumbstruck wondering if he brought it upon himself.</p>
<p>WOWmom, 2000 word or 2000 character? The latter is a little more manageable, even if the topics aren’t conducive to borrowing from other essays.</p>
<p>2000 words–like 3-4 pages each. All on national and state healthcare issues. No fluff.
Hopefully D2 has prepped the questions from the last 2 years’ secondaries.</p>
<p>D1’s application year was the first the school asked these kinds of questions. It caught her by surprise and took her forever (or so it seemed) to finish it. </p>
<p>The year before her, there had been just 2 questions. 1. Do you speak a language other than English? (Later removed because it was deemed too discriminatory against Anglophones.) 2. Is any member of your family an alumni of the SOM?</p>
<p>I take it back-- I just looked at last years’ prompts—4, not 6.</p>
<p>Yikes! The silver lining, I guess, is that she’ll be wonderfully prepared if and when such topics come up during interviews at other SOMs.</p>
<p>Yay! First II of the season!</p>
<p>Hopefully the first of many.</p>
<p>Kudos to your D2! Many more, indeed!</p>