2008 Non-Trad Applicants' Progress Thread

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My AMCAS was riddled with X's when I got it back. I have no idea what the problem was. Don't worry, though, the med schools don't care how good you are at following AMCAS's grade-entry instructions.
 
I am satisfied with the AMCAS calculated GPA's so I guess I'll let it slide.🙂
 
OK AACOMAS says I'm verified with them since I have my GPA posted and they'll be sending my app out this week or next. Cool.

C'mon AMCAS! Keep up!
 
Waywoe said:
SHENANIGANS!!!

But seriously, AMCAS verified me in less than a week after I submitted but I have a few X's to deal with and I can't bring up the page on their website concerning what this means and what I have to do about it. I think my reviewer was taking something. They accepted one economics class as BESS and then gave me a big, fat X for the economics class immediately below it that was also classified as BESS. I know that the grade and hours I entered are correct.
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It might have been the way you allotted classes to each semester. They have silly guidelines for maximum credits you can have and still be a freshman/sophomore/etc. So, sometimes they change the designation you put down about your year in school. I.e., you may have listed that as a Junior year class, but they may have decided that you were already a senior by that point. Or perhaps that's not what happened with your app. But that's definitely why I have a ton of red Xs next to mine. I've heard the red Xs don't matter, so don't sweat it.
 
I figured out why I got a few of the red X's. Apparently AMCAS doesn't allow half credits even though I have classes worth 1.5, 2.5, and 3.5 credits listed on my transcript. No big deal. Another class technically is a health professions class and they reclassified it as biology. Since I got an A in that one, I will not argue. What I do object to is a class I classified as Agriculture/Animal Science (or whatever that AMCAS category is) and because of the way it was abbrieviated on my transcript, they put it as business. Should I try to reclassify it or will any adcom just not care?
 
Waywoe said:
What I do object to is a class I classified as Agriculture/Animal Science (or whatever that AMCAS category is) and because of the way it was abbrieviated on my transcript, they put it as business. Should I try to reclassify it or will any adcom just not care?
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Besides getting BCPM correct, the things I would be worried about are humanities and social sciences. Some schools have requirements on how many credits you need in those subjects. I can't imagine why business versus ag would register on their radar.
 
I'm still surprised that my Linguistics classes were corrected (since they were carried over from my corrected AMCAS primary from last cycle).

Still no update from AACOMAS, and still no secondaries. BAH!

rje0075l.jpg
 
Quix said:
I'm still surprised that my Linguistics classes were corrected (since they were carried over from my corrected AMCAS primary from last cycle).

Still no update from AACOMAS, and still no secondaries. BAH!

rje0075l.jpg
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Quix,

I just wanted to write that I'm rooting for ya this year! I know that you are going to get in somewhere.

Good luck with the process.
 
Still no love from AMCAS for me either, but I'm verified and my app. mailed at AACOMAS.

From what I hear about AMCAS, methinks they might be scrutinizing some of the course classifications I had. For my speech therapy degree I had several anatomy courses and such so maybe they're trying to appropriate courses around. Who knows! All I know is no word yet.
 
Scratch that last comment - I'm verified now at AMCAS! w00t!!!!!!!
 
New question now - how long did it take for you verified peeps to receive the unscreened secondaries???
 
sehnsucht said:
i am STILL under review...i am hoping i will be verified by the end of the week🙁
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When it happens, it's like the clouds part and a chorus of angels sing for you! 😀
 
hiya!!

I don't know what's taking so long...my application was submitted on the same day at both sites AMCAS and AACOMAS.... and I had my school send my transcripts out the same day to both AACOMAS and AMCAS...however..AACOMAS posted that they received them on 6/21...AMCAS...still waiting for transcripts...should I resend my transcripts to AMCAS or do you think this will delay my processing even further??
 
I am in the exact same situation, same date and everything, and I was freaking out getting ready to call my school to make sure they sent out two transcripts and not just one! Seeing that you have a delay makes me think that we should both just relax and acknowledge that AMCAS is slow as heck. I'm hoping that they will clear me for verification by Monday. We'll see though.

dancinRN1022 said:
hiya!!

I don't know what's taking so long...my application was submitted on the same day at both sites AMCAS and AACOMAS.... and I had my school send my transcripts out the same day to both AACOMAS and AMCAS...however..AACOMAS posted that they received them on 6/21...AMCAS...still waiting for transcripts...should I resend my transcripts to AMCAS or do you think this will delay my processing even further??
Click to expand...
 
GoSouthernGo said:
When it happens, it's like the clouds part and a chorus of angels sing for you! 😀
Click to expand...

I'll bet! I am hoping I end the day tomorrow with a verified AMCAS application. The peeps at AAMC received (and verified) my last transcript on June 13th while everything else got to DC in May! I submitted my AMCAS early too-within days of it going live on the 5th. Come on AAMC, show me tha monneeeeeeeeeeeeyyyyyyyy....
 
Quix said:
And Jefferson is first to respond! The secondary season has finally begun for me. w00t!
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Congrats on starting your season!

Of course the bad news is that after submitting my secondary to Jefferson last year .... I never heard from them again. 🙁 Maybe they're still considering me for an interview :idea: Ah well. They did cash my check though, so that was nice 😀
 
dancinRN1022 said:
hiya!!

I don't know what's taking so long...my application was submitted on the same day at both sites AMCAS and AACOMAS.... and I had my school send my transcripts out the same day to both AACOMAS and AMCAS...however..AACOMAS posted that they received them on 6/21...AMCAS...still waiting for transcripts...should I resend my transcripts to AMCAS or do you think this will delay my processing even further??
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Update. Just spoke to AMCAS and they said they are reviewing transcripts they received on June 21st today. They say that it can take up to 10 days from their receipt of a transcript until they post online that it has been received. If yours isn't posted as received in 7 days, you should contact the registrar and have them resend it.
 
Sweeeeeet. Pitt for me too. Looks like a fun weekend.
 
I'm dithering a bit on some of the questions (like the moral dilemma one) - the answers I gave last cycle are still the best I can think of (i.e., nothing more dramatic has happened since then).
 
pingouin said:
Am at work.. just got Pitt, Tulane, and Cincinnati.

Looks to be a fun weekend for me. I think my computer and I have an official date now. 🙄
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I'm right there with you - I have Jefferson and Pitt, and have to research a clinician in preparation for next week's interview. That and research ethics standards for an article I'm writing with my research head.

This is Saturday; Sunday is data collection in the ICU, and phase II of the shed construction.
 
the heavens have opened for me....i've just been verified. I fired off an Academic Change request though...they left out some science post-bacc courses which carry science credit. I want to get all of my work properly accounted for...anyone have an idea how long an academic change will take to fulfill?
 
Quix said:
I'm dithering a bit on some of the questions (like the moral dilemma one) - the answers I gave last cycle are still the best I can think of (i.e., nothing more dramatic has happened since then).
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:idea: I don't know that the most dramatic situations make for the best moral dilemmas, Quix - maybe finding the moral dilemmas in more everyday-type situations would show Pitt that you look for the moral aspects of a situation rather than waiting for a dilemma to make things difficult. Or choosing a moral dilemma that you're not sure you made the right decision about... Just ideas, anyway - Good Luck!! 🙂
 
Not dramatic in the sense of melodrama, but in the sense of personal impact. I wrote about a patient I encountered while doing my clinical rotations for my Ph.D. At the time, I thought that the recommendations we gave were fine. The patient was allowed to die because of our original recommendations, but as I was researching my dissertation, I became less and less convinced that we had done the right thing.
 
So far I've got Ohio State, MCW and Cincinnati. Banged those out last night and ready for more!

6 more days til MCAT scores come back! 😱
 
phoenix1 said:
It might have been the way you allotted classes to each semester. They have silly guidelines for maximum credits you can have and still be a freshman/sophomore/etc. So, sometimes they change the designation you put down about your year in school. I.e., you may have listed that as a Junior year class, but they may have decided that you were already a senior by that point. Or perhaps that's not what happened with your app. But that's definitely why I have a ton of red Xs next to mine. I've heard the red Xs don't matter, so don't sweat it.
Click to expand...

so the X's merely designate that corrections were made, right? for a while there I though it meant they did not include it in the computation of your GPA:-0
 
I'm having a hard time with Pitt's second essay question (Diversity).

It's hard to expand "Unlike most of the starry-eyed applicants, I know how much it currently sucks to practice medicine in the United States but I still want to do it" to 250 words. 😉

I was thinking about addressing some of these: Age, clinical experience, education, experience teaching doctors. On the other hand, my ethics essay was 247 words on the first draft. 🙂
 
I think Pitt's next up for me.. have finished 3 already today. (Well, one's done except they want a copy of my entire AMCAS application and seeing as how I'm working tomorrow and printing it there= free paper... *looks off to the side and whistles* )

Having worked as a case manager in managed care, there's my ethical/moral issue. No, not "How do I still live with myself", but finding a specific case.. 🙄

I suppose clinical background will be my diversity cry. 10 years of working across all age groups, ethnic groups, racial groups, and socioeconomic strata? Works for me..
 
pingouin said:
I think Pitt's next up for me.. have finished 3 already today. (Well, one's done except they want a copy of my entire AMCAS application and seeing as how I'm working tomorrow and printing it there= free paper... *looks off to the side and whistles* )

Having worked as a case manager in managed care, there's my ethical/moral issue. No, not "How do I still live with myself", but finding a specific case.. 🙄

I suppose clinical background will be my diversity cry. 10 years of working across all age groups, ethnic groups, racial groups, and socioeconomic strata? Works for me..
Click to expand...

Wooo..you people are really cranking out the secondaries. I just got verified yesterday so I hope I can step on the gas and really get cooking when I get my secondaries. I already finished the secondaries that I have access to: GW and UW-Madison's MD/PhD secondaries.
 
Quix said:
I'm having a hard time with Pitt's second essay question (Diversity).

It's hard to expand "Unlike most of the starry-eyed applicants, I know how much it currently sucks to practice medicine in the United States but I still want to do it" to 250 words. 😉

I was thinking about addressing some of these: Age, clinical experience, education, experience teaching doctors. On the other hand, my ethics essay was 247 words on the first draft. 🙂
Click to expand...

These diversity essays should be easy for us non-trads. I think they just want to see that you're more than a bookworm with good numbers. It's hard to be out of school any any period of time and not do something interesting. I'm going to talk about putting my wife through college and raising my daughter. I think you're in good shape with anything that you can claim gives you a different perspective.
 
Oh, it's not posing that much of a problem. I have it up to 185 so far, and I'll be tweaking it before submitting.
 
My least favorite essay so far is JHU's question:
When have you not been the majority?
For a middle class white guy, it is tough to answer this question without sounding completely contrived.
 
pingouin said:
I think Pitt's next up for me.. have finished 3 already today. (Well, one's done except they want a copy of my entire AMCAS application and seeing as how I'm working tomorrow and printing it there= free paper... *looks off to the side and whistles* )

Having worked as a case manager in managed care, there's my ethical/moral issue. No, not "How do I still live with myself", but finding a specific case.. 🙄

I suppose clinical background will be my diversity cry. 10 years of working across all age groups, ethnic groups, racial groups, and socioeconomic strata? Works for me..
Click to expand...

Good one :laugh:

I know one of the essays I had was about altruism - definitely pulled the speech-language pathology card on that one.
 
I completed the secondary for MUSC today. I will have my LORs submitted on monday by Interfolio and I am done!
 
Just got Georgetown's secondary. One essay. 🙂

Paid Pitt's secondary fee over the weekend - I'll be sending them my committee letter today. Knock on wood, this secondary will be done today/tomorrow. 🙂
 
Just got my first secondary in! It is from NJMS.

Here is something interesting. AMCAS is still waiting to receive one of my transcripts (I know they got it last week, but they still have to say so). Looks like some schools will just send out the secondary even before your amcas is complete! I thought they waiting for verification to be complete, but it doesn't look that way.
 
sehnsucht said:
the heavens have opened for me....i've just been verified. I fired off an Academic Change request though...they left out some science post-bacc courses which carry science credit. I want to get all of my work properly accounted for...anyone have an idea how long an academic change will take to fulfill?
Click to expand...


someone posted that it is running about ten days. I have the exact same problem, they have a BLANK on my graduate science GPA, and I haad 20 credits or so of some pretty tricky bio classes. Anyway, I filed for a change early last week and I haven't heard a peep, not even a "we are looking into it" e-mail. Cross your fingers!
 
Somehow my AMCAS app did not record that I took the MCAT on May 31. I keep getting e-mails from schools saying that my app has been received but will not be reviewed for secondary until I either note when I am taking the MCAT or they receive my scores. 🙄

Luckily I'm getting my scores on Friday (God help me) so I'll have to wait until next week for more secondaries to come in.

My beloved SIU sent me an e-mail telling me they need my MCAT scores and warned that only 1 in 3 get a secondary. 🙁
 
i just got an e-mail from Pitt saying the save glitch was fixed.
 
Yeah, we should be good to go with Pitt. I just paid the fee for my committee letter to be sent, so all I have to do is finish the tweaks on my secondary app and I can have it in tonight. Then, the waiting game begins...

EDIT:

Done and done. They just need to receive my LOR's. Yee-hah.
 
zipmedic said:
They'll send you one. They screen so there are more in-state than OOS.
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😀 They're my #1 (can't you tell?????) and I would be devastated to be rejected pre-secondary by them at this point 🙁

On another note- got Pritzker's secondary today and working on essay #1. I'll probably have that done in a little while and on to essay 2. They're not bad.
 
w00tt!!!!!!!!1!11!1!!!1one!!!!!

I got the email from AMCAS this morning that I am officially verified. Literally one week after submission almost to the hour. Three secondaries received so far, all three to ne completed by Wednesday (I hope)
 
Well....I've gotten GW and Jefferson on the MD side. Both are completed and returned (actually within a business day of receiving both!) Just waiting for my advisor to write my committee letter and post it!

Also got my first oseteopathic secondary today. PCOM, which happens to be my top-choice on thes osteo side. (Just don't ask me to tell you my top choice on the MD side or to rank the osteos vs. MDs!!)

Nate.
 
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