AMCAS Essays

[MedPuck]

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I have suffered through the AAMC's shortcomings as all of you have. Unfortunately I haven't been able to get through the biographical information section yet, due to numerous repeated errors. For those of you who have already entered your essays, my question is: how much space do they provide for the personal statement? I have drafted a statement which is 1.5 pages long, single spaced, and 12-font. Will this fit into the space provided on the online application? I just want to spend some time preparing for the day or month or year that I actually get to the essay section. Thanks in advance everyone. 😱

 

[Jamier2]

Medpuck, there is a set number of characters in which your personal statement should fit. I think it is ~1300, but someone else on here probably has the exact number. I used character count on my WORD program to make sure I didn't go over.

By the way, the smaller essays / descriptions about your extracurricular experiences only allow 510 characters. I don't know why I can remember that but not the personal statement count.

 

[Popoy]

The saga of the new AMCAS continues!!! 😀

 

[coop]

This is a link to a pdf version of this years app. You cannot submit this form or any other form than the one on the web, but this will tell you everything you need to know about what the web will ask if it ever stops giving errors!!!

to directly answer your ?, you get:
1325 characters for each "experience"
3650 characters for the practice vision essay
5300 characters for the personal statement

this and all the rest of the info you need is here:

http://www.aamc.org/students/applying/advisors/applicationworksheet.pdf

 

[MedPuck]

Thanks everyone. I sincerely appreciate your input. I hope that it is in fact 5300 characters because the one I have drafted is 5600 characters, so it won't be too difficult to chop it a little. Hopefully this AMCAS application starts behaving, as if this whole process isn't taking years off of our lives. Good luck and we'll be sure to cross paths on this surprisingly mature med-school admissions forum. Peace. 😀

 

[Sunlyght]

I'm not applying this year, but what's the difference between the practice vision essay, experience essay, and personal statement? (After you answer that,) do they give you guidelines for what they are looking for in each...kinda like an outline?

 

[coop]

sunlyght,
check out the link i posted, scroll down to page 12-13, it details all of the essays, what they want, etc. basically personal statement is anything you wanna say, vision is where do you see yourself in 10 yrs, and experience essays are short summaries of any extracirriculars you put on your app (honor societys/clubs/volunteering/research/etc)

here's the link again:
http://www.aamc.org/students/applying/advisors/applicationworksheet.pdf

 

[Sunlyght]

thanks 😀

 

[Jamier2]

Originally posted by coop:
•to directly answer your ?, you get:
1325 characters for each "experience"
3650 characters for the practice vision essay
5300 characters for the personal statement•

Thanks coop for the correction. I have no idea where I got the numbers I previously posted. I am glad you went to the trouble to give us not only the right information, but also a direct link to the source. I had actually previously downloaded the worksheet, and I STILL got it wrong.

Thanks again.

 

[phillybabe]

Quick question: Is the 5300 characters including spaces?

 

[pre-hawkdoc]

Originally posted by phillybabe:
•Quick question: Is the 5300 characters including spaces?•

yup.

 

[phillybabe]

Thanks pre-hawkdoc

 

[racergirl]

Be warned! Though the worksheet says you have 1325 characters for each experience, YOU ONLY HAVE 510 on the real application, which is just a few sentences. 😉