2009-2010 AMCAS Questions Thread

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So, I've looked through the AMCAS manual but I'm still unsure on how to list this in the Course work section.

I took an AP exam and got credit for an english course. My ACT scores were also high enough to get credit for the same english course.

Of course my university wasn't going to give twice the credit for the exact same course.

So on my transcript, they listed the AP exam as "Pass", but also as "RPT" (Repeated) so that no credit would be applied. They listed the advanced standing credit from the ACT scores as a "Pass" and gave me credit.

I think that the AMCAS manual states that I should not list AP exams if credit was not given, but I figured that if it shows up on my transcript that I need to make note of it otherwise they might ask questions about it.

So, my question comes in how I should document the course. Should I document it as "Exempt" , which doesn't allow me to check the "Repeat" box? Or list it as something else?
 
aquariuscharm said:
AMCAS instructions for study abroad...

Study Abroad Course Work

Courses attempted through a study abroad program sponsored by a U.S. or Canadian institution must be entered.

I assume this means an affiliated study abroad program, which is what I did. The credits I earned at the foreign institution were transferred to my university and are listed on my transcript. As far as tuition goes, I'm sure a portion of the program fees I paid went toward that.

·Include the foreign institution and the sponsoring U.S. or Canadian institution in your list of colleges attended.

As you can see, the foreign school where I earned credit needs to be listed. For my application, it was listed as an "other school" in the general college form you fill out. This general form has the "other options" section with the confusing statement posted previously. I'm not sure if it applies to the foreign school (Universidad de Guadalajara), which is clearly not a U.S. college... and what does AMCAS mean by "... not affiliated with a foreign school" ?


·List study abroad course work under the foreign college at which it was attempted and as it appears on the sponsoring US or Canadian institution's transcript.
·If the sponsoring U.S. or Canadian institution provides letter grades (e.g., A, B, C, etc.) and credit hours convertible to semester hours for each course on their transcript or on an official letter attached to their transcript:
·Enter all required course data.
·AMCAS will include this course work in AMCAS GPAs.
Click to expand...

Yes, your case is very simple, or simpler than what I thought you were describing. List the foreign school and show the classes under it, check the box for a transcript exception (no need for the transcript from the foreign school), and pick the corresponding bubble...
 
The Use of I, Me, My...

I dont know if this is the appropriate thread for this, but im drafting my personal statement, and I've used the word I 27 times, the word my 17 times, and the word me 11 times... is that too many!?
 
ised187 said:
The Use of I, Me, My...

I dont know if this is the appropriate thread for this, but im drafting my personal statement, and I've used the word I 27 times, the word my 17 times, and the word me 11 times... is that too many!?
Click to expand...

Yes. The reader knows that it is about "you" so you do not need to constantly remind them.

It is distracting to a reader, and poor form, to make constant reference to the first person.
 
don't need to convert, amcas will do it for you based on info that your school gives them
Click to expand...

That's nice, so even though the entry box says "Credit Hours", I can enter in course credits, which will result in seemingly few credits at the end? And if I have credit hours from a second (community) college, I can enter in their form of credit hours without mention of the scale being different from my home institution?

Does an actual human being go through these courses after I submit to calculate my final AMCAS GPA?

Thanks for your help!
 
SteinUmStein said:
That's nice, so even though the entry box says "Credit Hours", I can enter in course credits, which will result in seemingly few credits at the end? And if I have credit hours from a second (community) college, I can enter in their form of credit hours without mention of the scale being different from my home institution?

Does an actual human being go through these courses after I submit to calculate my final AMCAS GPA?
Thanks for your help!
Click to expand...

Yes, and it is this "human element" that introduces mistakes, oversights, and potential delays in processing.
 
ised187 said:
The Use of I, Me, My...

I dont know if this is the appropriate thread for this, but im drafting my personal statement, and I've used the word I 27 times, the word my 17 times, and the word me 11 times... is that too many!?
Click to expand...

Read the PS to yourself out loud. If it seems fluent and coherent, then it's okay.
 
So my understanding is that after you submit your application, each time you change anything regarding your Letters of Recommendation, you have to re-certify your application. Is this correct?

Does this mean that if I am not exactly 100% sure who will write my LORs, any new LOR writers that I add to my application upon submission will require another 4-6 weeks for AMCAS to re-check and re-verify all of my information? IF this is true, it sucks!😱
 
Dashne Gafoor said:
So my understanding is that after you submit your application, each time you change anything regarding your Letters of Recommendation, you have to re-certify your application. Is this correct?

Does this mean that if I am not exactly 100% sure who will write my LORs, any new LOR writers that I add to my application upon submission will require another 4-6 weeks for AMCAS to re-check and re-verify all of my information? IF this is true, it sucks!😱
Click to expand...

No it will not take another 4-6 weeks at all. The 4-6 weeks is because they are verifying all your grades and junk like that. LOL!!! it won't take any time at all. Don't worry. it will send it right away to schools or almost right away anyhow.
 
gujuDoc said:
No it will not take another 4-6 weeks at all. The 4-6 weeks is because they are verifying all your grades and junk like that. LOL!!! it won't take any time at all. Don't worry. it will send it right away to schools or almost right away anyhow.
Click to expand...

whew! Thanks, guju, much relieved.
 
Has anyone received duplicate emails from AMCAS about transcripts being received. I have received two emails from AMCAS with two different dates alerting me that the same transcript has been received. I'm wondering if it's an error on their end and maybe they have a school wrong. I'm getting a little worried because AMCAS has received only 1 of my 3 otranscripts and the other two were sent 5/15 and 5/18 and according to my emails from AMCAS they have not been received. Do you think that perhaps one of those two emails stating the same school in reality could have been a different school but AMCAS screwed up? AGH, this process is so stressful.
 
question about LOE:

so I know we don't have to have them uploaded when we submit amcas, but do we need to note who will be writing our letters somewhere? and then when it comes time to upload them, do we have to go back to the amcas application and upload it? I'm kinda confused how the AMCAS letter service is integrated with the primary application. Currently I'm having all my letter writers send their letters to my university's LOR service, after which I'll have my university forward them to AMCAS. But is there anything I would need to change on the primary after that's been done?


Also, when should we be expecting to receive secondaries (assuming we submit apps in early/mid-June)?
 
Jebel said:
I went to a county college and a university for undergrad, and I went to the same county college and university for my post bac.
When I designate the school, you can only list it as undergrad or post bac, so I made an undergrad listing for each school and a post bac listing for each school.

For example:

I went to the School of Hard Knocks from 2002 - 2006 and got a degree in may 2006. I went back SHN for post bac work in fall 2008. There is no way that I noticed I could get all that under one listing that would reflect both undergrad and post bac work. It looks like it has to be all undergrad or all the post bac, so I made two separate entries. It was much easier on AACOMAS.
Click to expand...

Nice school. I'm jealous.
 
Can someone let me know if I have all of my info straight?....So, if I submit my app on June 2 or whenever it opens, it will take 4-6 weeks just to verify that all of my transcript info matches the grades in my app? Also, if I only submit it with one med school selected (as I am still waiting to see my MCAT results), there will be no additional delay when I select the other med schools I want to apply to? Will I just have to resubmit my app with the additional schools selected and just pay the extra $?

Thanks for any help!
 
Two course-specific questions:

[1] I took a bioinformatics course where we annotated portions of the Drosophila erecta genome and submitted it to FlyBase used for NCBI publications. Would I write this in the EC section and list the start/end dates the dates of the course?

[2] I took a cancer disparities course where we created a grant proposal for reducing inequity in care. It was to win a $2,000 grant from the university to implement the project (my group tied for first, but didn't win). Should I list this in the EC section, as well?

Thanks!
 
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1/ How can I know if my transcript grades have been received and entered by AMCAS ??

2/ Will I send LoRs to the schools or to AMCAS ?
 
koko_eats said:
Two course-specific questions:

[1] I took a bioinformatics course where we annotated portions of the Drosophila erecta genome and submitted it to FlyBase used for NCBI publications. Would I write this in the EC section and list the start/end dates the dates of the course?
Click to expand...

Yah I would list it in the EC section. And yes start and end dates would be the course start and end dates.

koko_eats said:
[2] I took a cancer disparities course where we created a grant proposal for reducing inequity in care. It was to win a $2,000 grant from the university to implement the project (my group tied for first, but didn't win). Should I list this in the EC section, as well?

Thanks!
Click to expand...

You should list this as well. At least I would. You were still a runner up if you were tied with the winners. So that is still a high achievement. that's how I would word it instead of calling it losing. Say you were runner up.
 
So I have a question for everyone... I've heard plenty of people say that I should submit my amcas application almost as soon as it is possible to do so.... like within the first week of june. However, I don't think I'm going to have everything (especially LORs) ready by then. Plus, I'm not taking my MCATs till june 18th... I'm sort of freaking out in that I'm worried I might be too late in sending my application. Right now I'm thinking of submitting it around the last week of june. Is that too late? Your opinions will be much appreciated so please do comment. Thanks!!
 
skeptic29 said:
So I have a question for everyone... I've heard plenty of people say that I should submit my amcas application almost as soon as it is possible to do so.... like within the first week of june. However, I don't think I'm going to have everything (especially LORs) ready by then. Plus, I'm not taking my MCATs till june 18th... I'm sort of freaking out in that I'm worried I might be too late in sending my application. Right now I'm thinking of submitting it around the last week of june. Is that too late? Your opinions will be much appreciated so please do comment. Thanks!!
Click to expand...

I don't think that's late, don't worry too much about it.
 
Hey all,

I'm slightly confused on whether you need to use the form to send in your transcript or not because I can request official transcripts from my school online so I don't see the point of the request form or if it's even necessary.

Thanks,
secants
 
its really not for your school, but for facilitating AMCAS to file your transcript under your ID number
 
After reading this thread im confused, do we need to have any LORs done when we submit primary application? or just have them done by secondaries?
 
osumc2014 said:
Do we need to designate which LORs goes to which school for primaries then?
Click to expand...

I don't think so. Someone who has done this can better answer this.

you can actually change that at anytime, just hit submit after you change each time.
 
I did not use the transcript request form. I did make sure to put my school ID as an additional ID number on my AMCAS application though. My transcript was received in a week or so by AMCAS. As long as your transcript has your ID number on it, it should be fine. Hope this helps!
 
secants said:
Hey all,

I'm slightly confused on whether you need to use the form to send in your transcript or not because I can request official transcripts from my school online so I don't see the point of the request form or if it's even necessary.

Thanks,
secants
Click to expand...

Merging into AMCAS Questions thread.
 
For the end date, do we put down when we plan to end as in December 2009 or do we put present?
 
when do secondaries start rolling in?
 
BlueElmo said:
I think it depends on schools. Some will send it as soon as they get primaries.
Click to expand...
I remember reading somewhere last year that although you can submit in the first week of June (I think it was June 1st last year, obviously June 2nd this year) that AMCAS didn't send out the first "batch" of applications to schools until June 24th or something.

a) Was this someone bull****ting?
b) If that's legit, are they still doing that this year? Would this be posted anywhere?

I'm going to submit secondaries abroad (as best I can) so a timeline would be helpful. I'm positive I read that from last year's thread, but I never saw if it was confirmed information.
 
Steeler7588 said:
I remember reading somewhere last year that although you can submit in the first week of June (I think it was June 1st last year, obviously June 2nd this year) that AMCAS didn't send out the first "batch" of applications to schools until June 24th or something.

a) Was this someone bull****ting?
b) If that's legit, are they still doing that this year? Would this be posted anywhere?

I'm going to submit secondaries abroad (as best I can) so a timeline would be helpful. I'm positive I read that from last year's thread, but I never saw if it was confirmed information.
Click to expand...
It's true and has been that way for at least the last two cycles. Some schools like Columbia will send you their secondary once they get the initial transmission, regardless of whether your courses are verified or not.
 
koko_eats said:
It's true and has been that way for at least the last two cycles. Some schools like Columbia will send you their secondary once they get the initial transmission, regardless of whether your courses are verified or not.
Click to expand...
So do they post when exactly the date they'll do this is?

I'm a little confused by your Columbia reference. I thought AMCAS didn't pass on your applications to schools until it was verified (and even then, earliest at some particular date). So schools actually receive your application once you hit submit, it's just that most hold off until verification? If that's the case, why does AMCAS need to "forward" your applications on to schools at all?
 
Steeler7588 said:
So do they post when exactly the date they'll do this is?

I'm a little confused by your Columbia reference. I thought AMCAS didn't pass on your applications to schools until it was verified (and even then, earliest at some particular date). So schools actually receive your application once you hit submit, it's just that most hold off until verification? If that's the case, why does AMCAS need to "forward" your applications on to schools at all?
Click to expand...
They don't post the exact date they'll transmit, I don't think.

As for Columbia, I'm not too sure how it works. My understanding is that AMCAS transmits information to schools saying that you're applying there and schools like Columbia send you a secondary in response. They haven't done any review of your application, obviously, and won't until your primary is verified and your secondary is submitted.

For whatever reason, Columbia sent a secondary on the 25th despite the fact that my transcripts weren't verified for another month.
 
koko_eats said:
They don't post the exact date they'll transmit, I don't think.

As for Columbia, I'm not too sure how it works. My understanding is that AMCAS transmits information to schools saying that you're applying there and schools like Columbia send you a secondary in response. They haven't done any review of your application, obviously, and won't until your primary is verified and your secondary is submitted.

For whatever reason, Columbia sent a secondary on the 25th despite the fact that my transcripts weren't verified for another month.
Click to expand...

I guess Columbia's just weird.
 
a lot of schools will send you secondaries immediately, when they find out you applied to them through the primary
 
Does anyone know how long it takes AMCAS to update my profile once they receive my transcript and LOR?
 
well LORs should be virtually done, it can't be that long. Transcript, you really don't know until they email you. For me it took like a week (assuming transcript was sent upon request)
 
Hm.. that is worrying..
I wanted to submit on June 2
But without AMCAS verification I can't submit even if I sent them already (by mail) on May 25 from Canada (so will be at AMCAS on.. May 29?)
So will it be verified around June 5? not on May 29?
Oh man.. that's bad.. 3 days or more delayed = less chance of getting in..
 
Homoochan said:
Hm.. that is worrying..
I wanted to submit on June 2
But without AMCAS verification I can't submit even if I sent them already (by mail) on May 25 from Canada (so will be at AMCAS on.. May 29?)
So will it be verified around June 5? not on May 29?
Oh man.. that's bad.. 3 days or more delayed = less chance of getting in..
Click to expand...

You're kidding right? Three days is not going to affect anything.
 
Oh it doesn't?
I honestly thought I had to submit on June 2 bang on to maximize my chance
If not, great!
 
hey sorry if this is a stupid question, but once u submit the amcas app to get verified, can you still change around the work/activities?
 
I am ESL. Should I put my mother language as my Primary language or should I put English as my primary language. I think my mother language, but just wanted to confirm.
 
I have a similar question to an above post...I have AP credit on my transcript but then I also took the class in college..On the transcript it's listed as the exact same course...e.g. it says I have credit for Bio 115 via AP credit but then I also took that class so Bio 115 apears again. Does anyone know if this makes Bio 115 a repeat class or if I should leave off the AP class or what?

Edit: I emailed AMCAS and they said to list both as repeat
 
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