2008-2009 AMCAS Questions Thread

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TupacalipseT96 said:
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
Click to expand...

List it if you'd be willing to be interviewed in that language. That's my best advice.
 
Are we supposed to enter in courses that we are taking for Fall 08? Or just classes that we have already taken?
 
For the course classification, are we supposed to enter in courses that we are taking for Fall 08? Or just classes that we have already taken?
 
AbujaMan said:
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
Click to expand...

I have the same question if someone would be so kind.
 
CyanideDN said:
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?
Click to expand...

you can select which letters you want to send to each school in the LOE section of the application. so, you should get all your letters into AMCAS that you plan to use and pick and choose for each school.

yes, you can turn in your LORs after submission, but I think you need to choose which letters you will be sending to each school prior to submission- to do this, you can input info for each LOR writer into the LOE section and when choosing letters for each school, you just check off those writers. It will be clear when you get to that section of the application
 
elterible said:
For the course classification, are we supposed to enter in courses that we are taking for Fall 08? Or just classes that we have already taken?
Click to expand...

You mean Fall 09 right? I have basically the same question too.

Should we indicate the courses we are planning to take for the next school year?
 
COdoubleMO2theN said:
you can select which letters you want to send to each school in the LOE section of the application. so, you should get all your letters into AMCAS that you plan to use and pick and choose for each school.

yes, you can turn in your LORs after submission, but I think you need to choose which letters you will be sending to each school prior to submission- to do this, you can input info for each LOR writer into the LOE section and when choosing letters for each school, you just check off those writers. It will be clear when you get to that section of the application
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info, COdoubleMO2theN. You're saying we have to indicate which letters will go to each school prior to submission of the primary app? Don't the schools have different LOR requirements...and don't we get that information from the secondaries?
 
This may be a stupid question, but for dates of enrollment in an institution did you all put your end date as your graduation month (05/2009 for most of us)?

Also, just for reference what exactly defines a credit hour?
 
CyanideDN said:
You mean Fall 09 right? I have basically the same question too.

Should we indicate the courses we are planning to take for the next school year?
Click to expand...

No if they get in, they'll be in med school in fall 09. I'm pretty sure they meant fall 08.
 
how do you know it was accepted as a science GPA course?
I took psych research methods as well. So do I classify it as 'math'?

I also took the second semester of research methods as my second writing requirement. I am going to get a letter from the English dept recognizing this class as an approved writing course. Do I classify it as engish even though its labeled PSYC
 
CyanideDN said:
Thanks for the info, COdoubleMO2theN. You're saying we have to indicate which letters will go to each school prior to submission of the primary app? Don't the schools have different LOR requirements...and don't we get that information from the secondaries?
Click to expand...

Yes, you need to assign the letters to each school before submission. if you go to the help page and look at the LOE tab, they list the participating schools and their LOR requirements
 
what do you write in 1325 characters? what do they want? i'm just wrote something like: "i was a tutor in this subject, that subject blahblahbalbh". do they want me to write what i learned from this experience?
 
Looks like of the 5 schools I'm applying to that are on that list, Carver at Iowa requires submission via AMCAS. Everyone else seems to accept mail/VirtualEvals/Interfolio.

This would be a pain in the *** because I have already gotten my letters written, and it seems as if each letter of the composite committee letter will require its own form. It seems like a terrible pain in the *** to go to my letter writers and ask them to submit again.
 
It won't delay you a lot, and you will be able to see on the verified application if a change was made, but not what was changed.
 
COdoubleMO2theN said:
Yes, you need to assign the letters to each school before submission. if you go to the help page and look at the LOE tab, they list the participating schools and their LOR requirements
Click to expand...

Wow submitting the LORs through AMCAS is going to be such a pain. I'll have to track down each individual author and ask for their information (email, phone, address..etc).

My other problem is that 2-3 of the writers won't be finished with my LORs until mid to late June. I read the help section on the AMCAS on LOR and it said that I'll need to designate the writers to the schools prior to submission. So technically, I can still send off my primary in early June without my LORs being received by the AMCAS like you said. However, will not having my LORs in by mid June delay my primary verification or is the verification process independent of the LORs?
 
This LOE thing is the dumbest thing AMCAS has come up with for a while....If they are gonna do **** like this they need to make it universal not like 10 schools.
 
You can list multiple authors to a letter. I'm doing this for my committee evaluation. I only provided information for the primary writer, the director of pre-professional advising.

Is this legit?
 
this is such a pain in the ***....I had everything set up perfect...and then AMCAs goes and ****s it up.
 
I'm not too happy about this. We have to track down our letter writers and ask them for their home addresses? Why do they need that? It isn't like an AMCAS rep is going to fly down and knock on my chemistry professor's door to have a chat over tea. What happens if I can't reach a professor until August? We're done with finals and spring session is over. At least one of my letter writers doesn't teach over the summer. I sure wish we knew about this new requirement back in January.
 
So....if we are using interfolio...what do we do??? do they still require this letterhead???
 
Wow, I'm sorry you guys applying this year have to go through all this. That's pretty ridiculous.
 
peef said:
what do you write in 1325 characters? what do they want? i'm just wrote something like: "i was a tutor in this subject, that subject blahblahbalbh". do they want me to write what i learned from this experience?
Click to expand...

You'll need far less than 1325 characters for most experinces. For things like citing publishd papers with several authors and long titles an applicant might use the maximum.
 
And what about if we are having a committee letter submitted with a packet of our other letters? Will we just need to click on the "Committee Letter/Letter Packet" or are we going to have to list each individual letter included in the packet individually?

This is a really stupid idea - there are already two extremely successful and robust companies that do this (Interfolio and VirtualEvals) - AMCAS just wants another reason to charge us a buttload of money for an electronic application.
 
VirtualEvals (VE): VE is available to members of the National Association of Advisors for the Health Professions (NAAHP). If you are
a VE user, make note of the requesting student's AAMC ID and AMCAS Letter ID included above and upload your letter(s) to VE.​
•​
AMCAS Letter Writer Application: This application enables letter writers to upload documents securely to AMCAS rather than send
letters via the mail. If you are interested in this option, and can upload a PDF version of your letter, make note of the requesting
applicant's AAMC ID and AMCAS Letter ID included above and go to​
​
(URL anticipated to be available in late fall)​

•​
Interfolio: AMCAS can receive letters sent to Interfolio if the student requesting this letter is an Interfolio user or your
institution/organization uses Interfolio to deliver letters of evaluation/recommendation.​
•​
• Mail your letter: If you select this option, please attach this form to your letter(s) and mail


this is what the letters says....so if we use interfolio or VE...then all they have to do is list our AMCAS Id and the AMCAS letter ID on the actualy LOR????

Or am I missing something?
 
ChubbyChaser,

My school uses VirtualEval and I sent my pre-med advisor a question about this today (he's usually pretty on top of things like this). I'll let you guys know when I get a response.
 
This is going to hold up my application. You can't upload files until the late fall so its better to just snail mail them. Well, atleast AMCAS is in DC and I'm in Philly. Maybe I should have my LORs personally drive to DC? :meanie:
 
chad5871 said:
ChubbyChaser,

My school uses VirtualEval and I sent my pre-med advisor a question about this today (he's usually pretty on top of things like this). I'll let you guys know when I get a response.
Click to expand...
Sadly I already had 3 of my LOR writers upload them to interfolio weeks ago...I dont want them to have to submit again




but thanks!
 
ahaydt said:
This is going to hold up my application. You can't upload files until the late fall so its better to just snail mail them. Well, atleast AMCAS is in DC and I'm in Philly. Maybe I should have my LORs personally drive to DC? :meanie:
Click to expand...
srsly??? i didnt see that!!!

Good thing most of my schools dont use AMCAs...only BU, Penn, Temple and Iowa
 
From what I've seen reported around the forum, you can pretty much classify the courses as whatever you want and AMCAS may or may not change it (of course they'll change it if it's completely way out in left field), so I wouldn't stress too much about it. For example I took "Forensic Microscopy" this semester which basically deals with lenses and light, so I classified it as "Physics" on the transcript, even though it's taught in the Forensic Science department. Will they change it to something else? Maybe, but I just picked what I felt the content of each class should truly be classified as. Also from what I've seen the delay involved is minimal to nonexistent, which makes sense if you think about it. Since the application reviewer has to manually check the transcript against the user-submitted info anyway, it should theoretically take only a few seconds more to make a few clicks and change a course classification.
 
ChubbyChaser said:
VirtualEvals (VE): VE is available to members of the National Association of Advisors for the Health Professions (NAAHP). If you are
a VE user, make note of the requesting student's AAMC ID and AMCAS Letter ID included above and upload your letter(s) to VE.​
•​
AMCAS Letter Writer Application: This application enables letter writers to upload documents securely to AMCAS rather than send
letters via the mail. If you are interested in this option, and can upload a PDF version of your letter, make note of the requesting
applicant's AAMC ID and AMCAS Letter ID included above and go to​
(URL anticipated to be available in late fall)​
•​
Interfolio: AMCAS can receive letters sent to Interfolio if the student requesting this letter is an Interfolio user or your
institution/organization uses Interfolio to deliver letters of evaluation/recommendation.​
•​
• Mail your letter: If you select this option, please attach this form to your letter(s) and mail


this is what the letters says....so if we use interfolio or VE...then all they have to do is list our AMCAS Id and the AMCAS letter ID on the actualy LOR????

Or am I missing something?
Click to expand...

Wonderful... so now I have to go back to the authors of my previous LORs and ask them to resubmit my LORs w/ my AMCAS ID? Well, I got nothing better to do tomorrow but to call AMCAS and ask for clarifications. If not, I can cross those 5 schools on my list that participate in the AMCAS LOE Service.
 
I posted this as a seperate thread but I realized that it should have went here:

I was selected as the Student Leader of the Month at my Univerisity and I wanna put it on my app but I'm afraid that it just seems kinda corny? Any thoughts?

Also, I worked in a lab for about a year where I did my own Research project but I also assisted a P.HD student with 2 additional projects. Should I put all 3 of these as one activity and describe all 3 in the description? Or should I cite all of them seperately as 3 seperate experiences. The latter seems as if it would seem like I did more.

Lastly, I have seen many people considering putting bullets in there description section. Can anyone help me out on how to format that?
 

AMCAS Letter Writer Application: This application enables letter writers to upload documents securely to AMCAS rather than send
letters via the mail. If you are interested in this option, and can upload a PDF version of your letter, make note of the requesting
applicant's AAMC ID and AMCAS Letter ID included above and go to
(URL anticipated to be available in late fall)​
 
After we submit our applications come June 4th and everything is verified, can we see the changes amcas made to our classes or will htey just give me a bcmp gpa and overall gpa. I am loosing sleep over whether or not they are going to change my engineering classes like wastewater microbiology and water chemistry to bcmp even though I took them through engineering and their content was more technical than scientific. Heck.. I even did some modleing for those classes... that is NOT chemistry.
 
Fp02c said:
After we submit our applications come June 4th and everything is verified, can we see the changes amcas made to our classes or will htey just give me a bcmp gpa and overall gpa. I am loosing sleep over whether or not they are going to change my engineering classes like wastewater microbiology and water chemistry to bcmp even though I took them through engineering and their content was more technical than scientific. Heck.. I even did some modleing for those classes... that is NOT chemistry.
Click to expand...

You can petition what they mark stuff down as, it will just delay your app a slight bit.

*Remember, apps don't get sent out until around June 21st, so don't get your panties in a bunch.*
 
http://www.aamc.org/students/amcas/faq/amcasletters.htm

This explains it. You can send your Interfolio letters to AMCAS.

As far as address goes, you can probably use their school mailing address. No big deal

ChubbyChaser said:
VirtualEvals (VE): VE is available to members of the National Association of Advisors for the Health Professions (NAAHP). If you are
a VE user, make note of the requesting student's AAMC ID and AMCAS Letter ID included above and upload your letter(s) to VE.​
•​
AMCAS Letter Writer Application: This application enables letter writers to upload documents securely to AMCAS rather than send
letters via the mail. If you are interested in this option, and can upload a PDF version of your letter, make note of the requesting
applicant's AAMC ID and AMCAS Letter ID included above and go to​
​
(URL anticipated to be available in late fall)​

•​
Interfolio: AMCAS can receive letters sent to Interfolio if the student requesting this letter is an Interfolio user or your
institution/organization uses Interfolio to deliver letters of evaluation/recommendation.​
•​
• Mail your letter: If you select this option, please attach this form to your letter(s) and mail


this is what the letters says....so if we use interfolio or VE...then all they have to do is list our AMCAS Id and the AMCAS letter ID on the actualy LOR????

Or am I missing something?
Click to expand...
 
So we cant submit our applications to get verfied until june 4th correct?
 
ejay286 said:
I posted this as a seperate thread but I realized that it should have went here:

I was selected as the Student Leader of the Month at my Univerisity and I wanna put it on my app but I'm afraid that it just seems kinda corny? Any thoughts?

Also, I worked in a lab for about a year where I did my own Research project but I also assisted a P.HD student with 2 additional projects. Should I put all 3 of these as one activity and describe all 3 in the description? Or should I cite all of them seperately as 3 seperate experiences. The latter seems as if it would seem like I did more.

Lastly, I have seen many people considering putting bullets in there description section. Can anyone help me out on how to format that?
Click to expand...
What the hell is student leader of the month......is that like student of the month in elementary school??? Dont put that unless you are seriously lacking in ECs...as far as the next question. Its your choice, if you have room go ahead and list the 3 separately.
 
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