Hi everyone! I need some advice on how I should approach the MCAT and application cycle for next year. I'm currently a second semester junior with plans of taking a gap year. Since COVID hit I wasn't able to go abroad this year so i'm planning to study abroad my last semester but I'm not too sure how it would work out since I still have to take my MCAT my senior year. I'm supposed to be doing prep jan-april of my last semester (when abroad) and then come back and take the exam and start working on my application to submit in may. My advisor suggested that I take the exam in may (after I graduate) and have my application ready beforehand. If I don't get my desired score, would I be able to take it again and submit another score while the application is still in process? I'm not sure how well studying abroad would work with MCAT prep but I'm really trying to make it work. Any advice/suggestions help!
The way the application process works is something like this:
- You fill out you application, you select what schools you want it sent to, you hit submit, it first goes through AACOMAS or AMCAS, who will then take anywhere from 1-8 weeks (pending time of cycle) to "verify" that all the information is correct, and then it will get sent to the schools that you chose.
- So, the application itself opens on May 1st-ish. Most people who are trying to apply early will fill out the application in its entirety, and submit it to schools they want to attend. The caveat is that school's cannot begin processing applications until like mid-June. This means that schools will see you application pretty much on Day #1. People who take this option usually have ALL of their scores in hand and know their competitiveness.
- Sometimes, people fill out the application and apply to a "throwaway" school, so that their application is "verified" so that they can then determine where they want to apply later without having to wait for further verification. AKA, you want to wait until your MCAT comes back to decide where you want to really apply (as you can technically submit without the MCAT score). This gives applicants the ability get their MCAT back, and then immediately apply to schools that they want to apply. No waiting on verification at this point.
My advice is this:
- You should 1000% have you application filled out, ready to go early in the cycle. I, personally, would say apply to a throwaway school early (sometime in May or June) to get your application verified while waiting on your MCAT score. Then, once you get your MCAT score, decide if it is worth following through with you application for that cycle.
- BUT, let me make something absolutely, unequivocally clear. DO NOT RE-TAKE A POOR MCAT TWICE IN ONE CYCLE. This is why; one bad MCAT score says that you were not ready for the exam...most schools can get past this. Two bad MCAT scores, and your boat is leaking water. Two bad MCAT scores less than two months apart? Say goodbye to med school for at least 5 more years. If you are not ready to take the MCAT in May, then by the time you get your score back in mid-to-late June, you will have two-three months of more studying before you are even prepared to try again.
- There are only 1 of 3 outcomes in the situation that you have laid out (scoring poorly and trying to retake)
1. You take the MCAT, its bad, you retake it early, and it is good enough to get in
2. You take the MCAT, its bad, you wait until you are truly ready which would be about in in September. It is good enough to get in, but now your application becomes borderline late...with already a poor mcat performance.
3. You take the MCAT, its bad. You retake too early, and you get another bad score.
Of these three outcomes, only 1 of them is positive. You would have only a 33% chance of something good happening to you in an already ferociously difficult, low percentage game. Of these, one of them is almost lethal, as option three would not only demonstrate that you cannot perform on the MCAT, but that you did not even have good enough judgement to decide that you should not have done it.
It comes down to this:
DO NOT TAKE THE MCAT UNLESS YOU ARE 100% READY. It will save you the headache of everything else. Putting off your MCAT until late July or early August to ensure that you are adequately prepared is 1000% better of a plan than trying to retake a poor score in the same cycle.
If I were truly you, I would have my application ready to go in May, and verified. Waiting on your MCAT score. Ensure that you take the MCAT when you are ready (no later than early August). Get you score back, if it is good enough to get in, then go for the cycle. If it is not, take another gap year, and try again.
