2015-2016 Albany Medical College Application Thread

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Space reserved for prompt.

Please PM the essays or lack thereof to me when the secondary is available and I will update this.

Good luck to everyone applying! :luck:
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Anyone having trouble with the "Describe yourself" secondary prompt? It's only 1,000 characters, so not much space to elaborate on specific examples and provide anecdotes, as is usually advocated for essays. Anyone want to share their approach to this secondary? Scanning through old threads, I've read about various approaches to this essay:
  • Non-medical approach (personal hobbies, interesting childhood upbringing, a unique experience)
  • Write a straightforward autobiography ("I was born in California...")
  • Medically-related approach (why you would be a good doctor)
  • Why you want to attend Albany specifically
  • Use the diversity essay from another secondary
What approach did you take? There are probably infinite ways to approach this essay, but is there a "best" or "preferred" method?

I have a rough draft, where I talk about one personality trait that I have, and how it will make me a good doctor. I provide a very brief example of this from my non-medically related employment. Does this sound like it has potential?
 
I also have a question regarding this secondary prompt:

  • Please explain any inconsistencies in your university, graduate, or professional school academic performance and/or MCAT scores. (1,000 character limit)
Is this a good place to explain poor grades and inconsistencies between MCAT score, undergraduate GPA, and postbacc GPA? For example, I have a 35 MCAT, but a 3.27 undergraduate cGPA. I did a two semester postbacc in which I achieved a 4.0 GPA.

Should I explain why I did poorly in college? And how and why I was able to do better in my postbacc and MCAT? Or is this prompt only for people who had a 2.0 for three semester, but eventually had an upward trend? I don't think I have any "legitimate" reason for doing poorly in college (such as a death in the family, depression, medical problem, etc.). I came from a bad high school (low-income, first-generation), and was extremely under-prepared for college. Getting mostly B's was good enough for me at that point in my life, to be completely honest. Even if I were to use that as my explanation, I should have gotten better grades by sophomore, junior, and senior year, but there is no significant upward trend throughout my years, so I don't think I can even explain my bad grades that way. 🙁

Any advice??
 
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winterwind_23 said:
Anyone having trouble with the "Describe yourself" secondary prompt? It's only 1,000 characters, so not much space to elaborate on specific examples and provide anecdotes, as is usually advocated for essays. Anyone want to share their approach to this secondary? Scanning through old threads, I've read about various approaches to this essay:
  • Non-medical approach (personal hobbies, interesting childhood upbringing, a unique experience)
  • Write a straightforward autobiography ("I was born in California...")
  • Medically-related approach (why you would be a good doctor)
  • Why you want to attend Albany specifically
  • Use the diversity essay from another secondary
What approach did you take? There are probably infinite ways to approach this essay, but is there a "best" or "preferred" method?

I have a rough draft, where I talk about one personality trait that I have, and how it will make me a good doctor. I provide a very brief example of this from my non-medically related employment. Does this sound like it has potential?
Click to expand...

So I basically used a combination of approaches. I gave a brief description of my personal background, talked about my interest in medicine briefly and how it has developed during my undergrad years, and then talked about some of my hobbies. I basically just included aspects about my personality and interests that aren't reflected on my primary application or on the PS. Hope that helps 🙂
 
winterwind_23 said:
I also have a question regarding this secondary prompt:

  • Please explain any inconsistencies in your university, graduate, or professional school academic performance and/or MCAT scores. (1,000 character limit)
Is this a good place to explain poor grades and inconsistencies between MCAT score, undergraduate GPA, and postbacc GPA? For example, I have a 35 MCAT, but a 3.27 undergraduate cGPA. I did a two semester postbacc in which I achieved a 4.0 GPA.

Should I explain why I did poorly in college? And how and why I was able to do better in my postbacc and MCAT? Or is this prompt only for people who had a 2.0 for three semester, but eventually had an upward trend? I don't think I have any "legitimate" reason for doing poorly in college (such as a death in the family, depression, medical problem, etc.). I came from a bad high school (low-income, first-generation), and was extremely under-prepared for college. Getting mostly B's was good enough for me at that point in my life, to be completely honest. Even if I were to use that as my explanation, I should have gotten better grades by sophomore, junior, and senior year, but there is no significant upward trend throughout my years, so I don't think I can even explain my bad grades that way. 🙁

Any advice??
Click to expand...

Hm, this is a hard situation to describe. Maybe you can post in the main Pre-Allo forum and tag some adcoms such as Goro, LizzyM, and/or gyngyn who can help you out and offer advice as to how to explain it?
 
sharkbyte said:
So I basically used a combination of approaches. I gave a brief description of my personal background, talked about my interest in medicine briefly and how it has developed during my undergrad years, and then talked about some of my hobbies. I basically just included aspects about my personality and interests that aren't reflected on my primary application or on the PS. Hope that helps 🙂
Click to expand...

Ok, seems like you took a very broad approach and covered a lot of things! I decided to cover just one part of my personality (the trait of which is probably possessed by many pre-meds, though), since it's only 1,000 characters! I can't imagine how I can cover much more than that without sounding choppy. 🙁

sharkbyte said:
Hm, this is a hard situation to describe. Maybe you can post in the main Pre-Allo forum and tag some adcoms such as Goro, LizzyM, and/or gyngyn who can help you out and offer advice as to how to explain it?
Click to expand...

This sounds like a good idea!
 
Working on this secondary question now:
  • Tell us one thing about yourself that would help the Admissions Committee determine if you should be admitted to our program. (1,000 character limit)
I know it says "tell us ONE thing about yourself," but I was thinking I could write about a two things that make me a good fit for Albany. For example, I could write about my research and my background/experiences working with the underserved. Do you guys think this would be OK, or would they read my essay and think: "This guy can't even follow instructions!"?
 
winterwind_23 said:
Working on this secondary question now:
  • Tell us one thing about yourself that would help the Admissions Committee determine if you should be admitted to our program. (1,000 character limit)
I know it says "tell us ONE thing about yourself," but I was thinking I could write about a two things that make me a good fit for Albany. For example, I could write about my research and my background/experiences working with the underserved. Do you guys think this would be OK, or would they read my essay and think: "This guy can't even follow instructions!"?
Click to expand...

Come to think of it, this sounds like a variation on the diversity essay...Albany doesn't explicitly ask about how an applicant would contribute diversity to the class, but this question seems to invite a similar response. Anyone agree with me?
 
I haven't submitted yet, but does anyone know if the secondaries are the same as last year?
 
po10520 said:
I haven't submitted yet, but does anyone know if the secondaries are the same as last year?
Click to expand...

Secondaries have not been sent out yet. I am writing mine based on last year's prompts.
 
winterwind_23 said:
Come to think of it, this sounds like a variation on the diversity essay...Albany doesn't explicitly ask about how an applicant would contribute diversity to the class, but this question seems to invite a similar response. Anyone agree with me?
Click to expand...
Exactly what I was thinking!
 
For this secondary question:
  • Has your college or university, graduate or professional school attendance been interrupted for any reason? If yes, please explain. Also, please explain any gaps in your post-graduate history. (1,000 character limit)
Should I explain what I did after graduation, even though the time since graduation to now is well-documented in my AMCAS primary? I graduated in 2011, worked a few jobs, did a postbacc, and volunteered, which is all in my AMCAS primary. Not sure if I should take this question to briefly detail each year since I graduated from college. Any ideas?
 
Sort of a stupid question but how are you guys approaching the diversity essay? Just adding things/interests that are unique? I feel I have covered almost everything in my primaries
 
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I'm having some trouble finding the letter of rec requirements on the website. Not sure if I'm just looking in the wrong place. I just see "For students attending schools that do not provide this service, individual letters from faculty may be substituted."

Anyone know if there's a minimum or maximum?
 
nutelly said:
I'm having some trouble finding the letter of rec requirements on the website. Not sure if I'm just looking in the wrong place. I just see "For students attending schools that do not provide this service, individual letters from faculty may be substituted."

Anyone know if there's a minimum or maximum?
Click to expand...
According to msar minimum 2 maximum 4
 
Question for any current students. What's the process if you are trying to get into a research project? I spoke to an admissions rep today and it sounded like it's pretty difficult especially early on. Anyone here have any success?
 
Hi all,

I will be starting my first year at Albany this fall. I'll be happy to answer any questions anyone may have. Best of luck this cycle!
 
winterwind_23 said:
Anyone having trouble with the "Describe yourself" secondary prompt? It's only 1,000 characters, so not much space to elaborate on specific examples and provide anecdotes, as is usually advocated for essays. Anyone want to share their approach to this secondary? Scanning through old threads, I've read about various approaches to this essay:
  • Non-medical approach (personal hobbies, interesting childhood upbringing, a unique experience)
  • Write a straightforward autobiography ("I was born in California...")
  • Medically-related approach (why you would be a good doctor)
  • Why you want to attend Albany specifically
  • Use the diversity essay from another secondary
What approach did you take? There are probably infinite ways to approach this essay, but is there a "best" or "preferred" method?

I have a rough draft, where I talk about one personality trait that I have, and how it will make me a good doctor. I provide a very brief example of this from my non-medically related employment. Does this sound like it has potential?
Click to expand...

So secondary essays are a great way to mention or go more into stuff you that you didn't get to cover in your personal statement. That being said, I generally avoided mentioning the "why medicine" in any of my secondaries; that's what your personal statement is for.

I think your approach sounds pretty good. With this one I went with personality/hobbies. Most people will probably get caught up with trying to squeeze as many things in as they can; focusing on one or two is better because you can cover more in the other secondary essays and each will be more focused.

One tip I would offer is that I always tried to mention things that I thought would play to a doctor's strengths, but I would never say stuff like "..and this will be useful for me to be a doctor because.. blah blah blah." They get it. These are all smart people so I tried to not to spell things out too much for them and focused more on indirectly highlighting what would make me a good physician. I think that's important for making any secondary an easier read for the adcom member.
 
winterwind_23 said:
Working on this secondary question now:
  • Tell us one thing about yourself that would help the Admissions Committee determine if you should be admitted to our program. (1,000 character limit)
I know it says "tell us ONE thing about yourself," but I was thinking I could write about a two things that make me a good fit for Albany. For example, I could write about my research and my background/experiences working with the underserved. Do you guys think this would be OK, or would they read my essay and think: "This guy can't even follow instructions!"?
Click to expand...

Write about one thing. You can easily fit the other in to another secondary essay.
 
winterwind_23 said:
I also have a question regarding this secondary prompt:

  • Please explain any inconsistencies in your university, graduate, or professional school academic performance and/or MCAT scores. (1,000 character limit)
Is this a good place to explain poor grades and inconsistencies between MCAT score, undergraduate GPA, and postbacc GPA? For example, I have a 35 MCAT, but a 3.27 undergraduate cGPA. I did a two semester postbacc in which I achieved a 4.0 GPA.

Should I explain why I did poorly in college? And how and why I was able to do better in my postbacc and MCAT? Or is this prompt only for people who had a 2.0 for three semester, but eventually had an upward trend? I don't think I have any "legitimate" reason for doing poorly in college (such as a death in the family, depression, medical problem, etc.). I came from a bad high school (low-income, first-generation), and was extremely under-prepared for college. Getting mostly B's was good enough for me at that point in my life, to be completely honest. Even if I were to use that as my explanation, I should have gotten better grades by sophomore, junior, and senior year, but there is no significant upward trend throughout my years, so I don't think I can even explain my bad grades that way. 🙁

Any advice??
Click to expand...

These are always tough. I think you should definitely address your bad grades because they will be wondering about that, but keep it very short and sweet. I would say mention it in no more than a sentence or two and then focus on the positives; if you get too wordy you draw unnecessary attention the issue. Your MCAT score and Postbacch grades are stellar so if I were you I would just take ownership of what happened and write about how you turned it around and can now show you are academically capable of getting through med school.
 
BTOTHEJ said:
Hi all,

I will be starting my first year at Albany this fall. I'll be happy to answer any questions anyone may have. Best of luck this cycle!
Click to expand...

How do you think Albany stands out or distinguishes itself (curriculum, emphasis on research, etc.) from the other NY state schools? Thanks!
 
slatewater said:
How do you think Albany stands out or distinguishes itself (curriculum, emphasis on research, etc.) from the other NY state schools? Thanks!
Click to expand...

Albany Medical College is not a part of the SUNY system in NY, it's a private school
 
slatewater said:
Sorry, yes I know that. Meant to omit "state". Thanks
Click to expand...

No problem, I used to confuse it all the time myself since they have SUNY Albany undergrad :shrug: ...I wish it was a state school haha

good luck!
 
slatewater said:
How do you think Albany stands out or distinguishes itself (curriculum, emphasis on research, etc.) from the other NY state schools? Thanks!
Click to expand...

This question is probably better suited to be answered by a 2nd, 3rd, or 4th year student. There is only so much you can research about a school, the rest is really learned by experience I think. But I'm happy to share what I've gathered.

As far as what you learn, that'll be pretty much the same at any medical school; the structure of the curriculum is usually what's different. Albany uses the more traditional curriculum which is basically coursework first, then clinic. If you're interested in research, you can follow a program to earn distinction, which involves summer research after your first year and a thesis write-up/defense. I think at most schools, unless you're getting an MD/PhD, that will be the majority of your research experience. Now as far as quality goes, I think AMC is great for research. You'd have to do some of your own digging on this, but there is pretty impressive research coming out of this institute. For example, a group here has been working on a drug that has shown to be able to stop addiction cravings in animals! Another plus is that Albany Medical Center is one of the largest teaching hospitals in the state and a level 1 trauma center for both adults and pediatrics, so that's great to think about when you consider what you want from your clinical experience.

One thing that was important to me was that the students seemed very happy with their educational experience and said all the doctors are happy to help out and teach, so there should be no shortage of good opportunities for you here if you take the initiative to go out and get it! There's going to be great things about every school you check out so when you're interviewing really think about what your gut tells you on whether or not you're going to be happy there.
 
Does anyone know the maximum amount of LOR's for Albany? I can't seem to find it on their website.
 
do we need 2 science letters here, or will just 1 suffice? since they don't say anything on the website, I'm going to assume 1 is ok
 
There secondaries is definitely a bit intense.
 
I don't think schools will receive any primary applications until July 1st due to the new MCAT... so the earliest any secondaries are sent is probably July 1st.
 
Thanks! By the way I live in the area and work at Albany med so if anyone has questions feel free to ask.
 
This may be dumb of me, but I was checking out the questions from last years secondaries and I was wondering about questions such as "If you have previously applied to Albany Medical College or another medical school and were not accepted, how have you spent the intervening time? (1000 char)" and "If your school has a Premedical Advisory Committee but you are not using that service, please indicate why: (1000 char)". For me, the answers would be, no I have not applied to other med schools before, and I am using my committee service. So does anyone know if I could answer in that way? Or would it be set up in such a way that you can leave it blank? I am not sure what they would expect for people that these questions aren't relevant to.
 
I don't know whether or not you'll be able to leave it blank since I haven't seen the actual secondary. However, I don't think it will matter at all whether you leave it blank or answer either no or not applicable. I doubt they would be upset that you made them read one or two words to tell them that the question didn't apply to you. The only time I would say there is a right or a wrong way is if it explicitly said: "If this does not apply to you, please leave the answer space blank." In that case, answering no would indicate that you don't follow directions well.
 
diabolicaldoc said:
This may be dumb of me, but I was checking out the questions from last years secondaries and I was wondering about questions such as "If you have previously applied to Albany Medical College or another medical school and were not accepted, how have you spent the intervening time? (1000 char)" and "If your school has a Premedical Advisory Committee but you are not using that service, please indicate why: (1000 char)". For me, the answers would be, no I have not applied to other med schools before, and I am using my committee service. So does anyone know if I could answer in that way? Or would it be set up in such a way that you can leave it blank? I am not sure what they would expect for people that these questions aren't relevant to.
Click to expand...
Answering that way is fine.
 
What are the LOR requirements for this school? I have looked online and tried to call but haven't had any luck.
 
Pastamahn said:
What are the LOR requirements for this school? I have looked online and tried to call but haven't had any luck.
Click to expand...
Last year it was 2-4 letters and two of them needed to be from science professors. I would call and leave a message with admissions to be sure though, they're pretty good about getting back to you.
 
Should I really be drawing attention to the fact that I'm a reapplicant? Can they tell if I am a reapplicant or not? Would they be less willing to send a II if I didn't apply to them last cycle?
 
Justtheworst said:
Should I really be drawing attention to the fact that I'm a reapplicant? Can they tell if I am a reapplicant or not? Would they be less willing to send a II if I didn't apply to them last cycle?
Click to expand...
I'm pretty sure they will know. From what I've been told adcom members pull up your old application with your new one, probably via you AMCAS ID #. But I wouldn't worry, I was a reapplicant and I got accepted.
 
applying as a reapplicant....AMC show me some love <3 <3
 
When did they submit secondaries last year?
 
Justtheworst said:
Should I really be drawing attention to the fact that I'm a reapplicant? Can they tell if I am a reapplicant or not? Would they be less willing to send a II if I didn't apply to them last cycle?
Click to expand...
Well, when you add as school through AMCAS, doesnt is explicitly ask you "are you a reapplicant to this school"?
 
RudyRude said:
Well, when you add as school through AMCAS, doesnt is explicitly ask you "are you a reapplicant to this school"?
Click to expand...
Yep, but I was asking about questions that are outright "are you a reapplicant at any school?" I didn't apply to Albany last cycle but the secondary from last year asks about reapplicant cycles so I wasn't sure. I think I'll just give it out straight though, since I did improve my app either way. I just don't like these questions that are fishing for information that can might compromise an application if you aren't careful with it.
 
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