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

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I'm reading through the AACOMAS instruction page:



I remember reading here, where someone said you only had to post your last obtained grade...

Am I reading this right or wrong?
No you don't just post the latest obtained grade, all grades are posted per instructions on the application. You have an option to denote a course as a retake, and in the official AACOMAS GPA calculation only the latest re-take will count as long as your latest re-take is greater than or equal to the credit hours of the original course you took.

Example:

Took Calculus 1 in the fall of 2008. Received a D. Mark this class as Repeat 01. Re-took Calculus in Spring of 2009. Received an A. Mark this class as last repeat 01 (meaning that was your last retake of that class).

So in other words, all of the classes marked as repeat's will not count in your GPA calculation as long as there is a corresponding last repeat. (correct me if I'm wrong someone, I haven't looked at this stuff in awhile)
 
As phEight stated, only your last grade is used in the calculation of your GPA for the purpose of AACOMAS regardless of whether it is higher or lower than any previous grades in the same class repeated. All grades still need to be reported.

The committee will probably use your calculated GPA most in weighing a decision but the Fs and Ds still stick out.
 
Does AACOMAS for 2010 become available May 1st? Anyone know?
 
Opens May 1st, and you can submit as of June 1st as far as I know. 🙂
 
Hey can you apply without all the pre requisites? Ill have bio 1, chem 1+2, and orgo 1+2. But Ill have physic and bio 2 done before I graduate. Will this affect an admissions decision or can I be admitted anywhere?
 
Hey can you apply without all the pre requisites? Ill have bio 1, chem 1+2, and orgo 1+2. But Ill have physic and bio 2 done before I graduate. Will this affect an admissions decision or can I be admitted anywhere?

You can apply and be accepted before you finish all pre-reqs with the condition that you finish them before matriculation. So in your case, you'd be fine.
 
I was told by an advisor that it opens May 1st and you can submit it the same day....
 
I have a question and I hope someone can answer it. I attended a French Canadian University and the transcript was in French (of course). I had it evaluated by AACRAO when I started attending an American University (for transfer purposes). According to the AACOMAS website, I know they will need a copy of this eval. My question is, do I still need to submit a transcript for these classes? Or is the evaluation sufficient? I emailed AACOMAS a few days ago and haven't heard from them yet.
 
I have a question and I hope someone can answer it. I attended a French Canadian University and the transcript was in French (of course). I had it evaluated by AACRAO when I started attending an American University (for transfer purposes). According to the AACOMAS website, I know they will need a copy of this eval. My question is, do I still need to submit a transcript for these classes? Or is the evaluation sufficient? I emailed AACOMAS a few days ago and haven't heard from them yet.

From here:
http://www.aacom.org/InfoFor/applicants/Pages/Instructions.aspx
Canadian Transcripts: If the transcript from the Canadian university you attended shows grade conversion to a 4.0 grading scale and credit conversion to the semester system, then the transcript is required; the grades and credits will be reflected on your Applicant Profile. If the transcript key does not show grade and/or credit conversion, then refer to the instructions for foreign coursework evaluation. All institutions attended must be listed in the "Colleges Attended" section.


Other Foreign Transcripts: Coursework taken at foreign institutions must be evaluated for U.S. equivalence by one of the following evaluation services, and an official copy must be sent from the service directly to AACOMAS. You should also have a copy sent to you for completing the AACOMAS application. Request a course-by-course evaluation and list the courses, subject codes, semester hours, and grades on the AACOMAS Colleges and Coursework application page, following the instructions. Your application will not be complete and cannot be verified without an official evaluation. Transfer credit appearing on U.S. institution transcripts, student copies of an evaluation or other foreign evaluations will not be accepted.

All institutions attended (including foreign institutions) and all coursework must be listed on the Colleges and Coursework page of the application form. If there are extenuating circumstances prohibiting this evaluation, you may request a waiver of the requirement of this evaluation. The letter must state the reason why you are requesting a waiver of the evaluation and must include your signature and AACOMAS ID number. Also note that transfer credit awarded at U.S. institutions for foreign courses will not be added to your Applicant Profile. Failure to submit a foreign evaluation or letter requesting a waiver (which is duplicated to your schools) will result in your file being incomplete. Questions should be directed to AACOMAS.
 
if i submit my application then later take some additional classes...will my GPA be recalculated and RESUBMITTED to the schools?? how does that work?
 
AACOM changed it this year so that you are able to put in your info in May but can only submit it starting June.

http://prehealth.tcc411.com/wp-content/uploads/2010-aacomas-application-deadlines1.pdf

Nothing in that PDF states what you said. It says ***BY*** June 1. Seems like they had similarly ambiguous wording last year, too, but I'm not sure.

I called AACOM and they said that it will open May 1 and CAN be submitted May1 as well.

Thank you for doing the detective work!!! 👍👍👍
 
if i submit my application then later take some additional classes...will my GPA be recalculated and RESUBMITTED to the schools?? how does that work?


I'm wondering the same thing. I am submitting my primary as early as possible, but will be updating grades by the end June.
 
So, I'm taking the mcat in late June. I plan to submit my app before taking the mcat. If I do this how will the schools be able to get my mcat scores. Thanks

When you get your score, you manually release it to AACOMAS, who will then update the schools with the score. Until then, you simply indicate on the application when you are planning to take the MCAT.
 
I'm wondering the same thing. I am submitting my primary as early as possible, but will be updating grades by the end June.

Yeah, wondering too, but I plan to submit in July and update in August.
 
Hey everyone,
I'm currently doing AACOMAS 2010 application because it opened today at 10am.

In Canada (where I attend school), we have courses that last the entire year (fall and winter).

How do I input these courses in the "Term Year" dropdown boxes? It only offers Fall OR Winter and NOT both. I tried e-mailing AACOMAS a few days ago about this issue and they didn't reply. Can someone help me here? Also, what would the credit hours be for full-year courses?

-gzahalan.
 
I worked for the same employer for many years, but held different positions. Do I list this as one work experience entry, or list each position out separately?
 
I have a ? for yas:

I have a lot of research and various other things I'd like schools to know about. Should I be listing these as "extra curricular" on my primary or should I be saving these for secondaries?

Thanks!
 
Hey everyone,
I'm currently doing AACOMAS 2010 application because it opened today at 10am.

In Canada (where I attend school), we have courses that last the entire year (fall and winter).

How do I input these courses in the "Term Year" dropdown boxes? It only offers Fall OR Winter and NOT both. I tried e-mailing AACOMAS a few days ago about this issue and they didn't reply. Can someone help me here? Also, what would the credit hours be for full-year courses?

-gzahalan.

If I were to guess, I'd say put down the semester that you began the course. So if it's a year-long course as you put it (starts Fall, ends Winter), then you can designate it Fall. All of this is to be checked against your actual transcripts; I don't think it'd matter much.

Otherwise, if you can, I would enter the course twice, once for Fall and once for Winter. I'm not exactly sure if you can do that, though.

Usually a full-year course is 8 credits if it's science and 6 credits if it's not. However, that differs between institutions.
 
I worked for the same employer for many years, but held different positions. Do I list this as one work experience entry, or list each position out separately?

If I were you, I'd list each position separately. When doing ECs, it looks better to spread it out so it looks more diverse. 👍

I have a ? for yas:

I have a lot of research and various other things I'd like schools to know about. Should I be listing these as "extra curricular" on my primary or should I be saving these for secondaries?

Thanks!

Definitely state it in the primary. You can also use it for secondaries if you wish.
 
For the colleges and coursework, how should I go about entering planned courses? There are two different schools I plan to finish my prereqs at, but I'm not sure which school I'll be attending for those classes because I haven't received a confirmed work schedule for the fall (in addition Spring class schedules aren't out until October).

Should I list the courses at both institutions as planned? (which would duplicate the courses).

Thanks for the help
 
Hey Everyone,

A few questions...

So when listing work/EC/Awards/Honors/ect, do I list them from most recent (start date) back or oldest (start date) forward???

Can I mention something under both EC and an honor section? During one of my EC, I was selected to attend a conference, so can I mention it twice or just mention it as an honor and use the EC area to talk about other things I did there?

One of my volunteer entries I do twice a month= 4 x 2=8 hrs/month, but they ask for weekly hours so do I just put it as two even though I'm not their every week??

When I was preparing to graduate I was given the letter stating that I was eligible for Psi Chi (but it wasn't starting on campus until yr and half later); however, since I was graduating I could not join. When I went back for my post-bacc I never thought to see if I could join and I had to declare a second major (biology) for fin aid purposes, so I figured that was it, but I am wondering if I should state it in the honors section as Psi Chi Nomination and would you all?

When starting a new paragraph did you all just use 1 space or more?

I think that is it for now. Thanks!
 
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Does a class that you are listing as a repeat have to be the exact same class from the same institution? Can it be the equivalent class from a different university?

And, do you list W classes as repeat classes if you took the class at a later date?
 
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Does a class that you are listing as a repeat have to be the exact same class from the same institution? Can it be the equivalent class from a different university?

And, do you list W classes as repeat classes if you took the class at a later date?

I'm curious about this as well. Since they had withdrawn as a choice under transcript grade, grade, and classification I just selected that for all of my W's whether or not they were classes again, because no matter what they were W's so I don't know why we would list them differently. Someone clarify please?
 
I had a question about entering hours in the application. It asks to enter total number of hours on the EC/Volunteer section, should I enter hours that I have now or hours I will expect to have by the end date I put down on the application. For example, I am volunteering at a hospital in my hometown for the summer before I go back to school, should I put the hours I will expect to have at the end of the summer and the end date, or leave the end date blank since it hasn't come yet and only put the hours I have currently. 😕

Also, I play tennis and cross country for my school and when I totalled up the hours put into each it came to like 1600 for tennis and 2000 for cross country, this seemed outrageous. Does anyone else play a sport or have some activity like this? I'm not trying to brag these just had so many more hours compared to my other ECs.

Sorry if my question is a bit confusing, thanks for your input.
 
Thanks for the answer 🙂
That's what I assumed but I wasn't completely sure.

I e-mailed AACOMAS, again. But if they don't answer me (again), I'm just going to call them.
 
where on the aacomas app should I put shadowing experiences?
 
To fill in the total hours and average hours for extracurricular, volunteer, community service, how should this be done? The two ways I thought about it are:

1. Take the total number of hours(100 hours) and divide it by the total number of weeks between the dates that you listed (104 weeks) to give the average hours per week (0.96 hours/week).

or

2. Say you volunteered at a hospital for 3 hours per week over a two year time period, but only for a total of 36 weeks since you didn't do it every week. Then take the 3 hours/week times the 36 weeks to give the total number of hours.

Which way works better or how does aacomas say to do it? I think that having 0.96 hours/week or 0.02 hours/week looks funny. Any thoughts?
 
In the Description text boxes for each Work and Service item, what the the preferred way of inputting information? I was thinking of inputting my information with bullet points, like on a resume.
 
I had a question about entering hours in the application. It asks to enter total number of hours on the EC/Volunteer section, should I enter hours that I have now or hours I will expect to have by the end date I put down on the application. For example, I am volunteering at a hospital in my hometown for the summer before I go back to school, should I put the hours I will expect to have at the end of the summer and the end date, or leave the end date blank since it hasn't come yet and only put the hours I have currently. 😕

Also, I play tennis and cross country for my school and when I totalled up the hours put into each it came to like 1600 for tennis and 2000 for cross country, this seemed outrageous. Does anyone else play a sport or have some activity like this? I'm not trying to brag these just had so many more hours compared to my other ECs.

Sorry if my question is a bit confusing, thanks for your input.

1. Put the total numbers you'll have by the end date you put down. Nobody will be reading this thing for months anyway.

2. Large total hours are fine. Just be honest--nobody thinks you're bragging! 🙂

Moving to the AACOMAS Questions thread.
 
In entering my courses in AACOMAS I have Organic Chem 2 RO3 from my University and Organic Chem 2 LO3 from a Community College.

The grade change isn't being reflected in my GPA...is this something that AACOMAS will manually change when they receive my transcripts and verify everything?

If your entering a class (example o chem as a repeat..ie R03) it never gets calculated into your gpa. Only the class that is designated L03 will be calculated....just switch the two around for a test making the lower grade be the L03....you should see the change.

Just don't forget to switch it back.😉
 
For the colleges and coursework, how should I go about entering planned courses? There are two different schools I plan to finish my prereqs at, but I'm not sure which school I'll be attending for those classes because I haven't received a confirmed work schedule for the fall (in addition Spring class schedules aren't out until October).

Should I list the courses at both institutions as planned? (which would duplicate the courses).

Thanks for the help

You should only enter courses that you are already registered to take. Once you take the classes, you can update the schools with new transcripts.

Hey Everyone,

A few questions...

So when listing work/EC/Awards/Honors/ect, do I list them from most recent (start date) back or oldest (start date) forward???

Can I mention something under both EC and an honor section? During one of my EC, I was selected to attend a conference, so can I mention it twice or just mention it as an honor and use the EC area to talk about other things I did there?

One of my volunteer entries I do twice a month= 4 x 2=8 hrs/month, but they ask for weekly hours so do I just put it as two even though I'm not their every week??

When I was preparing to graduate I was given the letter stating that I was eligible for Psi Chi (but it wasn't starting on campus until yr and half later); however, since I was graduating I could not join. When I went back for my post-bacc I never thought to see if I could join and I had to declare a second major (biology) for fin aid purposes, so I figured that was it, but I am wondering if I should state it in the honors section as Psi Chi Nomination and would you all?

When starting a new paragraph did you all just use 1 space or more?

I think that is it for now. Thanks!

Usually you enter information from the most recent to the least recent.

If you received some sort of honor during one of your ECs, you can mention the specific honor in the Honors section and talk about your overall EC separately.

How many hours you put per week is really up to you and doesn't really matter all that much because you put down total hours and the dates anyway. I would think it more accurate to write 4/week rather than 2/week, since during the weeks you actually did it, you did it for 4 hours.

I wouldn't enter Psi Chi eligibility in the Honors section because you never actually got the honor. That's like entering "Golden Key Society nomination" when you got a letter stating you're eligible...you just didn't want to pay the fee.

I honestly don't remember how well paragraphs worked, but I think I put in like 5 spaces or so to indent a new paragraph. There's no standard; do as you like.

Does a class that you are listing as a repeat have to be the exact same class from the same institution? Can it be the equivalent class from a different university?

And, do you list W classes as repeat classes if you took the class at a later date?

A retake can be from any other institution as long as the retake is worth the same or more amount of credits.

I wouldn't see a point in listing a W class as a repeat if the W isn't being calculated into your GPA anyway, but that's just me.

where on the aacomas app should I put shadowing experiences?

I believe you put that under the volunteer section, if I recall correctly.

To fill in the total hours and average hours for extracurricular, volunteer, community service, how should this be done? The two ways I thought about it are:

1. Take the total number of hours(100 hours) and divide it by the total number of weeks between the dates that you listed (104 weeks) to give the average hours per week (0.96 hours/week).

or

2. Say you volunteered at a hospital for 3 hours per week over a two year time period, but only for a total of 36 weeks since you didn't do it every week. Then take the 3 hours/week times the 36 weeks to give the total number of hours.

Which way works better or how does aacomas say to do it? I think that having 0.96 hours/week or 0.02 hours/week looks funny. Any thoughts?

Don't turn this into a math problem. :laugh:

Use number 2.

In the Description text boxes for each Work and Service item, what the the preferred way of inputting information? I was thinking of inputting my information with bullet points, like on a resume.

I have heard plenty of people using bullets. Others, like myself, used paragraphs. It's really up to you.
 
Okay, I'm curious about the disadvantaged question that asks if I consider myself medically or economically disadvantaged. I think I can figure out the economically disadvantaged - that seems fairly obvious - but I can think of two possible meanings for medically disadvantaged, and I really don't know which they mean.

1 - I would be medically disadvantaged if I were handicapped in some way: missing one leg, one eye, etc.

2 - I would be medically disadvantaged if I came from a rural area with poor access to health care.

The second seems most likely, and would apply. However, I do not want to show up to an interview and have someone ask me what my physical disability or my illness is when I don't have one.

Might seem like a silly question, but considering what's at stake...

🙂
 
I'm curious about this as well. Since they had withdrawn as a choice under transcript grade, grade, and classification I just selected that for all of my W's whether or not they were classes again, because no matter what they were W's so I don't know why we would list them differently. Someone clarify please?

I know for AMCAS, the definition of "repeated class" specifies that it does not include W's. You have to have earned an actual grade for the class. I would assume it is the same for AACOMAS
 
You should only enter courses that you are already registered to take. Once you take the classes, you can update the schools with new transcripts.

I'm just being paranoid... but I have registered at both schools for the fall session, just so I could save a spot in the class for when I get my confirmed work schedule for the fall. I plan to drop the classes at one of the two schools depending on when I have to work. So I guess it's okay to have them listed at the two different schools because I am currently registered at both?
 
Alright, I know that psychology is listed in social sciences. But, how about biological psychology and physiological psychology--both were heavily oriented towards biology and had little to do with psychology. My physio psych even had dissections and was a 4 credit lab course. I'd really like for them to be science, does anyone think aacomas will allow them in science under biology?
 
Alright, I know that psychology is listed in social sciences. But, how about biological psychology and physiological psychology--both were heavily oriented towards biology and had little to do with psychology. My physio psych even had dissections and was a 4 credit lab course. I'd really like for them to be science, does anyone think aacomas will allow them in science under biology?

Were they given through the psych dept or bio dept? You can try to fight them on it, I imagine by sending a syllabus once things are verified, but I think last year they mostly counted as behavioral science, which isn't calculated in science GPA.
 
Were they given through the psych dept or bio dept? You can try to fight them on it, I imagine by sending a syllabus once things are verified, but I think last year they mostly counted as behavioral science, which isn't calculated in science GPA.

Unfortunately they were given through the psych dept. The physio class was also a requirement for neurobio students, but it wasn't cross listed with bio.
 
I'm just being paranoid... but I have registered at both schools for the fall session, just so I could save a spot in the class for when I get my confirmed work schedule for the fall. I plan to drop the classes at one of the two schools depending on when I have to work. So I guess it's okay to have them listed at the two different schools because I am currently registered at both?

I don't even know if you can do that, honestly. My advice would be to either hold off on inputting classes for next semester (you seriously don't need to) or wait until you have your work schedule (if it's not too long) and input it then. The former is preferable, but it's up to you.

Alright, I know that psychology is listed in social sciences. But, how about biological psychology and physiological psychology--both were heavily oriented towards biology and had little to do with psychology. My physio psych even had dissections and was a 4 credit lab course. I'd really like for them to be science, does anyone think aacomas will allow them in science under biology?

This is a question that you really need to direct to AACOMAS (as bad as they are with answering questions). No one here can give you an accurate answer for that, unfortunately. If you were to input that class as-is, it would not be counted towards your science, but if you call it science on the app and show them the syllabus/course description, they may let you count it as such.

Thanks Semicolon! I miss your old avatar.

Haha, I kept my old one in case I miss it, too. 😉
 
Question about the work experience entry -

We're given 750 characters, which is pretty long. How in detail should we go with these descriptions and how long should it be?
 
Question about the work experience entry -

We're given 750 characters, which is pretty long. How in detail should we go with these descriptions and how long should it be?

LOL :meanie: I had to cut so much off. I don't know how that can be considered long.
 
What kind of writing style are you guys using for describing work experience? Is it full blown paragraphs or short, to the point writing like one would use in a CV?
 
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