- Hi everyone!
Welcome back to the channel.
If you're new here, I'm Dr. Shemmassian,
and I've been helping students get into med schools
like Stanford, Northwestern and UCLA
for over 15 years.
Today, we're going to be talking
about the ideal medical school application timeline.
I'll tell you exactly what you need to do
each period of your application year
so you can submit great materials early and maximize
your odds of getting into med school.
As a pre-med student, you hear advice on everything,
from the courses you should take,
to how to prepare for the MCAT.
And when it comes to applying,
the most common piece of advice you hear is "apply early."
However, merely applying early doesn't tell you
when you should turn in each part of your application
nor when you should be working on each section.
What does "apply early" mean for your personal statement?
How about the Work and Activities section
or secondary essays?
What about recommendation letters?
When should those be submitted?
If you have these same questions and others,
you're not alone.
In this video, you'll receive answers to these questions
as well as a specific timeline to follow
so you can ensure that you are submitting great materials
as early as possible instead of rushing at the last minute.
Although AACOMAS, the application for DO programs
and TMDSAS, the Texas MD program application
open for submission in early May and AAMCAS,
the centralized MD program application
doesn't open for submission until the end of May
or the beginning of June,
much of your work should be completed months prior.
This is because medical schools have
a rolling admissions policy, which means if you submit
your application earlier, you'll be competing
with fewer candidates for a greater number of seats.
So here's what you should aim to accomplish
between January and April.
If your school has a pre-health advising committee,
register with them.
But note that pre-health committees across schools
have different internal deadlines.
So you should check in with your pre-health advising office
to ensure you don't miss it.
They will be responsible for creating and sending
a committee letter on your behalf.
Meet with your potential recommendation letter writers
and tell them your application plans.
Provide any resources they'll need to write you
a strong letter of recommendation, including your resume
or personal statement draft.
Prepare for and take your final MCAT.
I recommend that your final MCAT be taken no later
than in April, so you can dedicate May and June
to writing your personal statement,
Work on Activities section,
and any other outstanding application materials.
Anything later than April, and you'll lose valuable time
to write your essays, which will compromise the quality
of your application.
So brainstorm, outline, and draft your personal statement.
If you're applying to MD and DO schools,
you may need two different versions
of your personal statement.
Many students know to draft their personal statement early
but often neglect the Work and Activities section.
Also brainstorm, outline and draft this section
because it's an incredibly important part
of your primary application.
In May, AACOMAS and TMDSAS open for submission.
In addition, AAMCAS opens its demographic
and academic sections.
You should be dedicating the majority of your time
to completing these parts of your application.
Too often, students start slow.
They get cold feet when their application cycle arrives.
But do your best to keep pace with these recommendations
so you can take full advantage of rolling admission.
Here's what you should aim to accomplish in May:
Have your MCAT scores sent
to the appropriate application systems.
Continue to follow up if your scores aren't reflected
in their portals within a week or two.
Reach out to your recommendation letter writers
and follow up if they haven't already submitted their work.
Feel free to nudge them with a gentle reminder.
And if they've already submitted their letters,
send a nice handwritten thank you note.
Order official transcripts from every college and university
that you have attended.
Yes, this includes community college
and study abroad programs.
These are used to verify your grades.
Finalize your school list.
Ensure that you will want to attend these schools,
even if they're the only ones you get into.
And once you're happy with their quality,
submit AACOMAS and TMDSAS.
Fill out the AMCAS demographic and academic sections.
Take some time, especially with the academic sections,
as errors in classifying the course type or your grade
will delay verification of your application
and push it back in the cycle.
And if any of the schools you're applying to require it,
register for the CASPer test.
Once you've completed steps one through seven,
dedicate the remainder of your time
to finalizing your essays.
Aim to complete your personal statement
and Work an Activities section by May 15th at the latest.
Give yourself some time away from your written materials
so you can review them again when AMCAS
nears opening for submission.
After you've finalized your primary applications,
begin brainstorming and drafting your secondary essays.
When the secondary applications are sent to you mid-June,
putting in this early pre-writing work will ensure
that your application is one of the first
that adcoms see.
AMCAS, AACOMAS and TMDSAS do not send
your primary application to the schools on your list
until your essays and official transcript are in,
and your transcripts have been verified.
Verification usually takes between one and four weeks,
depending on when you submitted your primary application.
In early June, when there are few applications
ahead of yours, it may take less than a week.
But in July, when there are thousands of applications
that need to be verified, it can take up to four.
You won't receive secondary applications from schools
until your primary application has been verified.
Why is it important that your application
be verified early?
Most medical schools will not review your application
until your secondary has also been submitted.
This means that your application hinges on the date
you submit your secondary, not your primary.
A small portion of schools, like various UC schools,
will screen your primaries and decide whether to send
you a secondary.
To make this clear, suppose you submit AMCAS on June 3rd,
but do not submit your secondary
to the UCLA School of Medicine until August 30th.
UCLA will begin reviewing your application
sometime after August 30th,
when they've already started interviewing candidates.
A huge mistake medical school applicants make
is to submit their primary applications as early as possible
but they lag considerably when it comes
to their secondaries.
This is largely due to the overwhelming amount of writing
that has to be done during the summer months.
Plus, not understanding the importance
of submitting secondaries early.
I strongly recommend that you begin pre-writing
your secondaries immediately after you
complete your primaries.
Aim to submit your secondaries as early as possible
without sacrificing quality.
Submitting in July is ideal but make sure
to do so absolutely no later than August,
as this is when most schools will have
their interview cycles already underway.
By this time, AMCAS will have officially opened,
and there is some time between your submission
and your application being verified.
Use this time to take a short break if you need it.
And when you're ready, start getting ahead of the pack
by pre-writing your secondaries.
Here's what you should aim to accomplish in June:
Submit AMCAS as early as possible after it opens
for submission without sacrificing quality.
If you anxiously submit your essays before they're ready,
the low quality will follow you
throughout the application cycle.
You'll lose the advantage you gain from submitting earlier,
and harm your overall admissions odds.
However, that doesn't mean you should delay submitting
due to perfectionism.
If you've been working on your application for months
and think that your essays accurately capture
your personal background and path to medicine,
you should prioritize early submission over taking
extra days or weeks to make marginal improvements.
Make sure that your recommendation letters
and transcripts have been received by AMCAS,
TMDSAS, and AACOMAS.
This means checking your application portals
and ensuring that you have received confirmation emails.
If they have not been received, check your portal daily
and nudge your recommenders to make sure everything is in.
You don't want the review of your application to be delayed
because of an oversight.
Continue pre-writing secondary application essays.
Every hour you can get in matters
because once you're bombarded with secondaries,
they can easily overwhelm you.
The number one mistake I've observed at this point
in my 15 plus years of guiding students is taking
their foot off the gas since there's no immediate deadline
to adhere to.
At this point, you'll be in the middle of secondary season.
So it's time to put your head down and push through.
You've submitted your primary early to receive
your secondaries early.
Once your secondaries have been submitted,
medical schools will have
your entire application to evaluate.
So here's what you should aim to accomplish
in these two months:
As soon as you receive them,
submit your secondary applications
without sacrificing quality.
Again, balance marginal improvements with submission dates.
Once your essays are good enough, submit them.
A quick note here: you'll hear that it's ideal
to submit your secondaries within two weeks
of receiving them.
While true, it's also true that poorly written essays
can hurt your odds of getting an interview.
I know I sound like a broken record and stressing
high quality essays but it's critical that you heed
this advice rather than submit so-so work ASAP.
Getting an early start and pre-writing your essays,
will help you avoid making difficult decisions later
about submitting mediocre applications as soon as possible
versus taking a few extra days to improve.
And finally, during this time, start preparing
for interview season.
It will come faster than you imagine.
By September, you'll ideally have
completed your secondaries.
You're now in the middle of a long, anxiety-inducing,
yet immensely rewarding interview season.
Here's what you should aim to accomplish
during these months.
Continue preparing for interviews by practicing responses
to common questions and getting feedback on your delivery.
Once you receive the invite, round out your application
with a stellar interview day.
If the medical school accepts updates and you have yet
to receive an interview from them,
send letters of interest if you also have meaningful
updates to share, such as a journal publication
or prestigious award.
I recommend waiting at least a month after you submit
your secondary to give med schools sometime to evaluate
your application before they read any updates.
For schools where you've completed interviews
and have been waitlisted, send letters
of interest or intent.
While both types of letters communicate your fit
with the school, a letter of intent also communicates
your decision to attend if admitted.
A letter of intent, therefore, carries more weight
and should only be written for your genuine top choice.
In the fall, if you receive an acceptance, congratulations!
This is what you've worked hard for years towards,
so make sure to celebrate your accomplishment.
At the same time, there are a few logistical matters
to iron out and, if you've gotten into multiple schools,
you have to decide where to enroll.
So here's what you should accomplish during these months:
Review admission and financial aid offers.
Negotiate financial aid offers where you can.
If you're in the position to,
leverage your other acceptances.
If you really wanna attend school X,
but school Y is offering more money.
Engage in an honest conversation with school X
to see how they can support you better.
And now, we've come to the final item in our timeline.
Make your decision and choose your home
for your medical education.
By April 30th, you'll have to choose which school to attend
and withdraw all your other acceptances.
Congratulations!
Once you're here, you will have really made it.
And that's the ideal medical school application timeline.
If you found this video helpful, hit the like button.
And if you haven't subscribed yet, you can do that here
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If you'd like to learn more, you can also click the link
in the description to get a free copy of my e-book,
"How to Get Into Medical School," which includes
an even more detailed timeline as well as strategies
we use to help students get into schools like Johns Hopkins,
Mayo, and UCSF.
Again, thanks so much for watching, guys.
See you next time.