Has anyone had a problem with information changing on their AMCAS application after submitting it? I just printed out my essay today and found commas missing and words missing letters. If you are all as crazy as I am, I'm sure you know how many times I reviewed it before submitting. These mistakes are not in any of my copies of the statement. I don't know what to do....I'm so angry. Anyone else have this problem?????
AMCAS mistakes
- Thread starter bonw1031
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in my personal statement, i had two separate paragraphs connected. the paragraphs had nothing to do with each other. i realized this after i had submitted it and printed it out. but apparently, the same thing happened to my friend. i still received interviews so i guess it was not a big deal.
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Yeah, AMCAS has a weird formatting thing going on. I thought I proof-read mine before hitting the submit button too.. but when I hit the print the application button, it came out with oddly placed question marks and no spacing for paragraphs (which I had purposely made in the box)
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Last year AMCAS made a mistake calculating one of my marks... for my Calculus grade I got an A, but they put it as a B+
However, once I noticed they quickly corrected the error and sent it to all the schools.... still though it brought my average down to a 3.49 it was supposed to be a 3.51 last year.....
However, once I noticed they quickly corrected the error and sent it to all the schools.... still though it brought my average down to a 3.49 it was supposed to be a 3.51 last year.....
Amy B
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I hated how AMCAS formatted my essay. Everything runs together in a huge massive paragraph. I can only imagine how hard it is on the adcoms eyes to read these huge blocks of words with no breaks in them.
Don't worry about the missing commas, it will be ok.
Don't worry about the missing commas, it will be ok.
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I had some problems with my AMCAS essay as well. I didn't have any formatting problems per se but there are parts of my essay where one paragraph suddenly stops, the previous paragraph is repeated and then the rest of the original paragraph continues. I sent revised copies of my essay the med schools and everything seems to be working out.
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I wouldn't worry too much about it. I obviously happens to a lot of people (me included). I've been told that adcoms are pretty used to it, and are used to overlooking that sort of stuff. As long as the content makes sense, they're going to be able to tell that you are an intelligent human being.
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To ensure that paragraphs will be printed out correctly, you have to skip a line from one paragraph to the next. For some reason, the TAB button does not work in the AMCAS essay field and instead, the essay is printed out as one long paragraph. I know there's not much that can be done now for those who have submitted for this year, but hopefully future applicants will read this and not encounter the same problem.
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AMCAS makes lots of mistakes. Not only were there formatting problems with my essay, my transcript was so problematic that I received letters from several schools saying that I did not meet the prereqs for med school. They listed my first two years of college as HS, and my JR and SR years as Frosh and Soph. Many of the med schools thought that I was only a Junior, when in fact, I was a 5th year senior. My age did not help matters any (I got my Associate's degree while I was finishing HS). Although I originally notified AMCAS of the problem in September, it took them until March to fix it. When I arrived at WFUSM to interview, they thought I was applying, through their early assurance program, to the class of 2008.
As someone else said, the ADCOMS are used to AMCAS mistakes (just look at what happened when they got rid of the paper and disk applications). Although, ADCOMS can't overlook all AMCAS mistakes (such as grossly incorrect transcripts), I'm sure most formatting issues will be overlooked. Keep in mind, most schools don't look at your personal statement until they send you a secondary. Most of the time you'll have to submit some form of writing sample as part of the secondary, so you get another chance to prove to them that you're a competent writer.
As someone else said, the ADCOMS are used to AMCAS mistakes (just look at what happened when they got rid of the paper and disk applications). Although, ADCOMS can't overlook all AMCAS mistakes (such as grossly incorrect transcripts), I'm sure most formatting issues will be overlooked. Keep in mind, most schools don't look at your personal statement until they send you a secondary. Most of the time you'll have to submit some form of writing sample as part of the secondary, so you get another chance to prove to them that you're a competent writer.
Amy B
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HAHAHA, I so rememeber that nightmare. That is the year I applied and thought I was going to have to blow up AMCAS. what a horrible thing it was. People who didn't apply that year have NOOOOO idea what AMCAS put us through.
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Yeah, you will have punctuation errors if you type your essay into word and cut and paste it into the application. For instance, you typed an apostrophe, but when cut and pasted, it appears as a semi-colon.
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amcas has problems as well as many other online secondaries...
id call the schools and ask about them and they are all...oh yeah we know about that but theres nothing we can do about it.
dont worry about paragraph breaks...if your response is organized enough then we should be able to figure it out...
is what they said. i know at least on the amcas you can try and correct the mistakes after you cut and paste but for other school secondaries...theres not much you can do.
not much you can do unless you want to resubmit amcas and that is a big no no.
id call the schools and ask about them and they are all...oh yeah we know about that but theres nothing we can do about it.
dont worry about paragraph breaks...if your response is organized enough then we should be able to figure it out...
is what they said. i know at least on the amcas you can try and correct the mistakes after you cut and paste but for other school secondaries...theres not much you can do.
not much you can do unless you want to resubmit amcas and that is a big no no.
