*~*~*~*Official AMCAS Questions Thread 2011-2012*~*~*~*

Started by CougarMD
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how many days it takes for them to receive my transcripts. they were mailed june 1 and it still says on my page that they are waiting for transcripts... slowly killing me. 😳

If you're dying waiting mere days now, remember the whole process can stretch out almost a year. Suck it up. 🙂
 
Does AMCAS/medical schools have a definition for "Labs" on the AMCAS transcript section? Is it reserved for hard science bench style lab courses? I looked over the 2012 manual, but couldn't find anything specific.
My school designates units based on lecture hrs. + lab hours + hw hrs. and counts things like P.E. and certain music classes to be lab hours since there is technically no "lecturing". Should I label these classes as "Lab Only"? What about economics lab simulations and foreign language learning labs? Thanks!

My opinion is that it's for science (bio/chem/physics) labs. It probably doesn't matter in the end, but call up AMCAS and let us know what they say.
 
I've shadowed several doctors over the past 4 years (logged 100+ hrs), and I'm grouping it all into one activity slot on AMCAS. Who should I list as a contact? My supervisor who let me shadow a bunch of docs during a summer research gig? My current PI? An influential doc I shadowed?
 
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I swear I've searched the threads so forgive me if I didn't search thoroughly enough.

I technically "walked" this spring, but don't officially "graduate" and get my actual degree until fall because of all the clearance procedures. Do I list May as my degree granted month or August?

Thanks in advance!
 
I swear I've searched the threads so forgive me if I didn't search thoroughly enough.

I technically "walked" this spring, but don't officially "graduate" and get my actual degree until fall because of all the clearance procedures. Do I list May as my degree granted month or August?

Thanks in advance!

Does your transcript have a "Date of Graduation" on it? I'd use that date.
 
I swear I've searched the threads so forgive me if I didn't search thoroughly enough.

I technically "walked" this spring, but don't officially "graduate" and get my actual degree until fall because of all the clearance procedures. Do I list May as my degree granted month or August?

Thanks in advance!

Finishing requirements is not graduation or awarding a degree. If graduation is officially dated as August, then August is what should be listed.
 
Hi All,

Sorry to ask another transcript question.. I did a summer abroad in Korea and thus marked that I have taken foreign courses. However, AMCAS was clear that I did not need to submit the transcript, as credits were not transferred.

"Courses (other than M.D. course work) attempted independently at a foreign institution are not required to be listed if credit has NOT been transferred to a U.S."

Are schools likely to ask in later stages of the application for me to submit a transcript? I did rather poorly there and hope it'll be ignored. 😀
 
But i do wonder... I'd say a lot of the experiences I've had that have 'transformed' my life don't have a "contact person" or an email...lol

I mean..lol...a person could say being dumped under a particular set of circumstances has given him/her perspective...lolol...would you put the ex as the contact? hahahaha :laugh:
 
They do not necessarily have to be med school related. Try to think of it this way. Would you want your doctor to be a wall, or someone with interests and therefore some semblance of a personality? Also think about this from an adcom point of view. Do you want a class of people that only care about studying and do not have fun, which will eventually burnout?

Medical school helps build character, but it does not define who you are. Your applications should be the same.
 
So this might be a separate question worthy of another thread...but since we already describe the activity initially, do you think we need to spell out acronyms again, and redescribe what we did in our "meaningful explanation"? For example, working in health information management (HIM) and electronic medical records (EMR)....those two acronyms already take up a TON of space lol.

Any suggestions?
 
So this might be a separate question worthy of another thread...but since we already describe the activity initially, do you think we need to spell out acronyms again, and redescribe what we did in our "meaningful explanation"? For example, working in health information management (HIM) and electronic medical records (EMR)....those two acronyms already take up a TON of space lol.

Any suggestions?

I'd like to know what other people are doing for that as well.

I've always called it EMR, but I heard another doctor call it EHR (electronic health record). At first I wasn't sure what she was referring to and had to ask because there are so many damn acronyms in medicine (and I've been an MA for 5 years). So on my app I decided to play it safe and spell things out.. just in case.
 
my transcripts reached AMCAS on June 3, according to UPS tracking. But, online it doesn't show that they have been received. Should I be worried? (btw, on the homepage it says AMCAS is currently processing transcripts received on May 31).
 
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my transcripts reached AMCAS on June 3, according to UPS tracking. But, online it doesn't show that they have been received. Should I be worried? (btw, on the homepage it says AMCAS is currently processing transcripts received on May 31).

I think you have your answer. No, don't worry just yet.
 
If your transcript uses abbreviations, can you spell everything out or should you just leave it as it is on the transcript itself? Also, for the courses taken in high school, do they include them in the GPA calculations?
 
So this might be a separate question worthy of another thread...but since we already describe the activity initially, do you think we need to spell out acronyms again, and redescribe what we did in our "meaningful explanation"? For example, working in health information management (HIM) and electronic medical records (EMR)....those two acronyms already take up a TON of space lol.

Any suggestions?

I would consider the "description" and "meaningful experience explanation" fields to be part of the same unit. So, if you spelled out an acronym in the description, there's no need to repeat that in the explanation field. You also would not need to repeat your description of the activity if it was already covered in the description field (or other parts of your application).
 
If your transcript uses abbreviations, can you spell everything out or should you just leave it as it is on the transcript itself? Also, for the courses taken in high school, do they include them in the GPA calculations?

I un-abbreviated everything and I didn't have any problems.
 
In the AMCAS manual, p. 61 it says that there is an additional fee for adding med schools after you've submitted. How substantial is this fee? Is it a fee per added school (on top of the primary fee) or just a set amount for resubmitting?

Thanks!
 
Hello all,

I was wondering if you guys can give me some guidance on applying as a disadvantaged student on the AMCAS? My twin brother and I were the first and only to graduate college in our family. I was born in Colombia and moved to the States when I was 3. My parents never made more than 40k combined and my brother and I put ourselves through school with no financial help other than scholarships and hard work. I do not feel at all disadvantaged because of this, on the contrary I feel this made me a better man and a good husband and father I am now. Because my employer doesn't offer health insurance, my daughter and I have Medicaid. My wife is pregnant with our second child and because she doesn't meet the Medicaid requirement of 5 years as a resident, she is ineligible for any coverage. So we have to go to public clinics and wait half a day to see a doctor. In addition, we use WIC and use food stamps. I figured every little bit helps because she is a stay at home mom and I work and go to school. We own our home outright (I don't have a mortgage) and this had made it possible for me to pursue my goal of becoming a MD. The only time I "feel" disadvantaged is when we're waiting to see the doctor in an awful clinic and during our WIC interviews. What do you think?
 
I say your pretty disadvantage to me, you can add this to your PS when applying explaining how you struggled to put yourself through college. good luck
 
I am on a couple waitlists for the 2011 application cycle so am trying to decide when the best time to apply for the 2012 cycle without spending too much money again or applying too late. Does anyone have experience with adding schools after submitting? My plan was to submit this week with just one school so I only have to pay the one school application fee ($160). That way I can get verified before July, then add schools at the end of June so I don't have to wait to get verified again. My main question is: does the application go through quickly after resubmitting or would I have to wait another 3-4 weeks to get verified again? Is this even a good idea or should I just submit to all schools asap? Thanks for any input
 
I am on a couple waitlists for the 2011 application cycle so am trying to decide when the best time to apply for the 2012 cycle without spending too much money again or applying too late. Does anyone have experience with adding schools after submitting? My plan was to submit this week with just one school so I only have to pay the one school application fee ($160). That way I can get verified before July, then add schools at the end of June so I don't have to wait to get verified again. My main question is: does the application go through quickly after resubmitting or would I have to wait another 3-4 weeks to get verified again? Is this even a good idea or should I just submit to all schools asap? Thanks for any input

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showpost.php?p=11066438&postcount=1105
 
Hello all,

I was wondering if you guys can give me some guidance on applying as a disadvantaged student on the AMCAS? My twin brother and I were the first and only to graduate college in our family. I was born in Colombia and moved to the States when I was 3. My parents never made more than 40k combined and my brother and I put ourselves through school with no financial help other than scholarships and hard work. I do not feel at all disadvantaged because of this, on the contrary I feel this made me a better man and a good husband and father I am now. Because my employer doesn't offer health insurance, my daughter and I have Medicaid. My wife is pregnant with our second child and because she doesn't meet the Medicaid requirement of 5 years as a resident, she is ineligible for any coverage. So we have to go to public clinics and wait half a day to see a doctor. In addition, we use WIC and use food stamps. I figured every little bit helps because she is a stay at home mom and I work and go to school. We own our home outright (I don't have a mortgage) and this had made it possible for me to pursue my goal of becoming a MD. The only time I "feel" disadvantaged is when we're waiting to see the doctor in an awful clinic and during our WIC interviews. What do you think?

To my understanding, disadvantaged applys more toward childhood. That being said, there is not doubt that you can apply disadvantaged.
 
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Should I check my ethnicity and race in the app if i'm not a minority? I mean they'll probably be able to tell by my name etc...but just curious. Should I also check No to "Do you believe that this area was medically under-served"? What's the point of asking that?
 
Should I check my ethnicity and race in the app if i'm not a minority? I mean they'll probably be able to tell by my name etc...but just curious.

It will probably neither help nor hurt, either to check it off or to decline to answer.

Should I also check No to "Do you believe that this area was medically under-served"? What's the point of asking that?

The question has the same rationale as asking about socioeconomically disadvantaged childhoods or whether you are a medically-underrepresented minority.

Should I put courses I'm going to take this fall?

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?p=11053913#post11053913
 
Hi all

I don't know if I'm doing something wrong or if it's my browser (also sorry if it's been asked before!), but AMCAS keeps cutting off the last few characters of my activities description even though I still have enough characters remaining.

Is anyone having the same issue?

Thanks!
 
Hi all

I don't know if I'm doing something wrong or if it's my browser (also sorry if it's been asked before!), but AMCAS keeps cutting off the last few characters of my activities description even though I still have enough characters remaining.

Is anyone having the same issue?

Thanks!

Amcas did that to me too. I think they may count "enters" where as other websites/word might not. Also, amcas changed my dashes into two hyphens, so that added some.
 
Thanks beckerism!

I went back and deleted some characters and now AMCAS isn't cutting off the last few words.

It seems as if AMCAS still counts those "enters" without physically showing it in the character count.
 
Does amcas review your non-science gpa, along with your overall & science gpa? I was looking at a medical school admission's page, and they specifically ask for a certain science gpa and non-science gpa( I wasn't sure if they meant the overall gpa including science courses or the gpa that contained none of the science courses).
 
Does amcas review your non-science gpa, along with your overall & science gpa? I was looking at a medical school admission's page, and they specifically ask for a certain science gpa and non-science gpa( I wasn't sure if they meant the overall gpa including science courses or the gpa that contained none of the science courses).
AMCAS verifies all coursework you've ever taken and they generate a whole list of GPA's, including your BCPM (aka science) GPA, All Other (aka non-science) GPA, and overall GPA (along with a bunch more GPAs, like GPA per year and stuff).

The most important GPAs are generally your overall undergraduate GPA and your undergraduate BCPM GPA.

Did this answer your question?

BTW, there is an AMCAS questions thread, and this thread will surely be merged with it. Future questions belong there
 
AMCAS verifies all coursework you've ever taken and they generate a whole list of GPA's, including your BCPM (aka science) GPA, All Other (aka non-science) GPA, and overall GPA (along with a bunch more GPAs, like GPA per year and stuff).

The most important GPAs are generally your overall undergraduate GPA and your undergraduate BCPM GPA.

Did this answer your question?

BTW, there is an AMCAS questions thread, and this thread will surely be merged with it. Future questions belong there

Yes it does and thanks! Doesn't amcas count a B+ as 3.5 instead of 3.3? If so my overall and science gpa will be slightly higher?
 
Yes it does and thanks! Doesn't amcas count a B+ as 3.5 instead of 3.3? If so my overall and science gpa will be slightly higher?

Unless your school had some really weird way of grading things, your transcript GPA and AMCAS GPA should be the same. My school was on quarters and did B+/3.3 and A-/3.7 and my GPA was identical.
 
I'm not sure how to enter the course name vs. course number for my AP classes. On my transcript, it just looks like this:

### ADV PLACEMENT EXAM- EUR HIST, 05-06

So I just listed this as the course name, but now I'm wondering if that's right or not...
 
I'm not sure how to enter the course name vs. course number for my AP classes. On my transcript, it just looks like this:

### ADV PLACEMENT EXAM- EUR HIST, 05-06

So I just listed this as the course name, but now I'm wondering if that's right or not...

I think that's fine.
 
Does amcas review your non-science gpa, along with your overall & science gpa? I was looking at a medical school admission's page, and they specifically ask for a certain science gpa and non-science gpa( I wasn't sure if they meant the overall gpa including science courses or the gpa that contained none of the science courses).

AMCAS verifies all coursework you've ever taken and they generate a whole list of GPA's, including your BCPM (aka science) GPA, All Other (aka non-science) GPA, and overall GPA (along with a bunch more GPAs, like GPA per year and stuff).

The most important GPAs are generally your overall undergraduate GPA and your undergraduate BCPM GPA.

Did this answer your question?

BTW, there is an AMCAS questions thread, and this thread will surely be merged with it. Future questions belong there

Yes it does and thanks! Doesn't amcas count a B+ as 3.5 instead of 3.3? If so my overall and science gpa will be slightly higher?

Unless your school had some really weird way of grading things, your transcript GPA and AMCAS GPA should be the same. My school was on quarters and did B+/3.3 and A-/3.7 and my GPA was identical.

For AMCAS:
B+ = 3.3
A- = 3.7
A+ = 4.0

Source: 2011 AMCAS Grade Conversion Guide
Merging with Official AMCAS Question Thread.
 
i was just taking a look at the official verification thread and it seems that everyone on there had a date when their transcripts were received. i submitted my transcripts over a week ago and amcas still says waiting on transcripts, how long did it take for amcas to acknowledge receipt of the transcripts?

thanks!🙂
 
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i was just taking a look at the official verification thread and it seems that everyone on there had a date when their transcripts were received. i submitted my transcripts over a week ago and amcas still says waiting on transcripts, how long did it take for amcas to acknowledge receipt of the transcripts?

thanks!🙂

I sent out transcript requests two weeks ago and I'm still waiting on two of them.
 
This shouldn't even be a question -- of course wait a day. AMCAS doesn't release the information till probably mid/late June and I read somewhere that it was June 13 or 17 this year. Regardless of whether you submit it June 1 or June 10th, it won't make a difference of when adcoms start reading it and start sending out requests for interviews over the next few months.

um..i'm confused. amcas releases data starting june 17 this year (i read on the website) and every business day after that. i thought you had to be VERIFIED by that date (june 17) in order to be sent to schools. if you submit june 10, you probably won't be verified by the 17th...is this right?
 
um..i'm confused. amcas releases data starting june 17 this year (i read on the website) and every business day after that. i thought you had to be VERIFIED by that date (june 17) in order to be sent to schools. if you submit june 10, you probably won't be verified by the 17th...is this right?

Correct. If you have everything in by the 10th and you'll most likely be sent out on the first day.
 
Do you know if they update the received date immediately as they come in or if they update the received date when they start the verification process. i'm asking this because on their website it says processing transcripts received on xx. I hope that just cause they didn't update that they received my transcript over a week ago, I don't get pushed back to a much later date for verification...

I sent out transcript requests two weeks ago and I'm still waiting on two of them.
 
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