2009-2010 AMCAS Questions Thread

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Ari1584 said:
For the universities attended, i took summer school classes at community college for 2 summers, but i can only enter in one "attended from/attended to" date. I dont want to put 2005-2006, bc it looks like i went there for a whole year. I put down my first summer year june 05-aug 05, but what do i do about the second yr i took classes?
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I think they'll figure that you only went there during the summer when you only list summer classes.

Homoochan said:
noone knows answer for this one?
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Elijah05 said:
AMCAS does not save LORs so you have to resend them.
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You missed your answer. See above.

anxiousteen said:
i go to a school that sends commitee letter packets.
the earliest you can request for them is early august and they send them to schools mid august. does anyone go to a school like mine?

my question is, is there even a point finishing the amcas application super early if they won't receive my recommendations until august? i was planning on doing my amcas by june 15.
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Yes, finish your application early. If you wait until you have your letters to submit, your application will be delayed. Far better to be waiting on one thing and be complete as soon as those letters get in than to be waiting for verification, then essays, then payment, and then the only thing you were missing in the first place.

sshashid87 said:
Sorry if this has been asked before, but does anyone know how to get around the contact info for extracurrics/hobbies? I want to group my clubs in one box, intramurals in anothers, shadowing in another, etc...but, as far as start/end dates and contact names, how do I approach this? Each club has a different person as "director", and some have different start dates....any advice? I am only going to end up using 9-10 boxes/15, but I don't think each shadowing or club warrants its own individual box...
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Lump all your shadowing together, and list the contact information for your first shadowing experience, or an organization that you went through to do your shadowing. How many clubs did you do, though, and of what variety? I mean, my 'clubs' in college were pretty limited, and I was pretty involved in all of them... if you just barely participated in them without any real interest, you might be better off just leaving them off your application; adcoms will ask you about them if they find the ideas interesting.
 
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Should I include outstanding high school achievements? eg: valedictorian (under work/activities) and high SAT I score (under standardized tests taken)
 
BlueElmo said:
word.
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Really? Even for valedictorian?. I understand about SATs; no one cares (BTW, bowlin, did you get a 1600 or 2400?)
That may just show that the dude/girl has always been hardworking/intelligent and will probably remain that way through out?
No?
 
NeuroChaos said:
Really? Even for valedictorian?. I understand about SATs; no one cares (BTW, bowlin, did you get a 1600 or 2400?)
That may just show that the dude/girl has always been hardworking/intelligent and will probably remain that way through out?
No?
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everyone told me stuff in high school stays in high school.
 
does anyone know for sure about this?

for one class i got CR (credit) written in the grade portion, so is it okay to write CR in the grade portion of the amcas app? (i also checked pass/fail under it)

and one more thing...i am considering weather as a natural science and psycholgy as a behavioral science on the apps, right??
 
NeuroChaos said:
Really? Even for valedictorian?. I understand about SATs; no one cares (BTW, bowlin, did you get a 1600 or 2400?)
That may just show that the dude/girl has always been hardworking/intelligent and will probably remain that way through out?
No?
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No. What you did in high school counts for college admissions. Once you're past that, they don't care anymore. Everyone starts on an 'even' playing field once college begins. The only exception is if you started something in high school and continued it throughout college, such as a volunteering gig.

Ari1584 said:
does anyone know for sure about this?

for one class i got CR (credit) written in the grade portion, so is it okay to write CR in the grade portion of the amcas app? (i also checked pass/fail under it)

and one more thing...i am considering weather as a natural science and psycholgy as a behavioral science on the apps, right??
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1) Yes.

2) Sure.
 
I had a student research internship at CDC the summer before I graduated from High school.

Would I be allowed to enter that or should it not be counted because its high school?

Also, the bulk of my volunteer work came during high school. Is it fine to list these medical relevant activities even though they happened during high school.
 
johncalvin said:
Hello,

So I worked in a lab, as a paid undergraduate assistant, for 2 years. After 2 years, I began my own independent senior thesis project.

I was thinking of listing the first 2 years as "Employment - Non/Mil" and then putting my project (ongoing) under "Research/Lab."

The only problem I have from this is that if an adcom takes a quick glance at my EC, s/he will think I only have 1 year of lab/research "experience." This is important for me since I may want to apply to MD/PhD.

Thanks in advance for your reply!
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Anyone?
 
ahs4n said:
I had a student research internship at CDC the summer before I graduated from High school.

Would I be allowed to enter that or should it not be counted because its high school?

Also, the bulk of my volunteer work came during high school. Is it fine to list these medical relevant activities even though they happened during high school.
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I would definitely list the CDC experience. As for the volunteer experience, list the latest (read: college years) dates [i assume you have some, since you said "bulk," but mention that you also logged XXX hours as a high school student.
 
I hope this hasn't already been asked. Is it better to fill this out and submit it sooner rather than later? The only reason I ask is that I'll be abroad for most of the summer (mid June to early August), and I don't really know the timeframe of getting secondaries and sending them in. If I submit my AMCAS now, will I get secondaries while I'm gone, and is that bad?

I'll have access to the internet while I'm abroad if that makes a difference.

Thanks
 
BlueElmo said:
everyone told me stuff in high school stays in high school.
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Correct. being a hs valedvictorian doesn't mean you are top of your class in college. So what is its significance? People can be valedvictorians and be in the middle or bottom of their college class. Your highschool achievements get you into college your college or post highschool achievements get you into medical school. your medical school achievements get you into residency. Simple as that. The only time to put a HS achievement or activity is to establish how it influenced you into doing a similar activity or to show continuinity in the same activity beyond hs.
 
gujuDoc said:
Correct. being a hs valedvictorian doesn't mean you are top of your class in college. So what is its significance? People can be valedvictorians and be in the middle or bottom of their college class. Your highschool achievements get you into college your college or post highschool achievements get you into medical school. your medical school achievements get you into residency. Simple as that. The only time to put a HS achievement or activity is to establish how it influenced you into doing a similar activity or to show continuinity in the same activity beyond hs.
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Got it, thanks. Should I list the scholarships that I got in college (as a result of how well I did in HS)?
 
bowlin123 said:
Got it, thanks. Should I list the scholarships that I got in college (as a result of how well I did in HS)?
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You can lump them under awards but i'd only list the ones that are really selective and not given to like half the state just for maintaining a decent GPA.
 
tidefan said:
I hope this hasn't already been asked. Is it better to fill this out and submit it sooner rather than later? The only reason I ask is that I'll be abroad for most of the summer (mid June to early August), and I don't really know the timeframe of getting secondaries and sending them in. If I submit my AMCAS now, will I get secondaries while I'm gone, and is that bad?

I'll have access to the internet while I'm abroad if that makes a difference.

Thanks
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AMCAS submission is not officially allowed until June 5th. there is no ability to submit it until then because of AAMC rules. So you won't be able to submit even if you are already done with filling it out for another 2 weeks or so.
 
gujuDoc said:
AMCAS submission is not officially allowed until June 5th. there is no ability to submit it until then because of AAMC rules. So you won't be able to submit even if you are already done with filling it out for another 2 weeks or so.
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June 2 is the first day we can submit this year.
 
Cool, thanks for the replies.

So then should I submit in June when it opens up, or should I wait until I'm back in the country?
 
tidefan said:
Cool, thanks for the replies.

So then should I submit in June when it opens up, or should I wait until I'm back in the country?
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I would submit in June and work on your secondaries while you're gone. A lot of them will be sent to you via email, and they'll request your letters through AMCAS, so you should have no problems there. Have somebody check your snail mail at your house while you're gone just in case, and maybe that same person can be in charge of mailing passport photos if schools want them.
 
JimmerJammerMrK said:
I would submit in June and work on your secondaries while you're gone. A lot of them will be sent to you via email, and they'll request your letters through AMCAS, so you should have no problems there. Have somebody check your snail mail at your house while you're gone just in case, and maybe that same person can be in charge of mailing passport photos if schools want them.
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Good deal. Thanks again for the help everyone😎
 
So, we just need to enter courses that would appear anywhere on our transcript right?

Community colelge courses need their own transcripts, and if you took them in high school you would need to label them as "high school"?

You only need to list AP credit for those that you actually got credit for, right? If I got a 5 in AP Calc and my university gave me 0 units, I don't need to list it?

And AP stuff is listed under Freshman fall semester/quarter?

And finally, the order in which you list them on your AMCAS and the order in which the classes are listed on your actual app DO NOT have to be the same, correct?
 
junkct said:
So, we just need to enter courses that would appear anywhere on our transcript right?

Community college courses need their own transcripts, and if you took them in high school you would need to label them as "high school"?

You only need to list AP credit for those that you actually got credit for, right? If I got a 5 in AP Calc and my university gave me 0 units, I don't need to list it?

And AP stuff is listed under Freshman fall semester/quarter?

And finally, the order in which you list them on your AMCAS and the order in which the classes are listed on your actual app DO NOT have to be the same, correct?
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You need to list it if you got a 5 in AP Calc. Most universities list it as 0 credit and don't list a grade for it. you then click the AP credit.

I believe they have a highschool dual enrollment or highschool sorta list for that rather then freshman fall semester.

Any courses taken in highschool: dual enrollment or AP credit need to be listed as highschool courses not freshman fall semester.

You would list dual enrollment courses the semester you took it as is shown by your transcript.

They are going to be comparing your transcript against your AMCAS so it seems logical to put it in the order it appears on your transcripts.
 
junkct said:
You only need to list AP credit for those that you actually got credit for, right? If I got a 5 in AP Calc and my university gave me 0 units, I don't need to list it?
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gujuDoc said:
You need to list it if you got a 5 in AP Calc. Most universities list it as 0 credit and don't list a grade for it. you then click the AP credit.

Any courses taken in highschool: dual enrollment or AP credit need to be listed as highschool courses not freshman fall semester.
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If you were exempt from the class (i.e. you didn't have to take it, but you didn't get credit for it), then you should list it on AMCAS. If your school just didn't honor the score, then you don't have to list it.

And AP credit must be listed as Freshman year, not as High School. Dual enrollment is listed as high school.
 
On my personal statement, if I say my school's name, should I write the whole name out? For example, if I talk about UCLA, should I write "University of California, Los Angeles" or just say UCLA? I know you're not supposed to abbreviate, but that seems excessive. Thanks!
 
Phitenks said:
On my personal statement, if I say my school's name, should I write the whole name out? For example, if I talk about UCLA, should I write "University of California, Los Angeles" or just say UCLA? I know you're not supposed to abbreviate, but that seems excessive. Thanks!
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Just write UCLA. Everyone in the country (world?) knows what you're talking about.
 
Hi,

1. When to send the Transcript? Can it be send before submitting the application to AAMC or I have to send t hem after I submit the application?

2. My school takes online request for transcript to send out, now how the AAMC will attach the transcript to my application? as I can not send the AAMC transcript request letter to college.

3. When I enetr my AP courses: there is no grade to be entered. and I get the following message:
"You have entered one or more courses without grades and/or credit hours. Although these fields are not marked with red asterisks, you may be required to enter this information. Please review the application help and your course work to determine if additional data entry is required. Failure to include required grades and credit hours may result in missed deadlines and lost application fees. Please contact an AMCAS Applicant Relations specialist if you have any questions: (202) 828-0600, [email protected]."

4. I have entered teh courses I am taking next semester. Obviously there is no grades for them For them also I get the above message.
Should I remove the courses, I am taking next semester (Fall 2009)?

Thanks
 
hey everyone

ive inputted my course work twice now (deleted everything, and re-entered), and it still says incomplete; was wondering if anyone else is having the same issue? does it say incomplete until AMCAS gets your transcripts? i thought not, but still confused, thanks!
 
Someone please help:
There's a section that asks what my primary language is,
the thing is, I came from Japan 6 years ago and I speak Japanese at home.
Outside I always speak English (of course).
Should I indicate Japanese as my primary lang. ???
 
Athens said:
Someone please help:
There's a section that asks what my primary language is,
the thing is, I came from Japan 6 years ago and I speak Japanese at home.
Outside I always speak English (of course).
Should I indicate Japanese as my primary lang. ???
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Yes, you should indicate Japanese as your primary language (because it is). Don't forget to select English in the "other languages spoken" section, though!🙂
 
Some quick questions:

1) Another AP question:
So, if on my official transcript, regarding APs, it just shows the 6 different AP tests I got credit for, and then shows that I got 40 units total credit for it. So, according to the instruction booklet, if I understand correctly, I just put the name of the AP test as one of the courses, and then for units, I just do 40/6 which is about 6.66 units per test? Since the units were awarded in a block? Also, if I put that I took AP Calc AB, and got credit for it (just as I mentioned above), then do I still need to put that I was exempted from Math 2A and got 0 units for it (even though it doens't show up at all on my transcript)?

2) For future/current courses. I know that we don't put a grade, and that we check the future/current box on the bottom, but do we still enter the number of units the course is worth?

3) I took a seminar on titled "Chemistry in Film" it was a freshman seminar, and the transcript lists it as university studies, but since it was the science/chemistry in film do I still count it as chemistry?
 
gujuDoc said:
You need to list it if you got a 5 in AP Calc. Most universities list it as 0 credit and don't list a grade for it. you then click the AP credit.

I believe they have a highschool dual enrollment or highschool sorta list for that rather then freshman fall semester.

Any courses taken in highschool: dual enrollment or AP credit need to be listed as highschool courses not freshman fall semester.

You would list dual enrollment courses the semester you took it as is shown by your transcript.

They are going to be comparing your transcript against your AMCAS so it seems logical to put it in the order it appears on your transcripts.
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mvenus929 said:
If you were exempt from the class (i.e. you didn't have to take it, but you didn't get credit for it), then you should list it on AMCAS. If your school just didn't honor the score, then you don't have to list it.

And AP credit must be listed as Freshman year, not as High School. Dual enrollment is listed as high school.
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So these two views differ a little bit. I guess it's clear that dual enrollment courses should be listed as high school.

As far as AP goes, it's not clear whether to list as High School or Fall Quarter Freshman Year... is there like an official place we can ask questions (or maybe call AMCAS?).. honestly, I'm still in school and haven't gotten too much of a chance to really peruse the website, but I would assume there's an official phone number to call and ask questions. If not, wouldn't AMCAS be pretty lenient since it's not clear-cut? Also, I've been told that if you input something incorrectly AMCAS will go in and fix it for you (e.g. if you list a course for your science GPA and AMCAS doesn't agree, then they will change it). Wouldn't they do this for our apps?
 
Hey guys sorry if this information is available elsewhere, but for the LOR section of the AMCAS application I thought that LORs go with the secondary application not the primary. Can anyone clarify this, and I am using interfolio so I'm not sure I can upload LORs to the AMCAS application. Any help is appreciated, you may also PM me links and such if you like. Thanks!
 
I have a few questions, please help =)

1) So I sent the AMCAS transcript request to my school's office, will I get confirmation when it's received and done? Everything is in their hands now I guess?

2) For entering course work info, do I need to enter my future courses as well? I'm a third year going into fourth, but it's too early in the summer for course registration, so I only have a vague idea of what I'll be taking.

3) I want to send my application out early. June 2 is the earliest, but what about reference letters? Should I concentrate on getting my stuff out by early June, and give my letter writers a different deadline (around July)?.

Thanks!
 
DaveCopperfield said:
hey everyone

ive inputted my course work twice now (deleted everything, and re-entered), and it still says incomplete; was wondering if anyone else is having the same issue? does it say incomplete until AMCAS gets your transcripts? i thought not, but still confused, thanks!
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Did you click 'Done' at the bottom of the page when you finished entering in your courses? Did you do that for all your schools? Then you should have that section completed.

junkct said:
So these two views differ a little bit. I guess it's clear that dual enrollment courses should be listed as high school.

As far as AP goes, it's not clear whether to list as High School or Fall Quarter Freshman Year... is there like an official place we can ask questions (or maybe call AMCAS?).. honestly, I'm still in school and haven't gotten too much of a chance to really peruse the website, but I would assume there's an official phone number to call and ask questions. If not, wouldn't AMCAS be pretty lenient since it's not clear-cut? Also, I've been told that if you input something incorrectly AMCAS will go in and fix it for you (e.g. if you list a course for your science GPA and AMCAS doesn't agree, then they will change it). Wouldn't they do this for our apps?
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See page 49 of the PDF below (page 41 of the booklet):

http://www.aamc.org/students/amcas/amcas2010instructions041509.pdf

Dual enrollment courses are entered in as high school. Assign freshman status to AP, CLEP, and exempt courses earned when you first entered college.

hpehlivan said:
Hey guys sorry if this information is available elsewhere, but for the LOR section of the AMCAS application I thought that LORs go with the secondary application not the primary. Can anyone clarify this, and I am using interfolio so I'm not sure I can upload LORs to the AMCAS application. Any help is appreciated, you may also PM me links and such if you like. Thanks!
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In AMCAS, list the letters you have with all their information. In Interfolio, make a delivery to AMCAS, and input the letter IDs when asked.

The letters do go to the schools with the secondary (so you don't need them when you submit your primary), but most schools are going through the AMCAS letter service, so they can automatically download the letters once they receive the rest of your secondary.
 
Eurekaa said:
I have a few questions, please help =)

1) So I sent the AMCAS transcript request to my school's office, will I get confirmation when it's received and done? Everything is in their hands now I guess?

2) For entering course work info, do I need to enter my future courses as well? I'm a third year going into fourth, but it's too early in the summer for course registration, so I only have a vague idea of what I'll be taking.

3) I want to send my application out early. June 2 is the earliest, but what about reference letters? Should I concentrate on getting my stuff out by early June, and give my letter writers a different deadline (around July)?.

Thanks!
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1) I dont know what your school does but AMCAS sends an email when they recieve your transcripts.

2) Yes as a junior you should

3) You should tell your LOR writers its needs to be done preferably by the beginning to middle of june which gives them a good month. You want to get your letters ASAP as if you apply june 2nd, your first secondaries are going to be with you around june 24th or so. Often times letter writers NEVER make the deadline. I told my LOR writers to have them ready by may 1st (that gave them about 2 months time) and they still arent done...ive got 1/4 of my letters...
 
Are you guys putting all your shadowing in one entry? I have shadowed like 4 different docs, and 1 entry seems like it would be too crammed, but taking up 4 entries also seems like a lot.
 
LaCasta said:
Are you guys putting all your shadowing in one entry? I have shadowed like 4 different docs, and 1 entry seems like it would be too crammed, but taking up 4 entries also seems like a lot.
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I put it all in one area as they were all docs in a similar specialty. If you want to seperate them then you can, but unless they are all some long term different experience maybe you can group them? Shouldnt be too hard.
 
LaCasta said:
Are you guys putting all your shadowing in one entry? I have shadowed like 4 different docs, and 1 entry seems like it would be too crammed, but taking up 4 entries also seems like a lot.
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I have 3 and I separated them out.
 
Am I correct in thinking that you can fill out your AMCAS right now but cannot submit it. Is that right?

How do I sign up for it?
 
Yay. Both transcripts have officially been "Received".

Now onto the MCAT Friday.
Then my PS for the remainder of the month.
 
gator13doc said:
do you know what day your transcripts were sent on?
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I sent out the transcript request form along with an index card with my credit card information to the two institutions I have attended probably on May 12th-ish. I was "Received" for my main institution really fast (the 14th) and was early today for my second institution (community college for a few summer classes/online classes/etc).
 
Question question:
should I enter a course that I had withdrawn with a "W" on transcript ???
 
For work/activities:
I helped out at my parents grocery store/fast food place for over 5 years taking orders, waiting tables, ringing people up at the cash register, etc....and then for the past 3 years to now I still help out at their movie theater sometimes too.

Could I combine these two and include them in my activities? Or would it look bad because some of it is still in high school, and because it's my parents' own business? I just thought it might be helpful to include because I learned a lot of skills helping them out...however, I'm not sure if it looks bad because it wasn't a paid position. Thanks in advance.

Also...does anyone know the answers to my question up-thread?
 
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