TatinG

As I understand it, the med school apps open in June. Let's say first apps go out in June. When do supplementals come in after that? How much time do you have to submit the supplemental after a med school invites you to submit it?

DD would like to schedule a little time away this summer, but doesn't want to out of the loop at a critical time. (We are thinking of a backpacking trip in true wilderness maybe in early August.) No internet, no phone. But we'd only be gone a week.

i_wanna_be_Brown

It varies from school to school.

Some schools don't release the supplement before a certain date regardless of how early you submit AMCAS.

Some schools send you a secondary immediately upon submission of your AMCAS. Some schools wait until you're AMCAS is processed (which takes 4-6 weeks). Some actually look at your AMCAS first and then decide whether or not to send you a secondary. Some schools don't have secondaries and you'll just get an invite or rejection after a few weeks.

I have seen people say you should turn around a secondary within 2 weeks. I certainly didn't know about this rule when i applied but I still had every secondary submitted by the end of August (AMCAS submitted end of June, processed by end of July). MD/PhD secondaries are longer and I applied to more school's than most would so in theory your D could turn them around faster than I could.

TatinG

Sounds like a bad summer to be out of communication for any length of time.

somemom

Theoretically some schools may belive that the applicants turnaround time on secondaries is an indicator of their level of interest. A fairly rapid turnaround cannot hurt.
Your DD can go on CC and read the timing on secondaries for her schools, at least how it worked the prior year.
Perhaps schedule her time away for right after she submits the application. It will take a few weeks to get verified.
She can also compile a list of likely secondary questions by checkong sdn and can take some time this year to prepare answers

kristin5792

A week long backpacking trip sounds like 1) a ton of fun 2) a fantastic way to spend a week 3) a great thing to talk about during med school interviews.

If I were in your shoes, I'd submit in June, work on secondaries over the summer (either ones you've officially received or writing about that school's prompts as found on SDN), take the trip, and resume apps later.

The schools probably won't need to communicate with her much except to perhaps schedule an interview, assuming she has her ducks in a row enough that she could feasibly get interviews in August (I, for example, wasn't complete anywhere until September because of the way my school did committee letters). If she'd be skipping a trip so she could check her email to schedule an interview, why not give mom and pop the info to check her email, and let them schedule an interview should one come in? Sure would be a bummer to forgo an exciting adventure so you can sit at home and refresh an inbox.

Heck, isn't that what vacation responders are for?!

TatinG

Well, Mom (me) is going on the trip. So I can't check her emails.

Maybe the summer after graduation and before med school would be a better time.

August would be when we planned on going. Depends on how deep the snowpack is.

entomom

That timing is a little iffy assuming she pre-writes essays and turns everything in at the earliest date and is verified quickly. The earliest interviews start about mid-Aug, so IIs come out before then and some request that you notify the school to accept within a few days to a week. If she has a list of schools, she could check SDN to see when IIs begin coming out for those schools.

kristin5792

^Checking when IIs go out is a good idea--while some schools have interviews in August, my school doesn't start interviews until October, and one of the schools I applied to didn't have rolling admission so interview date didn't really matter.