It’s the end of May/beginning of June. If you’re an academic scientist in the biomedical sciences this means two things…

There is an NIH deadline and medical school applications start to open through AMCAS.

Now, I try so hard to be chill. I am very upfront with students. If you ask me for a letter, the NIH deadline is June 5th. This means that I will totally write your letters that week, but there is no way I can get them in June 1st. I stop teaching mid-May and I really need this time to solidify my lab’s summer plans and to finish my grant applications.

I write so many letters and I will write a student the world’s most supportive letter as soon as I submit the my summer grant. If you truly need it the day the applications open, I am not your gal. For 90% of students, this is fine. But there are still some students who think they get an edge by getting their application in five days earlier and that creates conflict.

But, you know, the AMCAS could help us all out.  I have to imagine that the majority of us writing letters are chasing the NIH train. Why do they make the bloody (revised from motherfucking) deadline within a couple of days of the NIH deadline??? Why not June 15th? Why not May 15th???  Am I the only one who sees this disconnect???

June 15th for the AMCAS!!! FTW!!!!

ARGGGGGGGHHHHH!!!!!