* * 2009-2010 Application Season * * Post AACOMAS Questions HERE!!!

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Hey guys, I just got verified today :D:D:D:D:D!!!

My question is, where does it show my GPA? Is it the same GPA that AACOMAS showed me before I submitted my primary?

THANKS!
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NilamPatel said:
thanks!

does any other DO school require a deans letter other than PCOM?
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I think theres something on the school specific thread about this, some said a letter from your academic adviser can be used instead of a dean's letter.
 
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ArsenalEPL4Life said:
Hey guys, I just got verified today :D:D:D:D:D!!!

My question is, where does it show my GPA? Is it the same GPA that AACOMAS showed me before I submitted my primary?

THANKS!
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In about 2 weeks you'll notice links after each school name on the front page of your app that will take you to the PDFs that got sent to each school, which include all the GPAs you could ever want to see. Be patient, though. :)
 
I have a question. The OChem class that I did badly on was in the 3rd Quarter, so I took the first two Ochem classes again as Pass/Fail. If thats the case, how would I calculate that or place it in the AACOMAS application?

Also, when the AACOMAS application asks for descriptions in their volunteer sections, do I write in complete grammatical sentences?
 
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I recently got a job assisting in OB at a local hospital. I will be helping in the OR, with high risk pregnancies. I will also be assisting surgeons in varies other ways. Is this something I should update my schools with? My primary has already been verified and received by everyone. Is this something I should send to AACOMAS? Fax to each school myself? Or just not update them with? Thanks
 
Alright,

I know I am about a year a head of myself, but better yearly than late.

So I see the personal statement part of the application,
"The colleges will see your personal statement exactly as you enter it in the box below. You are advised to check your spelling, syntax, and grammar before submitting your personal statement."
​
This part is probably the most terrifying of this application. I have about two more weeks until my school starts up and I was going to work on writing a personal statement. Do any of you have any tips or suggestions on how to get started on this part of the application? (I assume it will be the same for the 2011 application)

Do the 2010 applications get rolled over into the 2011? And when do the new years applications open up?

Thanks
 
codewarrior05 said:
Alright,

I know I am about a year a head of myself, but better yearly than late.

So I see the personal statement part of the application,
"The colleges will see your personal statement exactly as you enter it in the box below. You are advised to check your spelling, syntax, and grammar before submitting your personal statement."
​
This part is probably the most terrifying of this application. I have about two more weeks until my school starts up and I was going to work on writing a personal statement. Do any of you have any tips or suggestions on how to get started on this part of the application? (I assume it will be the same for the 2011 application)

Do the 2010 applications get rolled over into the 2011? And when do the new years applications open up?

Thanks
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When I was writing my personal statement, I used this book called "50 Essays That Will Get You Into Medical School" or something like that and it was really helpful. I think it's important just to start writing and your first couple of drafts will suck. In the process though, you'll find recurring themes that you can use for your "real draft". Anyways, my advice is write too much so it's easier to edit later, get tons of people to look at your essay and then leave it alone for a bit. Then look at it with a fresh face, attack it with Microsoft Word and submit it.
 
I have a few more questions:

1. Where do I put the names of research presentations/publications? I did not have room to put this in the description of my research (maybe the description is too detailed...).

2. I did two years of research...one was paid and one was not. Therefore, I'm putting them in separate sections. The research was exactly the same during the second year as the first year; it was just a continuation. Should I put the same thing for both descriptions?

3. I have been part of an internship program for hospital volunteers. I have been volunteering for 2.5 years, but have also held a leadership position with the program for a year (in addition to the regular hospital volunteering). Should I make two different entries, or should I just have both positions in one entry?

Thank you!
 
mangoroxmysox said:
I have a few more questions:

1. Where do I put the names of research presentations/publications? I did not have room to put this in the description of my research (maybe the description is too detailed...).

2. I did two years of research...one was paid and one was not. Therefore, I'm putting them in separate sections. The research was exactly the same during the second year as the first year; it was just a continuation. Should I put the same thing for both descriptions?

3. I have been part of an internship program for hospital volunteers. I have been volunteering for 2.5 years, but have also held a leadership position with the program for a year (in addition to the regular hospital volunteering). Should I make two different entries, or should I just have both positions in one entry?

Thank you!
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Disclaimer: this may be the blind leading the blind :) For your internship program, I'd list the leadership position as a seperate entry (if you can avoid being redundant). At my current job, I'm on two leadership committees so I listed the job under work experience and the committees as single entries under EC's. However, I also did that because there was no brief way to explain either committee membership within my job description so I had to split them.
 
So I'm trying really hard to hustle up and get my primary in but interfolio is killing me with the whole no copy/paste thing from word. I also just found a big typo in my AMCAS primary (which I had several people proofread) so I'm totally paranoid now about editing especially since I'm operating on pretty minimal sleep.

Here are my questions:
1. Is there anyway to view your completed application prior to submission? When I hit application summary, it just shows the titles/positions for EC's/Work experience and no description. It's so inefficient to copy/paste the descriptions back into word or notepad to check them!

2. For awards/honors, I received a small grant award to start an on-campus health issues program. I listed the program under EC's, is it innappropriate to list the grant award under awards/honors too?

3. What did people put for position title for shadowing experiences? I said "Physician Shadow" but that seems awkward, is "Visiting Student" ok? Not sure if that title works for my post-grad shadowing...

4. For shadowing experiences, I have three seperate entrys but they are pretty redundant: describe the doctor's speciality, observed inpatient or outpatient care, etc. Any ideas on how to make it more creative? One experience was in primary care so I can't really list procedures....

Thanks for the help- hoping to submit today (FINALLY)
 
I'm guessing that med school curriculums started yesterday since no one is posting anymore :(
 
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When I submitted my AACOMAS application, I am pretty sure I formatted it in the entry box. In other words, after pasting it from notepad into the entry box, I went through and inserted indentations and line breaks for paragraphs.

Now, after submitting my application a month ago, I just noticed that when I'm looking at my personal statement, it shows no formating. No indentations, spaces, line breaks, nothing. Just words. 1 page of just words. I'm freaked out. This would really mess up my personal statement.

Is this happening to everyone or is it just me? Can I fix this somehow? I'm kind of freaking out. I don't want med schools to see this, but it's already so late in the application cycle.
 
skybliss said:
No indentations, spaces, line breaks, nothing. Just words. 1 page of just words. I'm freaked out.
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I had a similar issue but it was only limited to no spaces between my paragraphs. Everything just showed up in one long paragraph. Many other people told me they had the same problem and not to sweat it.
 
forrealz said:
skybliss said:
No indentations, spaces, line breaks, nothing. Just words. 1 page of just words. I'm freaked out.
I had a similar issue but it was only limited to no spaces between my paragraphs. Everything just showed up in one long paragraph. Many other people told me they had the same problem and not to sweat it.
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Whew!!!!! ok thanks!!!
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Yeah, dont sweat it. Same thing happened to me but once it was verfied and released to schools it showed up in the proper format (spaces, paragraphs, etc.)

So if you're app isnt verfied yet it isnt a big deal. A guy at AACOMAS said it is almost always like that until verification.
 
I talked to a guy at AACOMAS last month when I submitted my app, and he said that there was a bug in their system, that all the medical schools already know this, and it will be properly formatted when it is sent to the schools. Deep down though, I still worry that it is going to be submitted wrong since this is AACOMAS we are talking about here. . . .
 
Superman MD said:
I talked to a guy at AACOMAS last month when I submitted my app, and he said that there was a bug in their system, that all the medical schools already know this, and it will be properly formatted when it is sent to the schools. Deep down though, I still worry that it is going to be submitted wrong since this is AACOMAS we are talking about here. . . .
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Nah, should be good, man. Like I said above, when my stuff was released, it was properly formatted.
 
Well, I was verified a few days ago and realized I might have a potential problem... I was wondering if I could get some advice.

I took AP English and received 4 credit hours, and I also took AP Art and received 3 credit hours. Although I have them listed separately on both my transcripts and when I did my AACOMA application, when I checked my verified coursework my APs were lumped together as "Advanced placement" and 7 credit hours.

I'm worried that schools requiring two courses in English will filter me out based on this, because they will only see the one English I took in college and not the AP credit I took in high school. :(

Did something like this happen to anyone else?


EDIT: Problem solved. Turns out there was a problem with my official transcripts and AACOMA will fix it.
 
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droogdoc said:
Nah, should be good, man. Like I said above, when my stuff was released, it was properly formatted.
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thanks for the replies. I just got this response back from AACOMAS support:
"When sent to the colleges, the formatting will be there."

Goodluck on secondaries everyone!!!!
 
Hey Everyone,

I have been searching for an answer to my question and I have not found anything. So I tried before asking. ;) Anyway, I just want to make sure with anyone who has experience with changing a part of the AACOMAS application after they have already submitted it and the verification process is in progress. All I have to do is mail them, in writing, detailing what I want changed right? And also, I am guessing this will delay my verification process. By how long, approx, will this delay? A week, two? I hope it will not be a big deal. Thank you everyone for reading!
 
i log into aacomas with my email address. i don't know where i can access this ID number???
 
i did check that part of the page and there's no ID number available, only my email address shows, no other personal information of mine. (that's why i got on here to ask how i can access that ID)
 
Hey everyone, I just had a question about AACOMAS. On Tuesday I had my MCAT scores sent to AACOMAS, and yesterday my AACOMAS application said that they received official MCAT scores. I was verified at the end June and AACOMAS "released" my application on July 1st. My question is will I receive any type of notification that my MCAT scores were updated to all the schools I applied to? or will just have to call each school in a week and see if they got the scores from AACOMAS? Thanks!
 
Unlearner said:
i did check that part of the page and there's no ID number available, only my email address shows, no other personal information of mine. (that's why i got on here to ask how i can access that ID)
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you're taking upper right part of the page too literally. look mid right upper part of the page.
 
Argh this is driving me nuts. I have been ready to push the submit button for 3 days. But AACOMAS isn't getting back to me! Everything looks good when I press preview, but when I go to make PDF, the first and second paragraphs of my personal statement lose the line between them! Every other paragraph is normal.

I tried just typing it in, copying it over after making it plain text, and even different browsers... This is such a weird problem... Should I just submit? Everything is fine in preview but no matter what I do, the PDF version looks weird.
 
kcmedic said:
Argh this is driving me nuts. I have been ready to push the submit button for 3 days. But AACOMAS isn't getting back to me! Everything looks good when I press preview, but when I go to make PDF, the first and second paragraphs of my personal statement lose the line between them! Every other paragraph is normal.

I tried just typing it in, copying it over after making it plain text, and even different browsers... This is such a weird problem... Should I just submit? Everything is fine in preview but no matter what I do, the PDF version looks weird.
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haha i wouldn't sweat it. The EXACT same thing was happening to me and after I submitted and I was verified, the final pdf that was sent out to the schools had no spacing problems. good luck!
 
Hi

I am verified, but anybody knows when will the release dates show up next to the schools I applied to? It's been 3 days now and no change in there. Can anybody let me know how long does it take to show the release dates?

Thanks
 
I am looking at applying to more schools and wanted to update my primary. Is that possible? I went to the AACOMAS website and opened my application, but could not find a way to update. Would doing that mean I have to be re-verified and wait the 6+ weeks for the school to receive it? Thanks in advance, I sent an inquiry to them, but except this forum to answer a little quicker than they will.
 
CardioPlus said:
haha i wouldn't sweat it. The EXACT same thing was happening to me and after I submitted and I was verified, the final pdf that was sent out to the schools had no spacing problems. good luck!
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Thanks, yeah I submitted yesterday :xf:
 
I'm almost sure that this was already discussed, but I need to make sure.

Science courses were usually separated courses ( 3 credit lecture and 2 credit lab ) at where I graduated.

If I repeat an equivalent course at a different institution where it's a combined course ( 4 credit lecture and 0 credit lab) , does it still count and replace the old grade?


Do I need to check whether two classes are equivalent even though both of them are cell bio?

For example, bio 303 was cell biology and bio 303L was cell biology laboratory at where I graduated.

However, cell biology is bio 205 at where I'll be retaking it.
 
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TKT01 said:
I'm almost sure that this was already discussed, but I need to make sure.

Science courses were usually separated courses ( 3 credit lecture and 2 credit lab ) at where I graduated.

If I repeat an equivalent course at a different institution where it's a combined course ( 4 credit lecture and 0 credit lab) , does it still count and replace the old grade?


Do I need to check whether two classes are equivalent even though both of them are cell bio?

For example, bio 303 was cell biology and bio 303L was cell biology laboratory at where I graduated.

However, cell biology is bio 205 at where I'll be retaking it.
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Were those two-credit labs combining a year's worth of labs into one. For example, my school only requires us to take one semester of orgo lab, but it is worth 2 credits whereas other schools have two semesters of one-credit labs.
 
DocHomer said:
Were those two-credit labs combining a year's worth of labs into one. For example, my school only requires us to take one semester of orgo lab, but it is worth 2 credits whereas other schools have two semesters of one-credit labs.
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No, they weren't. Both orgo 1 and 2 were 5 credits (3+2) each at where I graduated. All other schools offer 4 credits ( either 3+1 or 4+0), but I believe that they are actually same. It's just that my school has 1 more credit and courses are combined at where I retake.
 
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TKT01 said:
No, they weren't. Both orgo 1 and 2 were 5 credits (3+2) each at where I graduated. All other schools offer 4 credits ( either 3+1 or 4+0), but I believe that they are actually same. It's just that my school has 1 more credit and courses are combined at where I retake.
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I think best course of action would be to call them and get a direct answer. :) I surely do not want to speculate on something this important.
 
Hey question for anyone who wants to answer...I was just verified by AACOMAS..how do you find your AACOMAS calculated GPA? thanks everyone :)
 
If after 5 weeks your application still has not been verified, would you email AACOMAS? Or is this situation normal? I'm really frustrated; they lost one of my transcripts early on and delayed the date that my app could begin processing, and since processing began it has been way over a month.
 
Do I send in my recommendations only after they ask for secondaries or do I send it in with my primary?
 
Exalya said:
If after 5 weeks your application still has not been verified, would you email AACOMAS? Or is this situation normal? I'm really frustrated; they lost one of my transcripts early on and delayed the date that my app could begin processing, and since processing began it has been way over a month.
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I submitted July 26th and still haven't been verified (5 weeks now). In the CIB it says that it can take anywhere from 3 to 6 weeks, so it should happen soon now.
 
I have a question regarding putting in my grades. I go to a school with a quarter system. One credit hour translates to either 3 1/3 semester hours or 5 Quarter hours. When they ask for the "Term Year" I listed it under the Quarter System. What number should I place under the "Semester Hour" column - 3 1/3 or 5?
 
Exalya said:
If after 5 weeks your application still has not been verified, would you email AACOMAS? Or is this situation normal? I'm really frustrated; they lost one of my transcripts early on and delayed the date that my app could begin processing, and since processing began it has been way over a month.
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I wouldn't, I hear a good amount of people say that it took 6 weeks for their apps to process.. so yeah if after 6 weeks you don't hear anything def contact them
 
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How long does it take to get verified? Its been over four weeks.
 
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