So, I am listening to all the sage advice from this site and waiting a year to apply. I appreciate all the advice for being totally prepared for the MCAT before taking it. Think I will take it in April and apply for early decision. Anyone have good/bad experience with early decision?
If you have compelling and strong reasons for attending a very specific medical school and a strong record, grades, MCAT, recommendation, it may be worth it. Several people at OPM have done this usually for staying in a geographic area usually for family, this may be an option.
However, I believe it can actually be a hindrance as you have to wait for the decision from teh medical school and if you are denied, you are then your regular applications wind up getting submitted later than most. Can someone confirm or correct me on the above
Yes, this is why I decided to apply regular decision - I didn’t want to enhance my chance at one school, at the risk of significantly decreasing my chance at another school. I believe that Early Decision notices have to go out by end September. Now, I suppose you could get a swift rejection from Early Decision quite a bit earlier (say, mid August? I dunno) in which case you wouldn’t be applying quite so late. But it seems that mid-August is way later than it used to be for applications, not sure I’d even risk that.
Mary
There has to be a VERY compelling reason to apply EDP (early decision). Generally speaking, I think it’s a bad idea. And, like early decision for undergrad institutions, you have to be highly qualified.
Cheers,
Judy