Med School applications....Its that time....

If you are applying to med school this year, your application should be done or VERY close to it. Just a reminder.

But Ella.... the school says its deadline is Nov 30th. Or Dec 15th. Or whatever.

Yes, you are correct. The school will gladly accept your application all the way until Dec 15th. And your piping hot $150 application fee. And it goes right into a big pile of back up applications that they will look at right about a quarter to never.

Here's how it works. Schools start getting completed applications from students about now. If the application makes the "cut-off" (usually a preset formula determined by the school incorporating your MCAT and GPA)... then it goes to "review". Review is a scan by a committee member who decides if your application is worthy of an interview.

Then you are invited for an interview if you make the cut. Most interview invitations are at the very least decided (albeit privately) by September... some as late as October. Schools vary on when they actually send the invite out.  Now you might say I'm nuts because your best friend received an interview in November or January.... and you would be correct. Tons of people interview late in the year. But they were selected from a pool of candidates that was chosen very early in the game. Exceptions to this are rare. I promise. Unless you are the most stellar candidate on the planet or you have someone influential who has made a call on your behalf.

Most schools participate in rolling admissions... meaning that they admit continuously... AS they find applicants they like. They continue admitting until they have accepted their limit (usually 2 to 4 times the number of spots available in the class)... assuming a large amount of those students will matriculate elsewhere.

So once they admit enough... (which comes from the EARLY applicants)... they stop. And believe me.. they get plenty of qualified, complete applications right off the bat. By October they have so many they don't know WHAT to do with them. Short of all the best medical school candidates spontaneously combusting in a freak pre-med convention, they have absolutely NO REASON to look at applications that come in in December.

So yes, they will accept the application. Technically they say its not too late. But you must understand that admissions applications fees are a HUGE source of revenue (10,000 applications x $150 bucks a pop) for schools... so they will always SAY that October or November or December is not too late.

But it is.

So get your shit submitted. Now.