What's Left

All right, things are really going now. AMCAS is submitted, and in 4-6 weeks those phantom judges on admissions councils are actually going to be looking at all those characters that were so meticulously counted.

Then what?

Secondaries

Secondary applications are a request for supplemental information to the AMCAS, and come from each individual school that is applied to. Some schools screen their primary applications and only ask a select number of applicants to submit a secondary application, some schools do not and ask everyone. All schools ask for more money. This is also when letters of recommendation have to actually exist. Consistency is already evaporating, but it goes on:

All the deadlines are, again, school-specific and never the same. For example, I have a secondary from UC Davis that is due next week, but the secondary for Dartmouth is not due until January 1st, 2012.

Most secondaries I've received ask for a few more short personal essays. More like personal paragraphs, but however you look at it, more writing is afoot.  Some do not, some just want letters. Some want headshots too.

I've also been asked to re-write my grades for the pre-med requirements that that school requires. Because pre-med requirements are different from school to school. Some have none (according to the MSAR, at least).

Costs of secondary applications vary (of course), but for me the average has been about $100 per application. UC Davis is $80, but Dartmouth wants $130. Maximum cost if I'm as impressive as I'd like to be: $1,400.00

Interviews
If the application people like your stuff still, you get invited to an interview at the school. I don't know much about this because I'm far far away from that point, but I do know that the applicant must pay for transportation costs. Projected cost: loads of money.

If they still like you, you get accepted! Hooray! It's March now, how was the school year?