<p>Does the MCAT have to be taken in April of junior year? What happens if it gets held off until the summer, around June and July? </p>
<p>Is it still possible to apply to med school in those scenarios?</p>
<p>if you do not take it in April, the next test date is August and the scores are not released until October. This can put you at a significant disadvantage for interviews, as many schools wait until they see the scores before making offers for interviews. April is the preferred date.</p>
<p>Not true, Hubbell, for 2007, there are many more testing dates, now that everyone is taking it on computer.</p>
<p>There are now 22 administrations of the MCAT spread across 19 dates, with scores expected to be released 30 days after the test date.</p>
<p>I personally took the MCAT in August, and it didn't really affect me, but I was applying mostly to state schools, and scored well. I only interviewed at my home state institution and the state school where I was attending college.</p>
<p>In general, I'm of the believe that you should take the MCAT when you can get the absolute best score. While it is important to be in early with the AMCAS, that shouldn't mean you have to take the MCAT when you aren't prepared or won't score as high as possible. If I were currently an underclassmen, I'd be shooting for the June administration after my junior year, the July test at the absolute latest, as I think August 1st is an acceptable deadline, with September 1st the very latest. (I of course submitted my AMCAS on October 8th).</p>
<p>Thanks, I got an email from Kaplan about more testing dates in both June and July, and I'm definitely sure that it would be impossible for me to score well if I took it in April. Thank you, this has helped me out a lot.</p>
<p>In my opinion, the most important change to the MCAT is that it's graded faster. In light of this new three-week turnaround, I think a June administration is not quite perfect but should be just fine provided that everything else is lined up like... (what's the expression?) ducks in a row.</p>
<p>However, there are advantages to being even earlier. For one thing, there is a difference -- albeit only a medium sized one -- to being ready to go in June rather than July. Second and more importantly, having a score before you submit AMCAS would be nice because it allows you to pick schools wisely.</p>