Do People Inflate AMCAS? Does Anyone Check?

[tabletop]

---

Members don't see this ad.

So I've heard a lot of people talking about how they inflated their AMCAS primary applications (in regards to hrs/week spent doing whatever activity). Do people really do this often? I remember I knew a lot of people who did this for their undergrad apps, but I figured that such a thing wouldn't happen because med school is on a whole other level. We also have to provide a contact name for each activity we do. Does anyone from AMCAS or the med schools actually check into these contacts or get in touch with the contacts?

 

[RSAgator]

yes people inflate it and no AMCAS prolly doesn't verify. Schools may occasionally but even that seems unlikely. Actual accomplishments matter more than hours. 1000 hours doing research without a publication or anything significant to include would be pretty suspect for instance. 1000 hours volunteering probably looks very similar to 100 hours volunteering, unless that 1000 hours comes with an award, a position, or some other higher level of involvement. People inflate their AMCAS, but they also overestimate how important these inflated numbers are.

 

[p30doc]

People will lie and cheat in every field and at everything you can imagine, karma will get them eventually. I can't think a worse way to start a medical career than by being dishonest.

 

[deleted106503]

yes people inflate it and no AMCAS prolly doesn't verify. Schools may occasionally but even that seems unlikely. Actual accomplishments matter more than hours. 1000 hours doing research without a publication or anything significant to include would be pretty suspect for instance. 1000 hours volunteering probably looks very similar to 100 hours volunteering, unless that 1000 hours comes with an award, a position, or some other higher level of involvement. People inflate their AMCAS, but they also overestimate how important these inflated numbers are.

Speaking from my personal experience, I did two years of research at UF and had no publications. The grad student I worked with asked me after my first year if I was interested in doing a research project on my own and I declined. Reason being I wasn't as interested in that particular field of science (zoology) than I thought when I first signed up. The reason I stayed for an extra year was because the skills he taught me would help him with his own projects so I stuck with it rather than set him back having to train someone else (I trained new people, too).

How often can an undergrad actual publish something of value? It seems pretty difficult imo. I don't think med schools could actually EXPECT an undergrad to publish anything, imo...

As far as the topic starter, I read somewhere on this forum that a student got into a med school and a couple years later was kicked out when it was found he lied on his application about something. I don't know exactly what he lied about. Whether it was just embellishment or flat-out lie like saying you published something where clearly you didn't. Wish I knew more on that story, but that's an awful thing to do. Not only was that guy stuck with the debt incurred from loans, but I'm sure he would have explaining to do when applying for a job when asked why he's out of med school (can't lie about getting kicked out, LOL!). Not to mention another student was denied admissions so there is one less doctor from that graduating class.

There's a reason your applications have you accept the fact that you can be removed from a school's consideration for anything that may mislead them...

 

[Vania]

Honestly, I think the most common sense thing to do is to make sure your hours 'add up'.

There are very few people who, in a given semester, can take nineteen credits (~19 classroom hours, ~30 studying/homework hours), and each week, do 20 hours of research, 10 hours of volunteering, 10 hours of a part time job, and 10 hours of extracurricular activities and expect to do their best in anything.

That's a total of about 100 hours a week, or about 14 hours a day. Factor in time for eating and sleeping, and that's really pushing it.

I included a range of hours on my activities because at times I spend more time on one than the other and wanted to make sure my hours 'added up' to something reasonable.

 

[kweekes80]

as long as it is reasonable and in the ballpark its fine