I plan on applying to only one college and that is the only medicine college available in state. I will be applying by the fall of 2015 and hope to get matriculated in the summer of 2016.
Right now I have not taken the MCAT and that is what I am having trouble with. By the time summer comes I will not have taken BIOCHEM or physics II and I plan on taking the MCAT early summer so I can apply through the Early Decision program by August. I can also take the MCAT in mid August and be more prepared in terms of studying and then just apply regularly by Nov. 1st. I can also possibly do both (Take the MCAT in May and if I do not get accepted through the Early Decision Program I can retake the MCAT is August) but I am not too sure.
I also plan on taking physics 2 in the summer so I will complete that before taking the MCAT in August
Another thing is I have no clinical experience and I plan on applying for summer internships when the applications are available in February. But if somehow I do not end up with one then I would assume there is no point in applying this Fall.
I think your plan is a disaster waiting to happen.
Where to start?
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Applying to just one med school is madness. Strong students will apply to a minimum of 15 schools in hopes of getting at least 1 interview. Students with any weaknesses in their application need to apply to at least 20-25 schools where their stats are a match.
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You really need to complete all your pre-reqs before taking the MCAT. Biochem will be 30% of the questions in the BS section on the 2015 MCAT. I don’t see how you can score well without it.
And what about sociology and psych? have you taken those courses in preparation for the Human Behavior section?
You also need to realize that there is no such thing as score choice for the MCAT. Any med school you apply to will see all of your scores. Most med schools will average all your scores. So if you blow your first attempt, it will hurt how your future scores are perceived.
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Taking the MCAT in August is probably too late to apply for the 2015-16 cycle. It takes 4-8 weeks to get your MCAT score back after you sit for the exam. AMCAS will not process your application until they have a MCAT score. This means the earliest you will start receiving secondaries is mid-Sept or later. Assuming you turn around your secondaries within 2 weeks, you’re still extremely late. Some med schools have already given out >75% of the interviews by then. Unless your state school is a non-rolling school, you’ve badly crippled your application by being complete so late. (BTW, most med school close their applications in mid-October. If your score is late and comes back in early to mid October, then you’re completely out of luck.)
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Having no clinical experience is the ultimate application killer. No clinical means your application will go straight into the trash. Plus you really need more than just a few weeks of clinical experience.
Do you have any physician shadowing? Any community service? Any research experience? Any leadership activities?
An application without all of those is a non-starter.
- You really, really, really don’t want to be a re-applicant. An application cycle to med school is expensive and emotionally exhausting. Being a re-applicant is also a PITA. You will also have to get new LORs and send new transcripts. You really don’t want to have to go thru the process twice. Additionally, re-applicants are a disadvantage in comparison to first-time applicants who are well-prepared. Re-applicants have a higher bar to jump and are expected to show very significant improve over their previous application.
If you are going to apply to med school, do it once and do it right.
—You should postpone taking your MCAT until you’ve finished your pre-reqs and are fully prepared to give it your best shot.
—You should reconsider EDP. EDP is for applicants who have very strong reasons why they can’t relocate for med school. (Sole caretaker for a seriously ill parent or sibling. Or something similar.) Because you cannot apply to other programs until after EDP decisions are released on Oct 1, you’re essentially unable to apply to any other med school that year.
Btw, EDP acceptance rates are much lower than RD acceptance rates. You need to be a stronger applicant to accepted EDP than you would as a RD applicant.
—You should remedy any missing parts of your ECs. Make sure you have plenty of clinical experience, some long term community service and have spent at least a full summer (or a full academic year) in the research lab.
First off I would like to thank you for your response since you were the only one that did. I also have to say though that it seems like you think I am clueless in this whole process. To give you statistics on the school there are approximately 1000 applicants that apply. 800 from out of state and 200 in state and 90 percent get an interview if they are in state and about half instate people get accepted. I assume there are pretty good odds for me to at least get an interview. Also if I don’t get accepted this cycle then I will apply for a bunch of different schools in the next cycle. I do agree however on the MCAT exam. I will take it in august without biochemistry but with every other prereq and I will self teach myself through Kaplan biochem book and just apply regularly by November 1st.
I guess I forgot to mention that I’m majoring and psychology and double minor in bio and chemistry and I also taken a few sociology classes along with social psychology so I assume I am good in that aspect.
Also the AAMC states that they will release scores 30-35 days prior to taking the MCAT so I will take it in early August and get my scores by Mid September. The deadline to submit the application to my school is November 1st. So I will hopefully have everything else ready by early October. The SOM at my school also states that applicants that apply early DO NOT have a better chance at getting in because very application is held at the same standard.
Reading your comment I am unsure what “non-rolling” is. Could you please elaborate?
I do agree on the whole clinical experience aspect. I hope I will get an internship in the summer and all of the ones available will be for 2 months with 100+ hours of primary care experience. If I somehow do not get an internship then I would not take the mcat and not apply this cycle at all. Also I currently volunteer at 2 places for over a semester now and I am currently in a research project for this semester and I will aquire over 100+ hours of deliberate research.
You’re right though. I really really really do not want to reapply but I feel like I have a good shot if I get an internship and have a solid mcat score which I will never know unless I try.
If I don’t get accepted I hope there isn’t a stigma on me for reapplying because I know I won’t give up on my first attempt because this is what I’ve been working for.
After relection I have concluded that I will wait until august to take the MCAT after aquiring every prereq except biochem and I would know for sure by early summer that I do have an internship. I hope that one research experience, one clinical internship experience, two volunteering experiences and a decent MCAT score with a 3.8 GPA will be enough for me to be matriculated into medical school. If you have any opinions on my reasoning please let me know I love people with an honest opinion
Just know that I do appreciate your response and I hope my response wasn’t a little too pushy or grammatical incorrect because it is pretty late and I’m on my phone haha.
This means everyone is held to the same standard but it doesn’t mean that your application timing has no impact.
Non-rolling means they award all the interviews and subsequently all the acceptances at the same time. There is no element of first come first serve. This is how a lot of colleges work - the applications are due January 1st, they don’t necessarily read them in order and the decisions all go out on March 30th.
At many med schools, the applications are reviewed as they come in and interview invites and acceptances are sent out accordingly (they are rolling). I had friends who submitted their AMCAS the day it opened who were getting interview invites before I even submitted my application in late june and who attended interviews before I finished all my secondaries. My school for example sends out acceptances to interviewed applicants before the deadline for applications. They may hold everyone to the same standards regardless of when they apply but if schools see good applicants early they are going to pounce and once the interviews and acceptances start going out that means there are less available for the late comers. At some schools, they finish handing out acceptances before they finish interviews. They have kids come in and they tell them “you’re interviewing for a wait list spot.”
At Brown an August or September submission was considered foolish. October is just asking to get rejected.
There won’t be a stigma at other schools since you don’t have declare reapplicant status to them but there absolutely will be a stigma on you for reapplying to that 1 school.
This is kind of a gray area, though. While he won’t have to admit to being a reapplicant on AMCAS, many individual school secondaries will specifically ask if an applicant has applied to any med schools previously.