I categorized an activity wrong on the AMCAS - what should I do?

[WoollyOtter]

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I have already submitted the AMCAS, and I can't change it now.

One of my school's premed advisors pointed out that I categorized one of my activities wrong, I said "community service - medical/clinical" when I meant "community service - NOT medical/clinical". The AMCAS experience types are so long, and "not" is only 3 letters, and it's in the goddamn middle.

Why doesn't AMCAS call it "medical volunteering" and "other volunteering"?

I wrote a fully honest description for the experience summary.

What should I do? Try to relax and forget it, probably? That is my guess.

Medical volunteering obviously looks better than non-medical volunteering, so I am afraid they will think I am being dishonest. That would be the worst outcome.

Less bad, more valid: If they think I am careless.

 

[Catalystik]

I have already submitted the AMCAS, and I can't change it now.

One of my school's premed advisors pointed out that I categorized one of my activities wrong, I said "community service - medical/clinical" when I meant "community service - NOT medical/clinical". The AMCAS experience types are so long, and "not" is only 3 letters, and it's in the goddamn middle.

Why doesn't AMCAS call it "medical volunteering" and "other volunteering"?

I wrote a fully honest description for the experience summary.

What should I do? Try to relax and forget it, probably? That is my guess.

Medical volunteering obviously looks better than non-medical volunteering, so I am afraid they will think I am being dishonest. That would be the worst outcome.

Less bad, more valid: If they think I am careless.

They won't think you're being dishonest if your description totally doesn't fit the tag you picked. Mistakes happen. And I'll presume you did have a decent amount of clinical patient interaction through volunteering, work, or research, anyway, and have that base covered regardless. Don't worry about it, unless that was your only nonmedical community service and you are aiming solely for service-oriented schools, in which case initial screening might miss that you are a "fit to mission."

 

[Gryffindor20]

I made that exact same mistake. I really don't think that it's a huge deal, because, as Catalystik pointed out, adcoms can read the description and they will realize it was an honest mistake. If you're like me, though, and you tend to worry excessively about tiny things, you can always email schools and let them know of the mistake.

 

[wanderingorion]

Good luck next year.