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Why is early AMCAS submission important?


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I noticed a comment in another thread saying that people applying through AMCAS should submit their application early. Why is this so, and when would be the safest deadline? The school I am looking into applying has November 1st as its deadline.

 

US schools are not like Canadian schools. In Canada, all files are reviewed after the submission deadline and interviewees are selected. In the US, applications are reviewed and interviews and acceptances are granted as applications are received.

 

Say a school starts off with 100 seats and interviews a few applicants in September and ends up granting 25 students admission in October. You submit your application later (say October) and your file is reviewed in late October or early November. Instead of trying for 1 out of the 100 seats, you're trying for 1 out of only 75 now. Hence, the admissions committee becomes more stringent on who they invite for interviews as the application cycle progresses because there are fewer seats left.

 

Therefore, it is in your best interest to get your application completed as early as possible. The earlier you apply, the more likely you are to get an interview and a subsequent acceptance. You should submit your AMCAS application NOW (they started accepting submissions last week), even if the deadline may be in November. It takes a few weeks to get your AMCAS application verified and in the mean time, you can complete secondary applications for many schools.

 

Hope this makes sense. I totally made up the numbers I used above to illustrate how rolling admissions works.

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If you submit your AMCAS in mid-july, it wont be verified until end of july/early august. your secondaries wont be complete until end of august... so it's not "late" but it's not early either.

 

submitting your primary (AMCAS) any later than end of july/early august is getting late.

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On the AMCAS application, you input your grades and courses. During the review period, AMCAS compares what you inputed to your transcript and converts the grades to the AMCAS gpa system to calculate your GPA, Science GPA, etc. THis time can be about 2-6 weeks, depending on the number of applicants waiting to be reviewed at that time. THe longer you wait to submit , the more backlog there will be for your application to be reviewed.

 

 

Sorry I am a newb here, but what is getting "Reviewed"?

Just your essay and activities and grades?

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On the AMCAS application, you input your grades and courses. During the review period, AMCAS compares what you inputed to your transcript and converts the grades to the AMCAS gpa system to calculate your GPA, Science GPA, etc. THis time can be about 2-6 weeks, depending on the number of applicants waiting to be reviewed at that time. THe longer you wait to submit , the more backlog there will be for your application to be reviewed.

?

2-6 weeks? many on SDN reported that they were all done that within days. 2-6 weeks if you submit maybe late in july

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Will AMCAS begin transcript review even if we haven't submitted the application? I had my university forward my transcript last week, but have yet to submit my application. I'm looking to submit my AMCAS application by the end of the month.

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Will AMCAS begin transcript review even if we haven't submitted the application? I had my university forward my transcript last week, but have yet to submit my application. I'm looking to submit my AMCAS application by the end of the month.

 

That's what I did this year. They had my transcript before I submitted my application and it was already reviewed by the time I submitted it.

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Is it bad to take MCAT in August then?

 

your application wont be reviewed by individual schools until MCAT scores are received. it WILL be reviewed by AMCAS and sent to each school...but review for interviews will be held up. its the same as applying late.

 

so...its up to you.

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Hrm...

what if I already have a a good MCAT score for the schools I applied to, but I am writing in Sept so I could be competitive at Canadian schools?

Should I just not say that I am writing the MCAT again on the AMCAS "upocoming mcat" section?

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I suppose you could say that. But AMCAS does the processing for both the American admissions as well as the MCAT, so I don't know if it would work. as in, they'd be like .. well we see that you've signed up for the september mcat, so we'll have to make that correction on the application for you? (i'm not sure about this, just guessing).

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your application wont be reviewed by individual schools until MCAT scores are received. it WILL be reviewed by AMCAS and sent to each school...but review for interviews will be held up. its the same as applying late.

 

so...its up to you.

 

So when is the latest I can write the MCAT so that I don't hold up my review from schools?

I thought they start looking at applicants in November or something :S

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So when is the latest I can write the MCAT so that I don't hold up my review from schools?

I thought they start looking at applicants in November or something :S

 

They start looking at applications as soon as the application is considered complete. Interviews are held as early as September.

 

I suggest writing the MCAT so that your scores are available/released sometime in August at the latest (I dont know how long it takes for scores to come out w/the new computer format).

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They start looking at applications as soon as the application is considered complete. Interviews are held as early as September.

 

I suggest writing the MCAT so that your scores are available/released sometime in August at the latest (I dont know how long it takes for scores to come out w/the new computer format).

 

........30 days.

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So I should write in late June/early July?

 

Sorry...I don't know anything about the application but how does the order work.

Do you send in your application with your grades+mcat+biographical sketch, and then get an interview?

 

What is post-secondary? Is that school-specific stuff you do after you receive an interview but before you attend it?

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So I should write in late June/early July?

 

Sorry...I don't know anything about the application but how does the order work.

Do you send in your application with your grades+mcat+biographical sketch, and then get an interview?

 

What is post-secondary? Is that school-specific stuff you do after you receive an interview but before you attend it?

 

here is a post that outlines the general process:

http://www.premed101.com/forums/showpost.php?p=234439&postcount=9

 

1) if it takes 30 days to get your marks, then i'd say yes write in late june/early july

 

2) first you complete amcas application, send in your transcript to amcas, mcat scores will be released once available to the schools you choose to apply to and now apparently reference letters go to AMCAS?

 

3) once amcas is submitted you will receive your secondary applications - some arrive right after submitting, others will arrive after amcas has been verified. secondary applications have additional questions, prereq info, more fees.

 

4) once secondaries are complete and reviewed by the committees, you are invited for interview.

 

5) post-secondary??? depends what you're referring to. post-secondary grades means every grade you've received since high school. post-secondary in terms of application..is something after you've completed the secondary application...the only think i can think of that fits that is the interview.

 

hope this helps

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Gotta question about AMCAS submissions. I was wondering when everybody submitted their primaries and when they received confirmation that its been sent out to the selected schools. Its been a week for me, submitted it June 17th and my primary hasn't even went through. My status is "Submitted to AMCAS - Ready for Review" and its been like that for about 5 days now. Suggestions, comments?

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