When to send out applications this fall

[cooliomedy]

Hi all! I'm one of the med students that will be applying this fall for Rad Onc....

When is the best time to send out your application to programs? Is it necessary to get things out Sept 1st when it opens or can you wait 2-3 weeks. Do program directors try to consider all the applicants that apply no matter when they turn it in?

Also, I'm sure some of my fellow applicants will be doing away rotations in Sept/Oct, would it be a bad idea to get LoR's from faculty during that time and send them out late?

Thanks so much for your advice. This forum is great and so much help!!!

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[Gfunk6]

Hi all! I'm one of the med students that will be applying this fall for Rad Onc....

When is the best time to send out your application to programs?

The earlier the better.

Is it necessary to get things out Sept 1st when it opens or can you wait 2-3 weeks. Do program directors try to consider all the applicants that apply no matter when they turn it in?

Necessary? No. However, IMO it is good to get it in by the first day. The whole application process has so many variables that you should always turn the ones you can control in your favor. This is one of them.

Applications are usually considered in a rolling fashion but only up to a certain date. Very few programs will start considering applications in September but many will download them anyway (usually they auto-download once per week or so). I'd say > 50% of programs start seriously looking at applications after ASTRO (which is Oct 2-6 this year) and the latest is when the Dean's letter comes out in Nov.

Also, I'm sure some of my fellow applicants will be doing away rotations in Sept/Oct, would it be a bad idea to get LoR's from faculty during that time and send them out late?

No, in fact this is a very good idea. You can always change your LORs for specific programs. So when you get a new LOR just upload it to ERAS and programs will see it. However, it's probably a good idea to send them a reminder email.