Year+ in Review

A med school application cycle is longer than most people realize. Here's what's mine has been like...

January 2012

• Apply to AAMC's fee assistance program to get a discount on the MCAT and AMCAS. (TIP: If you have kids, you must do this or else you are just wasting good money.)
• Write personal statement.

February 2012

• Approach professors about potential letters of recommendation. (TIP: If they don't recognize you, go else where.)
• Revise personal statement.

March 2012

• Sign up for the MCAT (TIP: Do it earlier. I was surprised by how many dates were no longer available)
• Put on five pounds. (Hey, when you are the one studying for the MCAT at 1:00 in the morning, you'll understand.)
• Revise personal statement.

April 2012

• Freak out over MCAT
• Revise personal statement. (No, this isn't hyperbole.)

May 2012

• Take the MCAT (Holy cow! I was not prepared. Revisit my posts from mid-2012.)
• Start AMCAS application.
• Start TMDSAS application.
• Fill out letter of recommendation cover forms and forward to letter writers.
• Pretend that the MCAT couldn't have possibly gone as bad as I thought.
• Revise personal statement.

June 2012

• Get my official score. (Heartbreak and sorrow.)
• Despair for a while.
• Start AACOMAS application.
• Order transcripts (from FIVE schools--can you say "non-traditional"?) to be sent to each application service.
• Sign up for September MCAT (TIP: Only do this once if at all possible.)
• Send reminders to letter writers.
• Revise personal statement.
• Write (and revise, revise, revise) extracurricular activities sections.

July 2012

• Find a letter writer to replace one of my letter writers.
• Send more reminders to professor to submit to the other application service. (TIP: If you get all of your letters sent to Interfolio, you will avoid some of this mess.)
• Find another letter writer to tentatively replace the writer you are now stalking.
• Take four full-length, five-hour practice tests.
• Submit AMCAS.
• Submit TMDSAS.
• Submit AACOMAS.

August 2012

• Study for MCAT
• Get philosophical about where you are in life, what you've accomplished, and how you try to "live in the moment."
• Purchase "I'm a grown-up" suit. (Chocolate brown with turquoise top.)
• Preview secondary application essay prompts.

September 2012

• MCAT redoux.
• Start writing secondary applications.

October 2012

• Continue writing secondary applications.
• Get official MCAT score.
• Cry in relief.
• Get first interview invitation. Then second.
• Get first rejection.
• Get over it.

November 2012

• Buy the "right" purse. (Bright red.)
• Start interviewing.
• Freak out and apply to more schools. (TIP: Apply early so you don't do this! $170 down the drain.)

December 2012

• Keep interviewing.
• Send schools an "update." (TIP: You got to actually have something to update them with such as a new publication or a completed class.)
• Get in.
• Celebrate.
• Cancel interviews at "I'd rather go to accepted school than this one" schools.

January 2013

• Cancel another interview.
• Decline an invitation. (Oh, the table has turned and it feels so good!)
• Fail first biochemistry exam. (TIP: Don't!)

February 2013

• Start telling myself "I didn't want to there anyway" for the schools that have silently wait-listed me.
• Decline yet another invitation to interview.
• Join Facebook Group for Class of 2017 Totally Awesome University of MD Acceptance.
• Try to figure out my ambivalence over my state school (see Valentine).
• File federal tax return so that I can...
• File FAFSA. (Twice! One for me and one for Mini-Me. Looks like she'll get about a $700 Pell Grant.)