AMCAS "Experience Description" Left Empty

[Serendipitie]

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Hi! I was using my AMCAS primary to write a secondary essay and just realized that one of my "Experience Descriptions" in Work and Activities was left blank. I remeber uploading this essay so clearly, so it must not have saved, and I'm panicking. It is one of my MME's, specifically my 4000+ hours of research experience (I am only applying to MD/PhD programs). There was no information in that description that wasn't covered in much more depth in my SRE (Significant Research Experience Essay for MD/PhD applicants), so nothing important is really missing from my app; it's just the error of the blank space itself.

None of the schools I've applied to have started sending IIs, but I did get sent a secondary by a school that only sends it to ~25% of applicants, so I can't be too screwed (I hope?). When I download my AMCAS primary as a pdf, it is pretty hard to tell there is an essay missing because of the multi-paragraph MME essay right below it. I'm wondering if anyone knows how our applications are rendered when schools are reviewing them? How likely are they to notice, and if they do, how much will it hurt my application?

TLDR: Will it be terribly obvious to schools that the "Experience Description" is missing for an MME?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Moko]

TLDR: Will it be terribly obvious to schools that the "Experience Description" is missing for an MME?

In your case, some reviewers may gloss over this omission because you still talk about the activity underneath. For what it's worth, an applicant a few seasons back completely left out their narrative for a non-MME activity (so it was very obvious), but was still ranked near the top of our list. So while you may lose points with some reviewers, if a school otherwise likes the rest of your application, an omission like this is unlikely to have a material effect, at least at my school. Just my thoughts.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

I'd also check with the Research Scientists (MD/PhD) subforum here, but since you are only going for MD/PhD programs, and your experience description specifically talks about your research experience, where you have two more essays to talk about the impact research has on your career intentions, I don't think leaving the box blank is a problem. It stands out visually, but I presume the information is available elsewhere (you wrote your SRE), and it may be volunteered in other MD/PhD essays (like, go into detail about every research project for which you had a significant contribution).

I tell applicants that the adcom faculty who pay attention to the research descriptions usually are other faculty researchers. Many other non-research adcoms will defer to the researchers. And I presume if you tagged your application for MD/PhD, the med adcom will defer more.

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