JAMP’s Student Success Seminar Series: Empowering the Whole Scholar
JAMP's five-part seminar series, in partnership with OnlineMedEd, provided scholars with strategies to support both academic success and personal growth.
Reasons Why the Schools Will Toss Out Your Application
None.
This is not an April Fool’s Day prank! The reality is this phrase is used a lot among current and prospective applicants. The schools are not out to get you by seeking reasons to “toss out” your application. The schools use a holistic review approach and will take the time to review your application, just like you took the time to complete it. The only way your schools would trash your application is if you never submitted an application.
Top reasons why applicants THINK they will get their application tossed out (but it won’t):
1. “I submitted my application with typos in my essays, does that mean the schools will toss out my application?”
Hannah Montana couldn’t have said it any better. After all, you are human, and each cycle has several applicants calling about this concern. You’re not alone. While a typo or two is not the end of the world, having numerous typos or a blank essay section could get the schools to notice your application (not in a good way). Typos will not get your application thrown out, but the schools might question the attention to detail and wonder how you will perform in professional school.
Unfortunately, this section of the application cannot be changed post submission. That’s why you must review your application thoroughly and check which sections of the application you can make changes to post-submission. Print a PDF copy of your application and have an extra set of eyes to check your essays for grammar before you submit.
2. “Will the schools toss out my application if they see discrepancies with what I initially entered for my activities or planned coursework?”
Not at all! The schools know that your activities can change from the time you submitted your application to when you matriculate. The activities section of your application cannot be changed, but you can and should update your planned coursework when you have changes.
3. “Will the schools toss out my application when they see I have felony/misdemeanor?”
Disclosing a felony/misdemeanor on your application will not mean that you will be automatically denied and removed from the applicant pool. The schools are aware that you might have made mistakes and learning and growing from those mistakes is important. If you have doubts about whether to report something, it is best to err on the side of full and honest disclosure.
4. “Will the schools toss out my application if they see my old MCAT score first before I receive my new MCAT score?”
No! You must report all your attempts, so they will see your scores no matter how embarrassing they are. However, by disclosing your not-so-great test score(s) and indicating a future test date for a re-take on your application, will work in your favor. The schools will acknowledge that you are actively improving your score and your determination and resilience will shine through. They might not act on your application right away until they receive the most recent score to get a whole picture, but this option is definitely better than not releasing any scores at all.
5. “Will the schools toss out my application if I don’t have all of my pre-requisites completed by start of application?”
Nope! In fact, many applicants apply at the end of their junior year in college and
will not have their pre-requisites completed until the following year. You don’t need
to have all your pre-requisites completed by the time you apply, but you do need to
complete them by the time you matriculate (start school). You will have the opportunity
to enter your planned coursework in the application and update it as many times as
needed.
As you can see, the real concern is making changes to a submitted application and an applicant’s personal application timeline. Make sure you give yourself plenty of time to prepare and complete your application. Have someone review your application and account for the time it’ll take for you to receive your new test score. Review the Application Timeline and The Importance of Applying Early video to build a personal timeline that best fits your needs.
TMDSAS will host dental, medical, podiatric, and veterinary school panels where you
will have the opportunity to ask questions directly to the schools. Check out the
TMDSAS Application Workshops and School Panels page for information!
About the author: The TMDSAS Support team is here to help address your questions about how to get through the application to the schools quickly and easily.
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