<p>For those planning to enter medical school in fall 2008, now is a good time to:</p>
<p>1.) Put together a first draft or two of your personal statement
2.) Assemble a list of your activities, with short descriptions.</p>
<p>This will help you apply promptly when the windows open in June, since many of you will have finals around then.</p>
<p>Thanks BDM - working on it!</p>
<p>For those planning to enter -- apparently just celestial? -- now's a good time to start thinking about which schools to apply to.</p>
<p>*This is especially true for schools on the quarter system, who will need to send off their apps during their school year.</p>
<p>You can actually begin filling out the primary beginning in May but you won't be able to send it out until June 1st.</p>
<p>Also, professors should be notified ASAP if you want them writing letters of recommendation.</p>
<p>Just wanting to remind kids in the 2008 cycle to get their LORs, personal statements, lists of schools, and activities ready to go. June 8 is just a couple months away, and some of you will still have school then.</p>
<p>4 yrs from now...bdm better still be here to give us tips lol =D</p>
<p>A bump as well as a reminder that we're around to help with any stage of this as necessary. PM's are always read.</p>
<p>Really -- we are useful for more than telling you where to go to college. I promise.</p>
<p>^You didn't answer the PM I sent you a while ago. Don't worry, looking through your old posts, I think I got the answer.</p>
<p>I read my PM's...but I don't always get around to answering them. Please don't take offense.</p>
<p>Sorry. I thought I'd been pretty diligent about answering any PM's that didn't relate to where I went to school.</p>
<p>About a year ago (?) I posted a comment that I would tell people via PM but subsequently changed my mind because I didn't want to continue encouraging people to think that it was important.</p>
<p>Well, I asked you where you go to school. I think I know anyway :)</p>
<p>It's May. AMCAS should be open soon, if not already. Start filling it out in preparation for submission in early June.</p>
<p>Do you have:
Your essay?
Letters of recommendation arranged?
A list of schools to apply to?</p>
<p>The application will be available starting tomorrow (Thursday) as will the transcript request form. It's application time!</p>
<p>Good luck everyone.</p>
<p>If you want to enter medical school in the fall of 2008:</p>
<p>1.) You should have a quick list of your extracurricular activities put together by November 2006.
2.) You should have a first draft of your essay put together during Christmas 2006.
3.) You should have a rough list of schools by March 2007.
4.) You should ask for letters of recommendation before April 2007, and ask them to send in their letters by June 1 2007.
5.) You should be finalizing your essay.
6.) E-mail an older student to get as many secondary essay topics as possible.
7.) During May 2007, you should open up an AMCAS account. This will be quite easy if you've already taken the MCAT, which I hope you have.
8.) Ideally you'd have an MCAT score by June 2007 -- not a test, a score. July is probably okay as well, but it would make me uncomfortable.
9.) On June 8 -- NOT JUNE 1st -- you should send in your primary application. This includes a list of schools, a list of EC's, your grades, a TRANSCRIPT REQUEST, and your essay.
10.) On June 15, many schools with "Open" secondaries (non-screening) will open up their secondaries. You should look carefully through the website of every school you applied to to see if the application is open yet.
11.) You should take no more than two weeks to fill out any secondary. Otherwise they accumulate. Rumors -- which I find credible -- also say that schools use secondaries as an indication of your interest.
12.) Schools will start to send you secondaries, as well. The two-week rule stands.
13.) If there's ever a point where you find you have nothing to do, start writing secondary essays ahead of time!</p>
<p>14.) You should be completely done with all primaries and secondaries by the time school starts.</p>
<p>Interview timing is a mess and we won't deal with it here.</p>
<p>Just to add to you list:</p>
<p>7a. Once you start filling out your AMCAS, send you transcript right away so when you do submit you AMCAS in June, verification process will be quick. </p>
<p>Also this year you could start sending you primary on June **5th*.</p>
<p>Okay -- so best day to send in Primary is probably June 10 or so, then. The point is you want to give it a few days after the window is open in case AMCAS is having any computer problems.</p>
<p>wait i have a question. Why do you guys not suggest starting studying for the MCAT very early? I mean ill be a senior in high school and i have started. And how is that bad? I have ec's and volunteer experience and instead of partying and enjoying my summer i instead am studying for the MCAT. I just dont get what is the downfall of doing this.</p>
<p>"Instead of partying and enjoying my summer i instead am studying for the MCAT."</p>
<p>^^^That's why. You're in high school. Have some fun because you probably won't get to once you're doing premed in college or in med school. Everything you need to know for the MCAT can be reviewed/studied/practiced in 2-3 months. BDM says this. BRM says this. I say this. And we've all taken the MCAT and, presumably, all only spent a few months on it. I don't see how extra preparation would help.</p>