keepontruckin Posted June 11, 2011 Report Share Posted June 11, 2011 So here's my situation: I have written the MCAT twice already and I am scheduled to rewrite my third time on July 6, however I may not be as prepared as I want to be for the test. Therefore, I am thinking of rescheduling for either July16 or July 28th, but I'm concerned about this affecting my chances at a US school. I understand that there are rolling admissions for the majority of US MD programs and so my questions is this: Will my chances of being accepted to school "x" in the US be drastically decreased if I submit a complete application by the beginning of September vs. mid-August? What is considered to be a "late" application? Input would be very helpful, as it would help me determine weather or not I should reschedule my MCAT test date! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Comeon Posted June 11, 2011 Report Share Posted June 11, 2011 Take your time with the MCAT. If you have already written it multiple times, you should try and make the next one your last. Try your best to have stellar scores that make you a shoe-in for Canadian interviews. I think you should reconsider applying to the US this year with the chance that you will be late in the cycle. It is hard for a reapplicant to get in and it is also hard for a late applicant to get in. In the case it does not work out solely for the reason you were late, you may have a tough time having to go through it again. I am not sure how late is considered "late" but I hear that interviews start being handed out in the latter part of August. Btw, for the MCAT...a lot of people bow out when it gets close to the test date. I felt nervous when I went in to mine. You should just do a few more AAMCs and see what your scores are. If you are happy then you are probably as ready as you will ever be. Then, you could still apply to the US with confidence. You also have about a month to go before test date. That should be plenty of time to finish off preparation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keepontruckin Posted June 11, 2011 Author Report Share Posted June 11, 2011 Take your time with the MCAT. If you have already written it multiple times, you should try and make the next one your last. Try your best to have stellar scores that make you a shoe-in for Canadian interviews. I think you should reconsider applying to the US this year with the chance that you will be late in the cycle. It is hard for a reapplicant to get in and it is also hard for a late applicant to get in. In the case it does not work out solely for the reason you were late, you may have a tough time having to go through it again. I am not sure how late is considered "late" but I hear that interviews start being handed out in the latter part of August. Btw, for the MCAT...a lot of people bow out when it gets close to the test date. I felt nervous when I went in to mine. You should just do a few more AAMCs and see what your scores are. If you are happy then you are probably as ready as you will ever be. Then, you could still apply to the US with confidence. You also have about a month to go before test date. That should be plenty of time to finish off preparation. Thanks for the feedback. I've heard mixed opinions on having the status of a re-applicant. So you're saying that it puts you at a disadvantage? Do you know where I can find more info on that sort of thing, because if you're right, then I would definitely think of applying next year rather than applying late this year (should that be the case). I'm in a prep course right now (never did one 2x before, so I figured I would give it a shot) and it ends june 29th. I would like to do practice tests after the course ends for about 2 weeks and review stuff that I'm not comfortable with between practice tests. Unfortunately i have about 7 days to do so, and I'm not sure that will be enough . And like you said, I would rather do it right this time as opposed to doing it early. So I'm now leaning towards rescheduling from July 6 to 16th. Do you think that if I re-book the test for July 16th, it would be considered late to apply to US (assuming that I complete my application mid-August)? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Comeon Posted June 11, 2011 Report Share Posted June 11, 2011 I heard about the reapplicant thing from one of these forums so I am not completely sure if it has any backing. The only thing I know is that when you reapply, you have to explain how you have improved since the last time. For the MCAT, you should try taking a few practice tests over the duration of the course. If you reschedule to July 16th, you will get results in mid-August which may be OK. In the meantime, you could work on getting your transcripts in, requesting for references and starting your personal statement. That way, you could have all your secondaries ready to go as soon as results are in. To be honest, I do not think that the 10 days extra is going to significantly affect your US apps. Just work furiously on secondaries in between test day and results day as well as intermittently on the primaries between now and test day (try to submit as soon as you can). For the primary, the essay is the only thing that will take some time...everything else just needs a request form or e-mail. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keepontruckin Posted June 11, 2011 Author Report Share Posted June 11, 2011 I heard about the reapplicant thing from one of these forums so I am not completely sure if it has any backing. The only thing I know is that when you reapply, you have to explain how you have improved since the last time. For the MCAT, you should try taking a few practice tests over the duration of the course. If you reschedule to July 16th, you will get results in mid-August which may be OK. In the meantime, you could work on getting your transcripts in, requesting for references and starting your personal statement. That way, you could have all your secondaries ready to go as soon as results are in. To be honest, I do not think that the 10 days extra is going to significantly affect your US apps. Just work furiously on secondaries in between test day and results day as well as intermittently on the primaries between now and test day (try to submit as soon as you can). For the primary, the essay is the only thing that will take some time...everything else just needs a request form or e-mail. Ya, I was actually thinking exactly along those lines. I'm gonna try and reschedule for the 16th. Thanks again for the input! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShootingStar Posted June 11, 2011 Report Share Posted June 11, 2011 So here's my situation: I have written the MCAT twice already and I am scheduled to rewrite my third time on July 6, however I may not be as prepared as I want to be for the test. Therefore, I am thinking of rescheduling for either July16 or July 28th, but I'm concerned about this affecting my chances at a US school. I understand that there are rolling admissions for the majority of US MD programs and so my questions is this: Will my chances of being accepted to school "x" in the US be drastically decreased if I submit a complete application by the beginning of September vs. mid-August? What is considered to be a "late" application? Input would be very helpful, as it would help me determine weather or not I should reschedule my MCAT test date! In this case, I would say take as long as you need, and nail that MCAT. A lot of schools require that you take the MCAT no more than 3 times to stay competitive. I would even suggest July 28th if you're still unsure about July 16th. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keepontruckin Posted June 14, 2011 Author Report Share Posted June 14, 2011 In this case, I would say take as long as you need, and nail that MCAT. A lot of schools require that you take the MCAT no more than 3 times to stay competitive. I would even suggest July 28th if you're still unsure about July 16th. If only a July 28th Toronto spot would open before my change deadline of June 22...don't think that's gonna happen...unless I get extremely lucky. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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