Applying to Medical School: A Student’s Timeline

By: Jillian Golaszewski, M.A.

Applying to medical school can be a daunting experience, but, as you have learned already, challenges are best tackled one at a time. As you plan out your spring semester and early summer, remember to pace yourself, allow time for expert feedback, and remember that the early bird catches the worm!

January: Now that the holidays are over, you have some time before heading back to campus for your spring semester. Here are some things that can keep you busy:

• Expand on Your Experiences: Take a look at your resume/curriculum vitae and expand it to include every single activity/experience/job/club/honor/etc. that you can think of since beginning college (high school activities/accomplishments don’t count!). Feel free to recruit a friend or family member to go over this with you to make sure you don’t forget anything. For your medical school application, you will need to write a narrative description for up to 15 of your experiences, so start fleshing them out.
• Brainstorm Your Personal Statement: As you look at what you have done over the past four years (or longer if you have finished college already!), do you notice any themes in your activities? Have any personal qualities or skill sets that you have developed that you want a medical school to recognize? Remember, a medical school will be able to read all of your experiences (no need to re-list those!), so what else do you want them to know about you? Or what context can you provide that will tie your story together? This is another great conversation to invite a trusted friend or family member into with your laptop or notebook nearby for note-taking.
• Review Course Material: You know you will be spending a large portion of your spring semester studying for the MCAT. Already done with General Chemistry or Psychology? Use this time to review that course material before you have to start juggling new material from your spring semester classes.

February: Back at school and up to your ears in homework, MCAT prep, and a busy social calendar? It isn’t too late to plan ahead to keep you on the path for success this semester!

• Prep for MCAT: What’s your plan? Are you dedicating an hour or two each day to studying for this exam? Is there a free afternoon each week that you can commit to spending in the library or coffee shop with your prep materials? Be sure to block out several Saturdays or Sundays to take full-length practice exams. Don’t focus so much on your score—you are testing your content knowledge but also acclimating yourself to the MCAT testing experience. And don’t forget to go through the questions you miss!

Pro Tip: The actual MCAT exam typically starts in the early morning, so taking a practice exam around 8 AM or 9 AM will train your brain to be in testing mode at that hour of the day.

• Meet with an Advisor and/or Career Services: Once you have drafts of your experiences and personal statement, go over these with a pro. Most schools have these services available to their alumni or contact an advisor through NAAHP. Ask your friends, family, trusted TAs, professors, etc. to read them and provide you feedback. These materials will be read by a wide variety of people, so make sure your story makes sense to anyone who might see it.
• Apply for Summer/Yearlong Positions: Whether you will just have the summer off, or you will need a job for longer, start applying for jobs! Again, talk to Career Services to make sure your resume looks good, you have a cover letter draft ready to tailor to a specific job position, and you can answer basic interview questions like:  “Tell me about yourself” (in less than a minute!), “What are your strengths/weaknesses?” and “Why do you want to be a doctor?”
• Ask Your Letter Writers: You will need 3-5 letters of recommendation, so ask your professors, supervisors, TAs, coaches, etc. NOW! They will need time and information to write those, so either meet them in person or call or email them to ask if they will write for you, and then follow up with your resume/curriculum vitae, personal statement draft, and AAMC Guidelines for Writing a Letter of Evaluation for a Medical School Applicant.

Pro tip: Start an Interfolio account—it will collect your letters of recommendation and keep them confidential for you. When it is time to apply, you just make a few clicks, and the medical school application services will get all of your letters at once!

March and April: Use spring break to catch up on your job applications, dedicate some time to MCAT prep, and/or concentrate on fine-tuning your personal statement. By May, you want to be ready to “copy and paste” your experiences and personal statement into your medical school application, so make sure they are read to go! You are almost done with the semester, so finish strong!

May: It is go time! You have spent the semester preparing for your medical school application, and now it is time to deliver on all of that hard work.

• AMCAS, AACOMAS, and TMDSAS open at the beginning of May. For AACOMAS and TMDSAS applications, you can fill them out and submit them ASAP. For AMCAS, you have the entire month of May to fill out the application, so you don’t need to worry about hitting “submit” until the end of the month/early June.
• Send all official college transcripts to either AMCAS, AACOMAS, and/or TMDSAS.

Pro Tip: Yes, you have to send an official transcript even if you only took one class at a school—even if it transferred back to your undergraduate school. If a school has a transcript for you, AMCAS/AACOMAS/TMDSAS will need it. We promise.

• Take the MCAT: As soon as you finish your spring semester finals, hunker down and focus all of your time and energy on final MCAT prep. Take as many practice exams as you can. Focus on the content that is tripping you up. You will never know everything or feel 100% ready, but you can do this!

Pro Tip: Do I really have to take my MCAT in May? Yes. It will take 4 to 5 weeks for your scores to come back, so you want those ready to go by late June because secondary applications will be on their way…

June: Time to hit submit, let AMCAS/AACOMAS/TMDSAS work their magic, get ready to write a TON of secondary application essays.

• Hit Submit! If you haven’t submitted your AMCAS/AACOMAS/TMDSAS applications already, do it now! AACOMAS and TMDSAS will start reviewing applications ASAP, so make sure yours is in their hands and ready to go.
• Application Verification: Remember all those transcripts you sent to AMCAS/AACOMAS/TMDSAS? Those application services are using those transcripts to verify the coursework you input onto your medical school application. This can take some time, but be sure to check often on your application to make sure you aren’t missing anything… (like a transcript?!)
• Complete Your Secondary Applications: If you applied via AACOMAS or TMDSAS, you might be getting secondary applications already. Fill out all secondary applications within 1 to 2 weeks of receiving them. AMCAS won’t send any until the end of the month/early July, but the same timeline applies! Most schools won’t review your application without a completed secondary application, so get those done as soon as you can.

Pro Tip: No allopathic medical school will see any AMCAS application until late June at the earliest. AMCAS spends the month of June verifying as many applications before they distribute applications to the medical schools. Remember why you took the MCAT in May? It was so your scores would be ready by late June so the medical schools could get your application WITH an MCAT score. All you need are your letters of recommendation and a completed secondary application, and the admissions committee will have your application in the “Ready for Review” pile!

• Submit Your Letters of Recommendation: Time the submission of your letters of recommendation with your secondary applications. All of your letters of recommendation should be in by late June/early July, so be sure to give your letter writers these deadlines.

July: You may have moved across the country for your new job, or you may be sitting with mom and dad at the beach house, but we hope your laptop is nearby…

• Finish Secondary Applications: Remember  a 1- to 2-week turnaround is ideal! Tailor each of your secondary applications to the specific medical school. What do you like about their mission, curriculum, community, etc.? How does this align with what you have done and what is important to you? Why should XXX medical school invest in you? How are you a good match for one another?
• Prep for Interviews: Once your AMCAS/AACOMAS/TMDSAS applications, secondary applications, MCAT scores, and letters of recommendation are all submitted, the schools will start reviewing you. If you are offered an interview, say “yes” to the soonest date available—and start practicing!

August-December: Plan to use vacation time and funds for in-person interviews. If you are still in school, be open with your professors about your admissions process and let them know when you will be absent.

Pro Tip #1: Ask if a medical student can host you overnight while you are in town.

Pro Tip #2: AACOMAS will beginning releasing admissions decisions as soon as September, but AMCAS won’t tell you anything until at least October 15. TMDSAS has its own decision process, so you may have to wait until December before you have a definitive answer.

January-March: If you are lucky, you may have a medical school acceptance already! If not, many medical schools interview throughout March, so there is definitely still time to hear back. Don’t lose hope!

• Plan to Enroll: Your AMCAS application will now have a “Select Your Medical School” tab where they will keep track of your medical school acceptances. Beginning on February 19, you can select “Plan to Enroll” at a school, so they have an idea that they are your top choice. Feel free to change your mind and alter this as often as you would like. You can stay on the wait list at any medical school too.

Pro Tip: This does NOT substitute for direct communication with a medical school! If you don’t want to go there, tell them. Don’t take a seat from another student if you don’t plan to use it.

• Fill out the FAFSA: As you and/or your parents collect tax information, you can start filling out the FAFSA. Feel free to include the schools’ codes at which you have been accepted and/or waitlisted.

Pro Tip: To be considered for need-based scholarships or loans, you must include your parent(s)’ income information.

April: Finish up those interviews and start making some decisions!

• Select Your Medical School: By April 15, you must narrow your acceptances down to just three schools, but you can continue to stay on any wait lists. Again, email any medical schools directly with any enrollment decisions you make.
• Make a Commitment: By April 30, you can choose “Commit to Enroll” if you are ready to go all in (and will withdraw your application from all other schools). Staying in “Plan to Enroll” allows you to stay on wait lists, but you should only be holding one acceptance at this point.

Pro Tip: You are welcome to stay in “Plan to Enroll” for up until three weeks before medical school orientation begins, but as much notice as possible will help both you and your school plan for your transition.

Getting into medical school is a long, exciting, and completely unpredictable process, but we hope the above timeline and tips will help you as you manage your valuable time. As advisors, we want to see every student put his/her very best foot forward, and planning ahead for success is the best way to do that.

More of a visual person? Check out our accompanying helpful infographic to share with students about the timeline of applying.