In order to become a successful applicant, it is necessary to plan in advance what to do when, so that you have enough time for your preparation and you submit all the application components on time. The firmly set official dates and deadlines below (in red) are taken from the AAMC (Association of American Medical Colleges) instruction video for the AMCAS (American Medical College Application Service) application process for medical college matriculants of 2015 specifically, but the dates vary only a little from year to year. All other rough dates below are ones recommended by successful applicants for medical schools:
(The entire application process takes more than a year and so if you are, for example, applying to enroll in the fall of 2015, you need to meet all the deadlines below in the previous year, 2014)
(The entire application process takes more than a year and so if you are, for example, applying to enroll in the fall of 2015, you need to meet all the deadlines below in the previous year, 2014)
- (October 2013-June 2014: Start studying for your MCAT - give yourself always about 3-4 months to study)
- November 2013: Put together a quick list of your extracurricular activities.
- December 2013: By Christmas, you should have write a first draft of your application essay.
- (January 2014-September 2014: Take an MCAT, preferably by June; your results should be known no more than 30 days after the test date)
- March 2014: Have a rough list of schools you would like to apply to.
- April 1, 2014: AMCAS resources released
- April 2014: Ask for letters of recommendation and have them sent by June*; finalize your essay; ask an older student for as many secondary essay topics as possible
- May 1, 2014: AMCAS application opens
- May 2014: Open an AMCAS account (especially if you have already taken MCAT)
- June 4, 2014: AMCAS application submission opens
- June 10, 2014: Submit your primary AMCAS application (do not send it on the first day of submission, as you might encounter connection problems due to the first wave of anxious applicants) - this includes your list of schools, list of extracurriculars, grades, transcript request and your essay
- June 28, 2014 Secondary applications start to be sent out
- June-July 2014: Schools with "open" secondary applications might open them up for submission - look at their websites to see if they did so; other schools start sending them out. Do not take more than 2 weeks to submit them (as a proof of your interest).
[At any point, you may start writing your secondary application essays.] - September 2014: You should be done by all primary and secondary applications.
- September-December 2014: Primary application deadlines of all medical schools.
- August 1, 2014: Early Decision deadline
- August 2014-January 2015: Invitations for interviews are sent out.
- September-December, 2014: AMCAS regular decision deadlines (specific for each school)
- March 2015: Admission decisions are released; lucky waitlisted applicants admitted later, up until the beginning of school.
- September 2015: Start of medical school!
*some schools initiate this process as soon as the fall of the previous year - ask your pre-medical advisor for more information
2013 MCAT test dates:
