Forum Members PSA: Do NOT submit your application on May 31st!

[Moko]

PSA (rehashed from last year's thread):

If you are planning to submit your application on May 31st, do not do it! Take the next several days to review your application word by word and line by line to make sure that there are no silly mistakes or typos. For good measure, print your application and check it twice or even thrice! Don't read the essays in the same order. Does an essay make you sound arrogant, overconfident, negative, or unconfident? Did you accidentally forget to paste in an essay? If so, now is your last chance to change it. Once you hit “Submit”, that is it. You are stuck with this application for the rest of the cycle. There is no option to revise your application post-submission; and should you unintentionally withdraw your application, you will NOT be able to apply again this year. READ: your cycle will be over before it even began. Yes, this has happened before.

Every year we see applicants rush to submit their applications. They subsequently notice mistakes or realize that they could have written a much better (read: error-free!) essay had they given themselves a couple extra days or week to review. From the reviewer standpoint, we receive many applications that read like they were written the night before. In fact, some applicants forget to paste entire essays into their application (true stories!). Do not let this be you.

Applying to medical school is not a race. Applications are not necessarily reviewed in the order they are received. Being verified by June 5th will also have literally zero impact on your chances as completed applications are not transmitted to schools until June 24th. Realistically, your odds of success will be similar regardless of whether your application is 'complete' in late June vs mid July (see below for verification times).

You can and should start pre-writing secondaries during the verification process so that secondaries can be completed in a timely manner after verification. However, prior to submitting your secondary applications, be sure that a school's prompts have not changed and that you are directing them at the right school! Also have a system in place to stay organized!

So, avoid the urge to submit this coming week. There is no benefit to doing so. Take a breather, enjoy the holiday weekend (responsibly!), and come back to your application in a few days and review it very carefully for any mistakes and subpar essays. If you truly cannot improve anything even after reviewing the printed version, then submit your application at that time. Best of luck, and may the odds be ever in your favor.

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Time to verification (2020-2022 cycles - COVID data)
2020-2021 Official AMCAS Verification Thread
2021-2022 Official AMCAS Verification Thread
Take-aways:
- last year, people who submitted on 06/03 still had their application verified by 06/25 (one day after applications were first transmitted to schools)
- those who submitted their primary application in mid-June were verified around mid-July. These applicants still had the opportunity to complete their secondaries and be considered early. Pre-writing secondary essays during the verification process is key!

Time for verification (2020 cycle - pre-COVID data - credit: Reddit)

tl;dr:

- Do NOT submit your primary application on May 31st. You have nothing to gain, and potentially everything to lose.

- Once you hit “Submit”, that is it. You are stuck with this application for the rest of the cycle. There is no option to revise your application post-submission; and should you unintentionally withdraw your application, you will NOT be able to apply again this year.

- You can submit your primary application on June 3rd and still be among the first batch of primary applications received!

- You can submit your primary application in mid-June and still be considered 'early' at schools if you have most of your secondary essays pre-written.

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[voxveritatisetlucis]

Also keep in mind that concision is the most important thing when editing. An edited essay or statement should never be longer than the original. In fact, one should aim to cut at least 15%.

I just cut down a report for work from 5500 to 4000 words.

 

[Bonne Nuit]

In addition to checking your application thrice, read every word to yourself out loud. Do this slowly. Verbalize every punctuation mark you use.

For example, say you wrote:

"During my junior year of college, I volunteered at the South County Free Clinic every Thursday afternoon. There, I had the privilege of connecting low-income and homeless members of my community with healthcare services."

You should be saying out loud:

"During my junior year of college comma I volunteered at the South County Free Clinic every Thursday afternoon period There comma I had the privilege of connecting low hyphen income and homeless members of my community with healthcare services period"

Will a punctuation error keep you out of medical school? Unlikely. Will you be mad at yourself when, after you submit, you invariably notice double commas, dropped conjunctions, or other small typos? Yes, you will.

You are spending gobs of money on this application and this is the culmination of the hardest work you've ever done in your life; you owe it to yourself to submit something impeccable.

 

[LindaAccepted]

In addition to checking your application thrice, read every word to yourself out loud. Do this slowly. Verbalize every punctuation mark you use.

For example, say you wrote:

"During my junior year of college, I volunteered at the South County Free Clinic every Thursday afternoon. There, I had the privilege of connecting low-income and homeless members of my community with healthcare services."

You should be saying out loud:

"During my junior year of college comma I volunteered at the South County Free Clinic every Thursday afternoon period There comma I had the privilege of connecting low hyphen income and homeless members of my community with healthcare services period"

Will a punctuation error keep you out of medical school? Unlikely. Will you be mad at yourself when, after you submit, you invariably notice double commas, dropped conjunctions, or other small typos? Yes, you will.

You are spending gobs of money on this application and this is the culmination of the hardest work you've ever done in your life; you owe it to yourself to submit something impeccable.

Reading out loud is my favorite editing tip.

Another few tips:

1. Leave at least one day from your last revision/writing session to when you sit down to proof.
2. Do not read it out loud in front of your computer. Change location.
3. If you see an error, mark or highlight it, but finish your out-loud read before you go back to the computer to correct.

 

[doc.Junior]

Indulging in a little neuroticism here: so then what does get your app on the top of the pile? I've heard that if you are verified by 6/24 then you're "equal" to everyone else verified by then, and that a batch gets sent then. However, someone's app has to be 1st on the stack of 6/24ers. Does the 9AM guy go before the 10AM guy? Does John A go before John B? Is it random assortment? @gonnif

 

[voxveritatisetlucis]

They’re sent in batches but there is no difference in timing really

 

[KnightDoc]

Indulging in a little neuroticism here: so then what does get your app on the top of the pile? I've heard that if you are verified by 6/24 then you're "equal" to everyone else verified by then, and that a batch gets sent then. However, someone's app has to be 1st on the stack of 6/24ers. Does the 9AM guy go before the 10AM guy? Does John A go before John B? Is it random assortment? @gonnif

This is the magic, secret sauce that varies by school. All applications are stratified upon receipt, and very few, if any, schools, just review in strict chronological order. The stratification could be based on stats, ECs, SES, URM, legacy, IS/OOS, UG, etc., but it is almost never based on time of receipt.

This is why, every cycle at just about every school, people freak out as soon as IIs start going out, because people with later complete dates, oftentimes with lower stats, receive IIs while others hear nothing. But premeds simply cannot help themselves, so, every year, in every school specific thread, everyone's favorite question is always "Complete Date?" and "Stats?" when IIs begin being reported.

This year will certainly be no different. But, trust me, while being in earlier is always better than later, there is no advantage at all to being in the very first batch, because the someone being reviewed first will almost certainly be someone who received priority in the stratification, and was not in the first group received on the first day of transmission, unless by sheer coincidence.

First of all, I don't think any schools actually begin reviews bright and early on 6/24. People are on vacation, and they are still wrapping up the prior cycle. Most schools begin sometime in July or August, which is why the SDN adcoms consistently advise that it is more important to have the application be as good as it can possibly be than to have it in during the first hour of the first day of submissions (or transmissions).

That said, there is no 9:00 a.m. guy or 10:00 a.m. guy. I don't work in their IT department, but I'm pretty sure there is a single release per day, overnight. Remember -- it's all electronic. No one is actually sending anything, and there is no "stack."

Adcoms have access to their version of the AMCAS portal. When you list a school in your application and pay the fee or apply the FAP, your primary just appears in their portal along with everyone else's. I'm pretty sure that just updates once per day, regardless of when you are verified or when you add a school, but it doesn't really matter one way or the other. Schools probably also receive a notification from AMCAS when new applicants are added to their portal. It's unlikely these would go out continuously, throughout the day, to every school, and more likely it would happen once per day, per school, with all new applicants included in the notification.

 

[LindaAccepted]

Indulging in a little neuroticism here: so then what does get your app on the top of the pile? I've heard that if you are verified by 6/24 then you're "equal" to everyone else verified by then, and that a batch gets sent then. However, someone's app has to be 1st on the stack of 6/24ers. Does the 9AM guy go before the 10AM guy? Does John A go before John B? Is it random assortment? @gonnif

At the end of the application cycle the ones at the top of the pile are (usually) from those who apply to the most appropriate schools for them and in total submit the best applications -- that means qualifications and the presentation of those qualifications.

IOW, submit as early as possible PROVIDED you don't compromise the quality of your application. It makes no difference if you submit a few days earlier or later (and that's true in July as well as in June), if you submit something that's mediocre (or worse) or outstanding. Focus on making sure it's the latter, and forget about whether your app is going to be reviewed at 9 AM or 11 AM.

You control what you turn in. You have -0- control over what time of day it's reviewed and whether the reviewer had a great morning or a terrible morning. Focus on your part of the process.

 

[doc.Junior]

Great responses here, many thanks folks for taking the time! @KnightDoc @gonnif @LindaAccepted

 

[Moko]

Bumping for great justice!

 

[mistertwister]

Great write up. You mentioned submission by June 3rd gets into the first batch. Is submission on June 5th after the weekend going into the second batch?

 

[chilly_md]

Bumping as those who haven’t submitted yet could use a reminder to double check their apps.