2008-2009 AMCAS Questions Thread

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Pedsbro said:
Really? I've never heard of that...but I don't think they mean SATs, I think they only mean upper level tests like GRE, GMAT, LSAT, etc. I know the Texas app specifically asks for SAT scores though. The few schools that apparently want it obviously ask for it in their secondaries, but I can't imagine it's very common, so I wouldn't put it in AMCAS which goes out to everyone
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yeah, they don't want high school tests in the AMCAS. I do remember when I previously applied to Duke, their secondary asked for my SAT score, and my class rank in high school.
 
There's a course category list that AMCAS puts out. For example under biology they list all sorts of things: Physiology, Cell biology, etc.

Check that out... click "help" on AMCAS and it'll be in there somewhere.
 
CoolSpot7Up said:
oh weird, that didn't happen for me. maybe i'll try putting in an extra return and see if it works.
Click to expand...

OK, I guess it does work now. I know it didn't before, as I have my old AMCAS pdf with weird gaps in the text where I put hard returns. I tested it the other day and the same happened. It seems to be inserting hard returns now, cool!

This completely changes how my activities list will look now. I had made everything one big paragraph before, but now I can just bullet-point to make things stand out and be more concise. Sweet!
 
ohhowiwish said:
There's an instructional pdf at the amcas website detailing this. It says to only include AP courses that appear on your college transcript, and to describe it the way your transcript describes it. They also have the notation you're suppose to use if your transcript acknowledges it but doesn't list any course equivalent.

For the majority of people, there is not supposed to be any grade attached to your AP credit (I heard of some rare odd universities that do though, but they're in the minority)
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I read that part, it said that if it is not detailed on the transcript (which it isnt on mine) to detail it for them, like AP Euro: History 23 or something like that. I am wondering what to do if they were not applied to anything but were given elective credit.
 
Yeah, I don't think they really check on your categorization scheme. As long as the class title and the category seem to make sense, they won't question it.
 
Under the transcript requirements section of AMCAS, it says "College-level courses attempted while in high school, even if they did not count toward a degree at any college." does count AP courses I took in high school? Thanks!!
 
For AP Biology, do we put Biology for classification?

And I read somewhere that we should only use one of fifteen slots of activities for shadowing. How would you guys put down the amt of hours shadowed per physician?

Something like this maybe?

Dr. A (30hrs)
-blah
-blah blah
Dr. B (50hrs)
-blah blah
-blah blah
 
How do transcripts work with SMP programs? I plan on attending the Georgetown SMP program from 2008 to 2009. When filling out my AMCAS application should I say that transcripts are required from Georgetown? I assume they are. However, as I have not even enrolled in the program yet I will not get a transcript from Georgetown until sometime in December (when the first semester ends). Will this delay my AMCAS application?
 
hypnix said:
For AP Biology, do we put Biology for classification?

And I read somewhere that we should only use one of fifteen slots of activities for shadowing. How would you guys put down the amt of hours shadowed per physician?

Something like this maybe?

Dr. A (30hrs)
-blah
-blah blah
Dr. B (50hrs)
-blah blah
-blah blah
Click to expand...



That's what I did.
 
I think you list the course for which you received credit and then click the little box at the bottom for "Advanced Placement." At my school all of our AP credit shows up on our transcript as BE or "By Exam."

So say you place out of Intro Stats from AP Credit:

Course Number: STAT 101
Course Name: INTRO STATISTICS
Transcript Grade: BE
Hours: 3

Special Course Types:
Click "Advanced Placement" box
 
dtown5887 said:
Under the transcript requirements section of AMCAS, it says "College-level courses attempted while in high school, even if they did not count toward a degree at any college." does count AP courses I took in high school? Thanks!!
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If you got the AP credits after passing the test, then yes. If not, then no. Also I think it is mainly referring to dual enrollment courses.
 
making sure im doing this right--i took a full year AP (calc AB) course in high school (during my senior year 2004-2005), it appears on my transcript as MATH:CALCULUS AB: 1 CREDIT:


academic year: 2004-2005
academic term: full year- semester system (is this right??)
year in school: freshman (this is what the instructions say to do)
course number: (leave blank?)
course name: AP Credit: Calculus AB
transcript grade: leave blank (is this right?)
credit hours: 1

did the course include a lab session?: lecture only
special course type: Advanced Placement

is this what everyone else is doing for an AP course they took (and got credit for) in high school?
 
I'm still not completely clear on how the AMCAS LOR service works. My letters are on Interfolio. Do I tell them to send them to AMCAS for the schools that use it?
 
Mace1370 said:
How do transcripts work with SMP programs? I plan on attending the Georgetown SMP program from 2008 to 2009. When filling out my AMCAS application should I say that transcripts are required from Georgetown? I assume they are. However, as I have not even enrolled in the program yet I will not get a transcript from Georgetown until sometime in December (when the first semester ends). Will this delay my AMCAS application?
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I don't know for sure so if someone does from experience that would be great.

However, if you put "transcript not required" it then asks you for the reason. And you can put "Current for future class at an institution that you have not enrolled in/nor previously enrolled in, etc."

That is a really rough paraphrase, but the moral is that I don't think that we need to require a transcript at this point since we have yet to start there. (I too am attending the Georgetown SMP this Fall) But if someone has a concrete answer, please share!
 
Yes, you need interfolio to send those letters to AMCAS but they need the letter request form in order to match the letters so that info needs to be sent to interfolio. AMCAS also says it takes about 15 days to process letters, but you DO NOT need these in before submission
 
So let me get this straight, under work/activities we of course put work, activities, clubs etc. Does volunteer also go under this tab?
 
So I'm starting to fill out the AMCAs...and at the language section, it gives no descriptions of what they want for languages.

It just says "Languages" with check boxes with a bunch of listed languages.

So what level of language ability do you think we need in order to list it here?
I took 2 years of college Spanish and spent a summer living in Spain with a family so I'd like to say I'm pretty good at Spanish.

Also this year I formally learned Haitian Creole.

So does it want any language we can understand generally (Creole)? one we feel we can understand very well (Spanish)? or only first languages (English)?

Because it really isn't clear. I want to list these two languages eventually, I just don't know whether or not the "language" checkboxes are the appropriate place for, say, Haitian Creole that I studied this year.

Any advice/insight to bestow?

Appreciate it
 
wow lol I wasn't paying attention to which forum I was in, doing too many things at once 😱... is there a way I can delete my own thread?

Or can the mod move this to pre-allo?
 
DrJD said:
I don't know for sure so if someone does from experience that would be great.

However, if you put "transcript not required" it then asks you for the reason. And you can put "Current for future class at an institution that you have not enrolled in/nor previously enrolled in, etc."

That is a really rough paraphrase, but the moral is that I don't think that we need to require a transcript at this point since we have yet to start there. (I too am attending the Georgetown SMP this Fall) But if someone has a concrete answer, please share!
Click to expand...

Yup, I did the exact same thing. Even if your SMP does send a transcript now, it will be blank until after classes start. There are no grades for AMCAS to verify. But I did list all the courses I was planning to take in the SMP as future courses.
 
ejay286 said:
So let me get this straight, under work/activities we of course put work, activities, clubs etc. Does volunteer also go under this tab?
Click to expand...

It is pretty self explanatory if you look at the categorical classifications of what constitutes a work activity under the tab in the second line of that section.

Lab/research
conferences attended
Posters
TA/tutoring
Work-military
work-nonmilitary
volunteer-nonmedical
volunteer medical
extracurricular/hobbies/avocations
intercollegiate athletics
artistic endeavors
Other (shadowing most commonly goes under this).
Awards/recognitions/honors

I think that's all of them. I might have left one out or split one 2 that are combined.
 
hey does anyone know when we can submit our application is it June 1st?
 
I hope this question isnt too dumb but in the biographical part when they ask if you want to mention any parents... does that mean you should only mention them if theyre doctors? neither of my parents have more than a bachelors degree so i wasnt going to mention them. thanks
 
🙁 I hope you weren't serious? Of course they don't have to be doctors...
 
When I logged out just now it says that you can submit "on or around June 4," so there you go.

Yeah, how important is it to fill out the info about your family?
 
For LizzyM and all others:

Hey guys, anyone putting disadvantaged thus far? If so then can you discuss a little about why you are/are not disadvantaged.

Not sure if I am. I came to this country when I was 8 from India, my family lived in a trailer park and then a bunch of apartments until we finally could afford a house. Thing is, I was never poor. My mom and dad both worked two jobs so we never fell below the poverty line and never got any gov. aid. Also I am from the Central Valley, which is considered any under serviced medical community. The poor areas I lived in did give me a bad high school experience though, and it wasn't until I got to a 4 year university that I finally saw I was a good student.

Anyway, some thoughts please?
 
Schoolsucks said:
For LizzyM and all others:

Hey guys, anyone putting disadvantaged thus far? If so then can you discuss a little about why you are/are not disadvantaged.

Not sure if I am. I came to this country when I was 8 from India, my family lived in a trailer park and then a bunch of apartments until we finally could afford a house. Thing is, I was never poor. My mom and dad both worked two jobs so we never fell below the poverty line and never got any gov. aid. Also I am from the Central Valley, which is considered any under serviced medical community. The poor areas I lived in did give me a bad high school experience though, and it wasn't until I got to a 4 year university that I finally saw I was a good student.

Anyway, some thoughts please?
Click to expand...


The disadvantaged section is going to ask family income, whether you received gov't aid, whether you worked and if your wages helped to support the familiy, and if the general trend of your answers indicates that your family income was OK and you didn't get gov't aid and you didn't work to help support the family, then the claim that you were disadvantaged seems weak IMHO. It is your call.
 
DrZaius said:
When I logged out just now it says that you can submit "on or around June 4," so there you go.

Yeah, how important is it to fill out the info about your family?
Click to expand...

Last year was the first time that I saw more than a small handful of applicants skip that section. It does provide some insight into family background: an applicant who grew up with 2 parents who are physicians or lawyers or engineers is different than having a single parent who works as a janitor which is different than having grown up with parents who are beekeepers or ranchers. It gives a little bit better picture of you as a flesh & blood person. It provides some useful information about your background but I haven't seen it used to make admissions decisions.
 
LizzyM said:
Last year was the first time that I saw more than a small handful of applicants skip that section. It does provide some insight into family background: an applicant who grew up with 2 parents who are physicians or lawyers or engineers is different than having a single parent who works as a janitor which is different than having grown up with parents who are beekeepers or ranchers. It gives a little bit better picture of you as a flesh & blood person. It provides some useful information about your background but I haven't seen it used to make admissions decisions.
Click to expand...

LizzyM...

What if your parents aren't all that interesting? Lets say they both have MBA's and work in business... is it alright to leave it blank or would adding their info be useful?

Also, is it advisable for a white male to leave the race/ethnicity part blank?
 
LizzyM said:
The disadvantaged section is going to ask family income, whether you received gov't aid, whether you worked and if your wages helped to support the familiy, and if the general trend of your answers indicates that your family income was OK and you didn't get gov't aid and you didn't work to help support the family, then the claim that you were disadvantaged seems weak IMHO. It is your call.
Click to expand...

For LizzyM:

thank you for your insight. I have a few more questions to go along with this if that i okay. My family income varied through out the years. We went from little or no money to more and more money and I did start working in highschool to help pay for college (about 20% i paid for and 30% i paid for with scholarships). Since it is my call, do you think admissions will frown upon me if i got that call wrong? You think my claim is weak, and if you saw my application, would you not like me because of my weak claim? I do not want to hurt my chances by making wrong calls...
 
LizzyM (or anyone else who knows), is it possible to include the amount I received from need-based grants as part of the need-based scholarship section at the part that asks for % contribution to college payments, or should it go in the generic "other" section that doesn't leave any space for explanation? It looks awkward that a huge portion of my means of paying for college is just "other"
 
It doesn't seem like the AMCAS system allows you to put activities that you're planning on doing this summer. I'll be participating in two programs that would count as clinical experience. Is there any way for me to update my application with this information and submit the form by June 1st?
 
TheElement said:
It doesn't seem like the AMCAS system allows you to put activities that you're planning on doing this summer. I'll be participating in two programs that would count as clinical experience. Is there any way for me to update my application with this information and submit the form by June 1st?
Click to expand...

I was wondering about this as well. A doctor recently offered to let me shadow him this summer but I won't be starting until the end of this month, and will hopefully continue into June or July, but I want to submit the application early. Do we do any updates online or do we have to formally notify each school of any new ECs?
 
Thanks for the info COdoubleMO2theN. I didn't know that some schools did not accept other methods. Makes it worth going through the hoops for this part of the app.

Anyway, do you need to submit one matching form for each letter writer or would just one 'example' suffice? For example, if I use a university letter service, they just send one fat packet of PDFs.
 
What should I classify independent study courses as? At first I classified it as "other" but for the course I was doing research in cancer cell biology? Would that count as biology then?

I was also wondering about this Intro to Medical Professions course that I took... would it just be "other"?

THANKS!
 
floja2 said:
Thanks for the info COdoubleMO2theN. I didn't know that some schools did not accept other methods. Makes it worth going through the hoops for this part of the app.

Anyway, do you need to submit one matching form for each letter writer or would just one 'example' suffice? For example, if I use a university letter service, they just send one fat packet of PDFs.
Click to expand...

there is a link for each letter that will bring up a letter request form. Each letter needs its own request form. even with a packet from a university letter service, each letter still needs its individual request form.

RoadRunner17 said:
Does someone know which schools REQUIRE the LORs to be sent through AMCAS? Other than Georgetown (which I will not be applying to?)
Click to expand...

go to the LOE area of the application and there is a link for list of participating schools- for those that require, you will have to check their websites
 
A few years ago, I got a C in a 4 credit course. It was an engineering class but taken in the math department. The course title: MATH 266 Lin Alg&Boundary Value Probs

Being a 4 credit class, it changes my BCPM gpa quite a bit (down by 0.12). This WAS an engineering class, only taken by engineering students, and I want to list it under engineering so that it only counts toward my overall gpa. But I think it's pretty likely AMCAS will switch it to BCPM.

Does anyone know what happens when AMCAS switches your course classifications? Does the app get delayed? If so by how much? Do the schools see that it was changed or do they just see the final list? I don't want schools to see a big red X next to that class because that would look really shady next to the only class with a C.


Any suggestions? Thanks
 
just b/c a class is taken by engineering students doesn't mean it's an engineering class. my physics for biological science majors is still a physics class and not a biology class.

if amcas has to change course classification, it could delay your app (not by much). i don't think med schools' adcoms see or care if classifications have been changed.
 
How do we know if AMCAS has received any transcripts?

Is there any way to know before you have actually submitted the AMCAS?
 
bozz said:
How do we know if AMCAS has received any transcripts?

Is there any way to know before you have actually submitted the AMCAS?
Click to expand...



On the front page if you click on "details" it will show you which have been received.
 
This question is for any University of California undergraduate.

If you took a Workload class, do you need to enter this in under coursework? It does not show up on your (my) official transcript.

I called AMCAS, and they couldn't answer my question.
 
TheElement said:
It doesn't seem like the AMCAS system allows you to put activities that you're planning on doing this summer. I'll be participating in two programs that would count as clinical experience. Is there any way for me to update my application with this information and submit the form by June 1st?
Click to expand...

They don't let you put anything that begins or ends in the future, I believe. If your shadowing starts in June, though, you can include it since we can't submit until June 4th.

If it starts in July AMCAS will not let you include it... I don't think you can update much of anything except address and things of that nature. You may want to include it on your secondary applications.
 
seriously, there's a reason it starts with MATH. Do yourself a favor and just list it as BCMP, if it says MATH on your transcript, AAMC will change it for you if you do not.
 
seven87 said:
LizzyM...

What if your parents aren't all that interesting? Lets say they both have MBA's and work in business... is it alright to leave it blank or would adding their info be useful?

Also, is it advisable for a white male to leave the race/ethnicity part blank?
Click to expand...

A couple of MBA parents can be very interesting because they're yours! It gives us a bit of a feel for the family you grew up with,

More and more people are leaving the race/ethnicity sections blank. I don't know if it is because they don't feel that any category adquately describes them or they want to avoid "reverse discrimination" . Write it or not, I don't care.
 
LizzyM said:
A couple of MBA parents can be very interesting because they're yours! It gives us a bit of a feel for the family you grew up with,

More and more people are leaving the race/ethnicity sections blank. I don't know if it is because they don't feel that any category adquately describes them or they want to avoid "reverse descrimination" . Write it or not, I don't care.
Click to expand...

I hope nobody on any adcom cares about race enough to discriminate....
 
Schoolsucks said:
For LizzyM:

thank you for your insight. I have a few more questions to go along with this if that i okay. My family income varied through out the years. We went from little or no money to more and more money and I did start working in highschool to help pay for college (about 20% i paid for and 30% i paid for with scholarships). Since it is my call, do you think admissions will frown upon me if i got that call wrong? You think my claim is weak, and if you saw my application, would you not like me because of my weak claim? I do not want to hurt my chances by making wrong calls...
Click to expand...

Were you at a disadvantage as a child because your family was poor or because you lived in a community without adequate health care resources? Some adcom members will be annoyed if you throw a pity party +pity+ because you worked part-time to save for college but always had enough food in the house, and other necessities. There are applicants who were born to teen mothers, whose parents were drug addicts, who have lived in homeless shelters or in the street, who worked with their family members as migrant farm workers, those who worked so that they could buy school clothes for a younger sibling, etc. If you think that you fit in that stack of applications then choose the disadvantaged category.

I don't often see anyone choose disadvantaged for having grown up in a community with no doctors or with insufficient access to health care but that would be reason to apply as "disadvantaged".
 
Do we need to send in all our LORs to the schools that require them through AMCAS? I mean some schools require 2-3 LORs and I'll probably have more than that.

Just to confirm, we can get the LOR in after submission of the primary AMCAS right?
 
quick question:

If on my transcript(or at least the student one they gave me) my courses are written as abbreviations (for example, its says calc/integrtn & Infi) should i write the name exactly like that or in full (so it would be calculus/integration and infinite series). My registrar is dumb so i would appreciate your inpu
 
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