Changing biographic info in AMCAS

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Hopkins2010

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I'm graduating this week, so I need to change my email/address stuff.

I pulled this off the AMCAS website:


"Allowed biographic data changes (see above link to the AMCAS Application Outline) can be made in the application itself by the applicant, and do not require that the applicant submit a change request to AMCAS. For example, if you wish to update you preferred email address, simply enter your new address on the application page, re-certify and re-submit your application.

IMPORTANT NOTE: YOUR APPLICATION WILL NOT BE UPDATED UNLESS YOU RE-CERTIFY AND RE-SUBMIT YOUR APPLICATION, EVEN THOUGH IT MAY APPEAR ON YOUR PRINTED APPLICATION AS THOUGH YOUR CHANGE HAS BEEN MADE."


Now I'm confused. How do you recertify and resubmit once you get the new "change notification process" button. There is no more recertify/resubmit on my app, there are only change requests under the new button. But the message above implied that a change request is not the same thing as a recertify/resubmit.

Has anybody tried to change their info like this yet? I'm thinking that my school is going to shut down my email account soon after I graduate, so I will start missing important emails soon unless I change it.

Also, has anybody actually noticed if this process works or not? That is, after you changed your contact info, did you notice schools updating their stuff automatically after you changed AMCAS or did you have to write/email/call each school to change the info?

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i'm really curious about this too. while my biographic info isn't changing, i will have new grades since the semester just finished. i'm REALLY wary of submitting any changes through AMCAS, however--i thought i would first submit changes to schools (i.e. send them a transcript) before i did anything with my AMCAS app to make sure that schools received the info. i was going to email a few schools that i'm still interested in to see what they prefer. anyone else with new grades in the same boat?

but i think biographic info is handled differently. when i applied the first time, i moved a couple of months after i submitted my AMCAS app. i simply wrote each school to let them know my new contact info, and i never told AMCAS about it, even though they say you're supposed to. anyway, it didn't seem to matter--schools noted my new address just fine and i heard back from them without a hitch (although none of it was good news!).

if you can, i would just bypass AMCAS. i wouldn't want to mess with my app anymore than i have to.
 
You use change notification. It's the exact same thing, just with a new label.
 
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okay, but what does this do to your app? if AMCAS is having trouble submitting info to schools (or schools are having trouble receiving it from them), then how will we know that med schools actually received our changed info?

i just don't trust AMCAS anymore...
 
If your AMCAS application has already been transmitted to the medical schools, instead of sending a change of address to AMCAS and updating grades, with transcripts, send the information directly to Admissions at the medical schools you are applying to. If the AMCAS application has not been transmitted yet, wait until you get notification of transmittal and then deal directly, as above, with the medical schools.

For anything you send yourself to medical schools, enclose a self-addressed postcard, with the name of a medical school on it, so you can verify that the information you sent has been received.

Official transcripts can usually only be sent directly from the Registrar's Office. If they permit, ask to enclose a self-addressed postcard, as described above, so you can verify transmittal. You might also try sending unoffical transcripts, or updates, which you will be able to have in your possession, along with a note that official transcripts are on the way from your Registar.

As complicated and expensive as this seems, it is a better bet, and in the long run less costly, than dealing with AMCAS. KEEP ACCURATE RECORDS OF ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING YOU SEND TO, AND RECEIVE FROM, AMCAS AND THE MEDICAL SCHOOLS.
 
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