AMCAS application for 2007

[IooI]

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Hey does anyone know when the new AMCAS app will be up? Just curious to know when people usually get started filling that out since the first day you're allowed to submit it is June 1.

Also, regarding the essay submission, is there a word or character maximum? As of now my essay is 2 pages single spaced, which is more than 1000 words...

Last question...i go to a quarter system school and was wondering if I could submit my AMCAS app on June 1st even without receiving my spring quarter grades yet. Grades usually come out end of June but I dont want that to hold me back from applying early. Do I just include in my transcript my spring quarter classes with anticipated grades and if the grades dont happen to match up they just ask me to fix the application during the verification process?

 

[thinknofu3]

I'm going to attempt to answer your questions point by point:

- I'm not sure when the 2007 AMCAS will be up, but I seem to remember the 2006 one becoming available sometime around late April/Early May. Most of it is filling out fairly basic information (where you attended school, etc). The most complex thing is the personal statement, as you know, and the descriptions of your extracurriculars. You can start preparing these beforehand if you like:

- For ECs, you put in (and i'm taking this directly from AMCAS 2006) what the experience type was (they provide categories), start and end dates, # of hours per week, what organization it was with (if there was one) and a contact person for it. Then you can enter a description, for which you're allowed 1325 characters (this includes spaces) - they estimate this around a quarter page, but all word processors have character counts.

- For the personal statement, the character maximum in 2006 wass 5300 characters - again including spaces. In Times New Roman 12 pt font, that's approx. a page and a half single spaced. I checked my essay and it's counted at 845 words (but again, AMCAS goes by the character count)

- Finally, I went to a school that was on the quarter system as well. If I were you, I would wait for the spring quarter grades, especially since you have to send AMCAS an official transcript so they can verify the grades you enter on the electronic application. Because of this verification process, you don't want to put "anticipated grades", because if they don't match you could potentially be flagged for "lying" even when you weren't lying. Everything gets cross-referenced with your transcript - which is why most pre-med advising offices suggest you get a copy of your offical transcript for yourself to look over and make sure there are no mistakes before sending it off to AMCAS. Now I understand that you might not get your grades until after June 1st, but don't freak out that this might delay the submission of your AMCAS application until mid-June - it's *NOT* a big deal. That's still considered SUPER early, and you'll get your AMCAS processing done in no time (mine took less than 2 weeks), and start getting secondaries by early July (many schools don't even have their secondaries ready by that time - a bunch of mine didn't arrive until August). I waited for my spring grades, and it didn't affect me adversely one bit - you can take a look at my MDApplicants profile if you want evidence for that.

I hope that answered your questioned adequately, feel free to ask any more if you have them.

 

[IooI]

thanks for the info

I was just worried about sending in my AMCAS app late because I heard how crucial it is to have it in early. My spring quarter grades wont be known until early July, which is whack, but I guess not too big of a deal..

Now to start pruning my essay..