<p>Hi,</p>
<p>I am applying to medical school next june (june of 2007) and I wanted to know if I can start attending medical school in the fall of 2007. Does anybody know if I can do this?</p>
<p>THANKS!</p>
<p>What? No, the application process takes a year.</p>
<p>If you send out your applications in June of 2007, you are applying for a spot in the class that would enter in 2008.</p>
<p>hmmm...this is my dilemma...
I am going to graduate by August of 2007 and I won't have any classes to take in the 2007-2008 school year. Do you recommend I apply this year (my sophomore year), without my MCAT scores?</p>
<p>Thanks for ur help bluedevil</p>
<p>No, I don't, but that is a reasonably tentative recommendation, if I assume correctly that you are taking the April MCAT (the one in three days). There is probably no harm involved in taking a year off, but applying a year early if you are going to graduate a year early is not harmful. Your MCAT score being released in mid-June will somewhat harm your ability to "calibrate" your applications, but should not be that big a hangup.</p>
<p>If you are taking the August MCAT, then absolutely not. Medical schools are rolling and will have started to give away spots already. If you are in California, as I believe you are, then you will need to be very clear about respecting the process.</p>
<p>Thanks for the response...</p>
<p>dang that sucks!! I'm taking the August MCAT!! So what can I do? I don't want to be out of school for a whole year!!</p>
<p>I'm sure a bright young man such as yourself can find something fun to occupy himself with. :)</p>
<p>loll....thank you bluedevil...
So I decided I am going to apply to medical school just for the heck of it. I am going to apply without my MCAT scores....when do you think the scores will be ready if I take them in August? Also, will I have a really low chance of getting in if I apply this way? Sorry for all the questions, but I just realized I am kind of screwed :-/</p>
<p>This is a bad idea.</p>
<p>If you have applied to a medical school and been rejected, they will be extremely skeptical of you the second time around.</p>
<p>If you are applying through medical school admissions, your MCAT scores will be ready in late October. This means medical schools have already started giving away spots - upwards of 1/3 of them, in some cases. It harms your odds very severely.</p>
<p>bluedevilmike are you sure they will be skeptical of me the second time I apply if I get rejected the first time?</p>
<p>arahopee,</p>
<p>Take a year off, work as an EMT, save some money, and polish your apps like fine silver. Then you'll be good to go.</p>
<p>Trust me, a year off won't kill you.</p>
<p>Yes, I'm very sure. Your odds will be significantly harmed if you apply a second time. This factor is important enough that AMCAS explicitly forces you to check boxes each time you reapply to a school.</p>
<p>UCLAri, the problem is I will have applied by then....so whatever I do during that year I can't really use towards my application. I guess I will just take some upper division bio courses or be an EMT. Thanks for your advice guys!</p>
<p>Okay, who cares anyway? Make some money, get some good experience, and rest up and be 100% ready for med school.</p>
<p>I think you're looking at a gift horse and don't realize it.</p>
<p>Doesn't the term gift horse have kind of a negative connotation? Anyway, make some cash and pay off some debt in the time you're gonna have. Plus you will be able to better gauge where to apply after knowing your MCAT scores.</p>
<p>The phrase, "don't look a gift horse in the mouth" basically means, "don't be ungrateful when you receive a gift." I quote from another site, "As horses age their teeth begin to project further forward each year and so their age can be estimated by checking how prominent the teeth are. This incidentally is also the source of another teeth/age related phrase - long in the tooth.</p>
<p>The advice given in the 'don't look...' proverb is: when given a present, be grateful for your good fortune and don't look for more by examining it to assess its value."</p>
<p>So, I modified it a bit, and said, "arahopee has a gift in front of him, but doesn't even realize it."</p>
<p>That's all.</p>
<p>I don't think that applying twice is quite as bad as BDMike is making it out to be. There are MANY, MANY people who apply two, three and even four times. I have several friends who all got in to schools they reapplied to on the second time around.</p>
<p>Now if you apply a second time and have done nothing to improve your application the second time, then yes, that is bad.</p>
<p>Also, if you take the August MCAT you should get your scores back by mid October. Most schools that I know of have deadlines for primary apps after that (November - December). BDMike and I differ on the rolling admissions thing and personally don't think that it is as big of deal. Most schools don't even handle the majority of their interviews until after their primary application deadline, and some schools interview as late as March and April. Of the schools I know of, most don't send out acceptances until mid-December, other than Early Decision. Yes, you are putting yourself a little behind the 8 ball, but nothing that cannot be overcome. </p>
<p>I really think that if you get your entire AMCAS finished so that when MCAT scores are released, your next step is just to hit submit, you'll be fine. I mean you're graduating in three years, you must have some intelligence. You just need to make sure that you hustle in those secondary apps. Further, throw in some schools that have later deadlines for secondary applications (Creighton and Tufts both had 2/15 deadlines, and Michigan State might have been even later than that). You don't necessarily seem like the type who has some dream school, and are more looking to get in somewhere, and if that's the case that makes opens up a lot of your options.</p>
<p>In the end, you need to judge as objectively as possible how your application is looking at this point. Do you have volunteer experience? Are your grades in order? What type of involvement do you have on campus? If you can honestly say that you have a well rounded application and with an appropriate MCAT score would be a competitive applicant, then I think you can apply this year. If something is not as it should be, then you need to work this year on fixing that.</p>
<p>red & arahopee,</p>
<p>The UC system is an entirely different animal, because it's so much more competitive. It's a tough situation, and I'd recommend going into it with a healthy respect for the process itself.</p>
<p>So I have another question lol...</p>
<p>How hard is it to transfer between medical schools? I want to attend a medical school for a year then transfer to a UC since bluedevilmike said I shouldn't apply to a med school twice if I get rejected the first time. Again, the reason for not wanting to apply is because I will not have my MCAT scores and will have to apply late. So any knowledge about transferring between medical schools?</p>
<p>thanks a lot big red and bd....</p>
<p>this is what my application is composed of as of now:
AMCAS GPA: 3.87</p>
<p>UCSD SCIENCE GPA: 3.9</p>
<p>MCAT - not taken yet</p>
<p>EC's
TA for chem department
intern with a doctor (just started)
Volunteer at a free clinic in Mexico
VP of an organization
Founder and President of an organization
Red Cross Volunteer
Researching and currently working on a publication
involvement in about two other org's</p>
<p>Would it be worth applying to the UC's because those are my dreams schools! :)</p>
<p>Thanks guys!</p>
<p>It is VERY VERY difficult to transfer b/w med schools. You should not plan on doing so.</p>