*~*~*~*Official AMCAS Questions Thread 2016-2017*~*~*~*

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Quick course work question. So my freshman year chemistry class was a combine lecture and lab. You only receive one combine grade for the class but you had to sign up for a separate section for the lab so it appears as two lines of my transcript like:

CHEM 101 General Chemistry A: 4.00 credit hours
CHEM 101 General Chemistry NG: 0.00 credit hours

Should I make two entires for this course and just leave the grade and credit hours blank for the second one?
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For those of you who submitted your LOR from interfolio to AMCAS; how much did it cost? For 6 letters it cost me $6 idk if that is right because for AACOMAS (DO) schools it cost me like $24 so I just wanted to make sure if it is correct...
 
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medschoolplease123 said:
For those of you who submitted your LOR from interfolio to AMCAS; how much did it cost? For 6 letters it cost me $6 idk if that is right because for AACOMAS (DO) schools it cost me like $24 so I just wanted to make sure if it is correct...
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It cost me $6 for multiple letters sent to AMCAS via Interfolio in one delivery. The letters were marked received by AMCAS the day after I submitted my order.


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile
 
I know it was said here that AMCAS opens around 9:30 am on the 7th. But someone told me today that it opens at 12 am GMT on the 7th which would be 6th night in the US. Could this be true?
Thanks
 
If the class can be taken for a grade but I chose to take it pass/no pass, should I mark the pass/no pass special type for the class?
 
Should I list any courses that I placed out of through a departmental exam, but received no credit for, as exempt? It was mainly an exam to be placed into a higher level course but the classes I placed out of is not listed on my official transcript and there's no indication of any credit being received for those classes.
 
I'm sure this has been answered and I'm sorry for the repeat, but I'm in the midst of prepping for my mcat and asking is easier than wading through threads.

Letters of Recommendation do NOT need to be in when we submit, correct? I'm only applying to a throw away school at this point and would rather wait til after I take the mcat (June 18th) to have them transferred over by Interfolio. If I need to get them in, I can tho. Thanks in advance to anyone who answers!
 
sleepyhead22 said:
I'm sure this has been answered and I'm sorry for the repeat, but I'm in the midst of prepping for my mcat and asking is easier than wading through threads.

Letters of Recommendation do NOT need to be in when we submit, correct? I'm only applying to a throw away school at this point and would rather wait til after I take the mcat (June 18th) to have them transferred over by Interfolio. If I need to get them in, I can tho. Thanks in advance to anyone who answers!
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Nope. No letters needed to submit. You submit with secondaries I believe.


Edit: I believe they get submitted along with secondaries so as long as you have letters matched to the school by then, it should be fine.
 
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Why does it matter if your LOR are in before or after you submit to a throwaway school even if you are going to be waiting for an mcat score???

sleepyhead22 said:
I'm sure this has been answered and I'm sorry for the repeat, but I'm in the midst of prepping for my mcat and asking is easier than wading through threads.

Letters of Recommendation do NOT need to be in when we submit, correct? I'm only applying to a throw away school at this point and would rather wait til after I take the mcat (June 18th) to have them transferred over by Interfolio. If I need to get them in, I can tho. Thanks in advance to anyone who answers!
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But if you already have your letters submitted to AMCAS, then do you need to resubmit them with secondaries?

sleepyhead22 said:
I'm sure this has been answered and I'm sorry for the repeat, but I'm in the midst of prepping for my mcat and asking is easier than wading through threads.

Letters of Recommendation do NOT need to be in when we submit, correct? I'm only applying to a throw away school at this point and would rather wait til after I take the mcat (June 18th) to have them transferred over by Interfolio. If I need to get them in, I can tho. Thanks in advance to anyone who answers!
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PHgeek123 said:
Nope. No letters needed to submit. You submit with secondaries I believe.


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sleepyhead22 said:
I'm asking if we can add more letters at any time, basically.
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I believe you can always add stuff, but not remove things. But then again I would double check with AMCAS or someone else. that is to my understanding.
 
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I have a course work question. my transcript has columns for course, description, attempted, earned, grade, and points.
So, for a given course, I have the course name and number, and then under "attempted" it says 1.00 and under "earned" it says 1.00.

Then there is a note on the page following the transcript that says "NU began using a course unit system in which a 1 in the earned and attempted column = 1 course. For the purpose of transfer credit, one course should be considered to be the equivalent of four quarter hours or 2 2/3 semester hours."

So, for the AMCAS form, should I say that the course would be 4 credit hours? I know they say not to do any conversions though, so then should I say 1? Please help! Neurotic pre-med freaking out here. After being on hold with AAMC for 90 minutes, all of a sudden there was a system error and they couldn't process my call. Thank you so much for reading!

EDIT: I found this in the AMCAS manual- "If no hours appear on your official transcript, leave the item blank unless the credits have been removed as a result of failure, repeat, academic bankruptcy, forgiveness, or similar institutional policy."

So, should I just not enter any credits? But I do have credit for the course, so I do not want that to be misinterpreted. Thank you!
 
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AvacadosAtLaw said:
Quick course work question. So my freshman year chemistry class was a combine lecture and lab. You only receive one combine grade for the class but you had to sign up for a separate section for the lab so it appears as two lines of my transcript like:

CHEM 101 General Chemistry A: 4.00 credit hours
CHEM 101 General Chemistry NG: 0.00 credit hours

Should I make two entires for this course and just leave the grade and credit hours blank for the second one?
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I have this situation as well! I am not sure what to do either. I was thinking of just inputting the first course and categorizing it as "combined lecture and lab"... I don't know though. Did you figure anything out?

According to AMCAS,

"Enter designations for all of your lab course work exactly as they appear on the official transcript. If the lab credit is included with the lecture course credit, append the phrase "and lab" to the exact course title as it appears on the official transcript. For example, if "General Chemistry II" appears on the official transcript and lab credit is included with the lecture course credit, enter "General Chemistry II and Lab" and indicate "Yes" in response to the question, "Did this course include a lab section?""

But I still feel like that is unclear.

UPDATE: I think I am going to list both courses, as "lecture only" and "lab only". Not sure about what to do for credits though (see previous post lol). But for your case, I would probably list it as 4 and o!
 
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I took a specialized upper level lab course (not a research or independent study class), however, it was four credit hours and the name of the course does not say lab. Will it look weird to AMCAS if I select "Lab only" for a four credit hour course? Or should I also write "lab" on the course title even though it is not written on my transcript?
 
Does anyone know if the AAMC site is up? I dont know if its my internet or the site overloading. Thanks!
 
Anyone know if submitting Sunday prevent being in the first batch of deliveries to the schools or is that still early enough?
 
CJS426 said:
I have this situation as well! I am not sure what to do either. I was thinking of just inputting the first course and categorizing it as "combined lecture and lab"... I don't know though. Did you figure anything out?

According to AMCAS,

"Enter designations for all of your lab course work exactly as they appear on the official transcript. If the lab credit is included with the lecture course credit, append the phrase "and lab" to the exact course title as it appears on the official transcript. For example, if "General Chemistry II" appears on the official transcript and lab credit is included with the lecture course credit, enter "General Chemistry II and Lab" and indicate "Yes" in response to the question, "Did this course include a lab section?""

But I still feel like that is unclear.

UPDATE: I think I am going to list both courses, as "lecture only" and "lab only". Not sure about what to do for credits though (see previous post lol). But for your case, I would probably list it as 4 and o!
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These AMCAS course classifications are not used for noting fulfillment of prereqs. If you have a lecture class with credit and associate lab class that has zero credit, you can note "(and lab as noted below)" and then on Lab note "(associated with chem lecture)"
 
TMC07 said:
I took a specialized upper level lab course(not a research or independent study class), however, it was four credit hours and the name of the course does not say lab. Will it look weird to AMCAS if I select "Lab only" for a four credit hour course? Or should I also write "lab" on the course title even though it is not written on my transcript?
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It will not matter as the courses are checked against college catalogs. You can select "Lab only" and add "(specialized upper level lab course)" if it makes you feel better
 
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CJS426 said:
I have a course work question. my transcript has columns for course, description, attempted, earned, grade, and points.
So, for a given course, I have the course name and number, and then under "attempted" it says 1.00 and under "earned" it says 1.00.

Then there is a note on the page following the transcript that says "NU began using a course unit system in which a 1 in the earned and attempted column = 1 course. For the purpose of transfer credit, one course should be considered to be the equivalent of four quarter hours or 2 2/3 semester hours."

So, for the AMCAS form, should I say that the course would be 4 credit hours? I know they say not to do any conversions though, so then should I say 1? Please help! Neurotic pre-med freaking out here. After being on hold with AAMC for 90 minutes, all of a sudden there was a system error and they couldn't process my call. Thank you so much for reading!

EDIT: I found this in the AMCAS manual- "If no hours appear on your official transcript, leave the item blank unless the credits have been removed as a result of failure, repeat, academic bankruptcy, forgiveness, or similar institutional policy."

So, should I just not enter any credits? But I do have credit for the course, so I do not want that to be misinterpreted. Thank you!
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Just put what is on the transcript, do not, repeat, do not convert it. That will cause issues.
 
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If I repeated a course, do I check the "Repeat" box only for the second time I took the course or for both times I took the course? Thanks in advance!
 
If my transcript says I have some credits from high school, should I include it? It just says AP and IB credits, no specific class.
 
PHgeek123 said:
If my transcript says I have some credits from high school, should I include it? It just says AP and IB credits, no specific class.
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Yes, if they are on the transcript, you include them. You can also "assign" classes to a bulk AP/IB listing as explained by the AMCAS instruction below

For example, the University of Southern California awarded 9 credits for 3 AP exams. On the official transcript, this credit appears as 9 credits for AP exams, with no indication of what each exam was. On your AMCAS application, enter each exam as an individual course and distribute the credits appropriately, do not exceed the total amount of credits earned.


If the transcript from the college awarding AP credit does not list actual course names, enter the subject area for which credit has been earned (e.g., AP Credit: English) as the Course Name
 
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Does anyone know what time submission opens today? AMCAS website says Tuesday, June 7 12:00AM GMT+0000 but pretty sure this means 8pm EST June 6th. Thanks for the help!
 
crathnam said:
Does anyone know what time submission opens today? AMCAS website says Tuesday, June 7 12:00AM GMT+0000 but pretty sure this means 8pm EST June 6th. Thanks for the help!
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The time is the default database setting when they made the entry in the AMCAS premed calendar.

It should be 930am. But that is just my past experience guess.
 
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My apologies if this was asked previously, but I still can't find an answer.

What should I do for courses that I placed out of through a departmental placement exam to get placed into a higher level course? Should they be listed as exempt even though I received no credit for it and they aren't listed on my official transcript?
 
How should a faculty-led study abroad be handled in the schools attended and course work section? Based on my search I found this excerpt from the AMCAS manual from last year:

Faculty-Led Study Abroad ProgramThis scenario applies to coursework you completed while traveling abroad with professors from your home institution for which you received credit. To differentiate between courses taken at your home institution and credits earned while studying abroad, list your home institution twice in the Schools Attended section. Modify the second entry to include your school’s name, the term ‘Study Abroad’ and the city where your study abroad program was completed (i.e. “Georgetown University – Study Abroad – Rome”). An official transcript is required for this coursework

I have listed my study abroad program with a separate school entry as such, but the course work is apparent on my official transcript that has already been submitted. My application only lists that a transcript was received from my university and not for the university study abroad listing, so I was wondering if this was okay, or if there was some other way this should be handled, as this particular excerpt is not present in the 2017 AMCAS manual. Any advice would be appreciated.
 
blacksweater said:
My apologies if this was asked previously, but I still can't find an answer.

What should I do for courses that I placed out of through a departmental placement exam to get placed into a higher level course? Should they be listed as exempt even though I received no credit for it and they aren't listed on my official transcript?
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they dont get mentioned at all; do not include them
 
Frog Kid said:
How should a faculty-led study abroad be handled in the schools attended and course work section? Based on my search I found this excerpt from the AMCAS manual from last year:

Faculty-Led Study Abroad ProgramThis scenario applies to coursework you completed while traveling abroad with professors from your home institution for which you received credit. To differentiate between courses taken at your home institution and credits earned while studying abroad, list your home institution twice in the Schools Attended section. Modify the second entry to include your school’s name, the term ‘Study Abroad’ and the city where your study abroad program was completed (i.e. “Georgetown University – Study Abroad – Rome”). An official transcript is required for this coursework

I have listed my study abroad program with a separate school entry as such, but the course work is apparent on my official transcript that has already been submitted. My application only lists that a transcript was received from my university and not for the university study abroad listing, so I was wondering if this was okay, or if there was some other way this should be handled, as this particular excerpt is not present in the 2017 AMCAS manual. Any advice would be appreciated.
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your fine
 
pirouette said:
Thanks a lot for the help! Just a follow up question - is it correct to assume that my position in the verification queue wouldn't be affected if I initially submitted my application for some schools on one day and add more school a few days later before I've been verified? Also, will AMCAS let me add schools in chunks within minutes of each other or does the system make you wait a certain amount of time?
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pirouette said:
Thanks for the reply - lol no my school list is not changing minute to minute. My original question was regarding whether I could split up an already made list of schools among multiple cards, and @saltypug said I would be prompted for payment info every time I added new schools, so it sounds like I could split up my list into smaller chunks. I was asking if anyone knew if the system had a limit on how many times I could add more schools (from an already made list that I split up for payment purposes) in a given time span.
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Sorry for the late reply - yes, your verification queue won't be affected (they are separate/independent processes) once you submit your primary. Before transmission date, it does not matter how many chunks you add schools in, as schools won't get anything until AMCAS releases it. There is no limit as far as I know. I added in multiple chunks with no problem. Best of luck!
 
I'm a Canadian and I had my transcript sent out to AMCAS on May 18. However, I feel that my school forgot to include the transcript request form since AMCAS has not received my transcript yet.

Do you know if I can request a sealed transcript from the registrar's office and mail it out on my own? I would prefer to do that since I can get it couriered with a tracking number.
 
racingresearcher said:
I'm a Canadian and I had my transcript sent out to AMCAS on May 18. However, I feel that my school forgot to include the transcript request form since AMCAS has not received my transcript yet.

Do you know if I can request a sealed transcript from the registrar's office and mail it out on my own? I would prefer to do that since I can get it couriered with a tracking number.
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Absolutely not, you will have to call and request another but I would check and refresh your AMCAS first
 
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I think this has been answered previously, but I've seen different answers from different threads. I retook a class. Both are designated as repeats? Or just 1? One thread says both and another says just the second time is designated as repeat
 
sprinter16 said:
I think this has been answered previously, but I've seen different answers from different threads. I retook a class. Both are designated as repeats? Or just 1? One thread says both and another says just the second time is designated as repeat
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CONFIRMED: YOU MARK BOTH ATTEMPTS FOR REPEAT
(as per Senior AMCAS Communication Specialist)


UPDATE:
*Others have called into AMCAS and they say to mark BOTH as repeats
even though the example below suggests otherwise
*AMCAS twitter says only second instance

So WTFK!


The AMCAS gives an example concerning AP, but this can be applied to any repeated course

https://aamc-orange.global.ssl.fast...278-2edb3998a216/amcas_instruction_manual.pdf
(p44)If you take a college level course for which you already have been granted AP credit by the same institution, this course is considered a Repeat. For example, if you received AP credit for your AP Psychology course and took an Introduction to Psychology course at the same undergraduate institution, you should list Introduction to Psychology as a Repeat.
 
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gonnif said:
You designate only the second instance of the course as a repeat

The AMCAS gives an example concerning AP, but this can be applied to any repeated course

https://aamc-orange.global.ssl.fast...278-2edb3998a216/amcas_instruction_manual.pdf
(p44)If you take a college level course for which you already have been granted AP credit by the same institution, this course is considered a Repeat. For example, if you received AP credit for your AP Psychology course and took an Introduction to Psychology course at the same undergraduate institution, you should list Introduction to Psychology as a Repeat.
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If memory serves right I only marked the second instance of the course as repeat the last time I submitted the application. When my application was verified, AMCAS marked both courses as repeat. So this time I did mark both instances of the same course as repeat, matching my previously verified application (from a few years ago).


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Yeah I just called them and they said to designate both. Thanks for the reassurance!
 
amber80 said:
If memory serves right I only marked the second instance of the course as repeat the last time I submitted the application. When my application was verified, AMCAS marked both courses as repeat. So this time I did mark both instances of the same course as repeat, matching my previously verified application (from a few years ago).
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sprinter16 said:
Yeah I just called them and they said to designate both. Thanks for the reassurance!
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I should write them a letter; its not clear in the instructions and the only passage that implies what to do, seems to say the opposite.
 
Yeah it's super confusing. I checked on their Twitter account while I was on hold, and that said to only designate the second class. But when I finally talked to a person, I mentioned what the Twitter account said and they replied something along the lines of "oh well we would like you to designate both." I wish their instructions specified exactly what they wanted.
 
But why would you take a course that you already got AP credit for? Personally isn't that just a waste of time and credit space? Unless you just want an easy GPA booster. Am I missing something?
 
medschoolplease123 said:
But why would you take a course that you already got AP credit for? Personally isn't that just a waste of time and credit space? Unless you just want an easy GPA booster. Am I missing something?
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Some medical schools will not take AP as fulfilling a prereq is certainly a reason
 
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Question- is it okay, good, or bad, to add bit.ly's to our AMCAS, to show a poster, a presentation, a video that focused on me, an article in a newsletter where I wrote about a patient?

Should I list these instead? ex. Do I just write "Featured in Intern Video" instead of providing the shortened link?
 
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NEWS FLASH ON REPEATED COURSES.

SDN has just learned that according to named sources within AAMC that

"When entering repeated courses, “repeated” should be selected as the ‘special course type’ for all attempts."

A Senior Communications Specialist for AMCAS has confirmed this statement.

We will bring you more news as it happens on this and other breaking stories here on opening day of submission.

In other news, Donald Trump is doubling down on the Trump University controversy , promising to open "Trump Casino Hotel and Medical School" on an unnamed island in the Caribbean.

(Aside: as I just made that joke, the realization that it isnt out of the realm possibility and actually sounds much more feasible than many other of his ideas)
 
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I think this might have been asked previously, so I'm sorry if I'm asking this twice.

One of my courses on my transcript lists "100 units taken" instead of credit hours. But on the back of the transcript, it says "The course unit is the measure of credit. One full unit (100) is equivalent to 3 1/3 semester hours or 5 quarter hours." So should I list 100 for credit hours or 3.33 for credit hours on my application?

Sorry if a similar question has already been posted and thank you for your help.
 
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