Count your blessings: remembering the AMCAS fiasco of 2002

[Socrates25]

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I'm probably one of the few posters remaining from the late 90s/early 2000s era of SDN. I used to have another moniker but lost the user name/password years ago so I had to start from scratch.

Let me tell you a tale about the first web based application for medical school -- AMCAS 2002

It was rolled out with great fanfare -- for the first time paper applications would be a thing of the past -- or so they told us.

Within 2 weeks of the opening of AMCAS for the 2002 application cycle, the entire system crashed. And I don't mean crashed for a few hours, I mean crashed for MONTHS.

After creating an account, the system would freeze every screen you advanced. For weeks we would post on SDN if somebody was actually able to get to the next screen without freezing. Personally I spent over 50 hours trying to enter all my info into the system and actually get it to accept the data.

Eventually late in the fall, AMCAS admitted failure and many of the schools started requesting paper applications in lieu of AMCAS. The first round of acceptances by med schools was done strictly based on paper apps.

Many med school had to push back their application deadline dates to accomodate the collossal AMCAS screwup.

Finally AMCAS finally got their stuff together and the system became functional again a few days before med school application deadlines.

Any other old timers remember that besides me?

 

[Geo16]

I'm probably one of the few posters remaining from the late 90s/early 2000s era of SDN. I used to have another moniker but lost the user name/password years ago so I had to start from scratch.

Let me tell you a tale about the first web based application for medical school -- AMCAS 2002

It was rolled out with great fanfare -- for the first time paper applications would be a thing of the past -- or so they told us.

Within 2 weeks of the opening of AMCAS for the 2002 application cycle, the entire system crashed. And I don't mean crashed for a few hours, I mean crashed for MONTHS.

After creating an account, the system would freeze every screen you advanced. For weeks we would post on SDN if somebody was actually able to get to the next screen without freezing. Personally I spent over 50 hours trying to enter all my info into the system and actually get it to accept the data.

Eventually late in the fall, AMCAS admitted failure and many of the schools started requesting paper applications in lieu of AMCAS. The first round of acceptances by med schools was done strictly based on paper apps.

Many med school had to push back their application deadline dates to accomodate the collossal AMCAS screwup.

Finally AMCAS finally got their stuff together and the system became functional again a few days before med school application deadlines.

Any other old timers remember that besides me?

.... So does that mean you have to send in the same copy to the schools you desire to apply? WTF
Applying to 30 schools = 30 packets of same application..

 

[Socrates25]

.... So does that mean you have to send in the same copy to the schools you desire to apply? WTF
Applying to 30 schools = 30 packets of same application..

Absolutely, we had to print out the AMCAS app and mail it to all the schools ourselves. That's after spending hundreds of dollars for their new web based application that didnt work.

Believe it or not there were some people on here at the time that wanted to start a class action lawsuit against AMCAS lol

 

[Oso]

Absolutely, we had to print out the AMCAS app and mail it to all the schools ourselves. That's after spending hundreds of dollars for their new web based application that didnt work.

Believe it or not there were some people on here at the time that wanted to start a class action lawsuit against AMCAS lol

Jesus. I would have just quit and pursued a different career.

 

[Geo16]

Absolutely, we had to print out the AMCAS app and mail it to all the schools ourselves. That's after spending hundreds of dollars for their new web based application that didnt work.

Believe it or not there were some people on here at the time that wanted to start a class action lawsuit against AMCAS lol

So you applied in 2002-3 cycle? DAMN
Big props for becoming a doctor through that hell hole year!

 

[LizzyM]

I remember 2001 as being something of a nightmare as well. With no commercial aviation for about a week after 9/11 and then the anthrax spread through the postal service, there was no FedEx, no airmail, and then very limited airline schedules through the end of the year. I also seem to recall a glitch in the software so that we saw the list of schools that an applicant had applied to.

I also remember the room of paper files (we always called them "charts") overseen by a clerk and an entire walk-in closest filled with blank secondary applications that went out in big envelopes to the lucky applicants who made it through the first screen. As the electronic system made it cheaper to send secondaries, it became less important to pre-screen applicants before sending the secondary. That might be one of the biggest changes that came out of the electronic system.

 

[BuckStrickland]

hmm.. I was in the third grade

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

hmm.. I was in the third grade

I was a freshman in college :/

 

[ekmf27050]

I feel like this should be the next Netflix documentary complete with footage of premeds in the wild.

"An Icy Summer: The Frozen AMCAS of 2002"