Just Got Screwed Over by AACOMAS Fee Waiver (You May Have Too)

[TriagePreMed]

Original Text:

I just sent these clowns a message about my fee waiver. Because I submitted mine days before May 3rd, they discarded it and need everything to be sent again. This is absolute bull****. I would not know unless I had sent them a message.

Yes, I overreacted because I was having a bad day. Being a low income student and thinking you possibly lost your chance at applying to your dream can take a toll.

Responses are no longer needed as the issue is resolved, but feel free to learn from my mistakes.

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[stemi8]

I would remove the name if I were you..😉

 

[MedPR]

That's lame. I contacted someone about mine today (not sure when I submitted) and that same Ian guy said it takes 2-4 weeks to process after they receive it.

 

[chiddler]

Mine was processed already.

But my parents make like negative income. So maybe that's why lol

 

[MedPR]

I would remove the name if I were you..😉

Ian Vickers is the AACOMAS rep.

 

[capazzo22]

Well that sucks! It shows mine as having been received on the 15th but I have yet to hear anything out of them about it.😕

 

[MedPR]

Well that sucks! It shows mine as having been received on the 15th but I have yet to hear anything out of them about it.😕

Same here. I messaged them yesterday and they told me it will take 2-4 weeks.

 

[411309]

Stupid question, but what exactly is a fee waiver?

 

[SnowyRox]

This is not a fight that you're going to win...

" please begin your AACOMAS application when you submit your request for a fee waiver"

This says that you should do both simultaneously. Yes it's vague. And yes I understand how you misread it. But I would just let it go; these people are trying to do you a favor by waiving the fee for a few applications.

 

[dntke1518]

So wait... they haven't said no to you getting a fee-waiver, they just discarded your documents??

 

[MedPR]

Stupid question, but what exactly is a fee waiver?

If you qualify AACOMAS will waive part of your application fee and some schools will waive your secondary fee. I think AACOMAS waives the initial fee ($175?) plus the first three schools so it ends up being close to $300 savings.

I believe you have to be within 150% of the poverty line.

 

[Lui Kang]

I just sent these clowns a message about my fee waiver. Because I submitted mine days before May 3rd, they discarded it and need everything to be sent again. This is absolute bull****. I would not know unless I had sent them a message. Here is their response:

I sent in my stuff May the 7th or 8th. I called today, and some guy who sounded like he was high said " we didn't get it you need to resend it." These people are horrible compared to the AMCAS people. I hope there are still some left for me to get!

 

[tenndoc]

why not just resubmit your stuff?

 

[rjelalam]

This happened to me last cycle. I didn't find out until Almost July when I called them to see what the hold up was. I had to resend my stuff and finally was awarded the waiver mid July, so you should still be able to get one! I was told they usually run out of funds around August.

 

[aspiringdoc09]

So...bascially, they will send us an e-mail once they process it and if they give us one?

 

[NurWollen]

So, while we are the topic of fee waivers, I have question. According the the AACOMAS instructions, we are supposed to submit the SAR for "the current year." Does that mean the 2011-2012 academic year? Or the 2012-2013 academic year? I just graduated, and don't have a SAR for 2012-2013. Does that mean I need to submit my tax returns instead? Also, I am a little confused about the procedure for applying for the waiver. Do I simply send AACOMAS my SAR, and that's it, or is there an application to fill out as well?

 

[SLC]

That's what I'm doing, but I'm scared they'll run out of them by the time my stuff is reviewed.

I applied in October 2 years ago, and got the Fee Waiver. You'll be fine.

 

[capazzo22]

So, while we are the topic of fee waivers, I have question. According the the AACOMAS instructions, we are supposed to submit the SAR for "the current year." Does that mean the 2011-2012 academic year? Or the 2012-2013 academic year? I just graduated, and don't have a SAR for 2012-2013. Does that mean I need to submit my tax returns instead? Also, I am a little confused about the procedure for applying for the waiver. Do I simply send AACOMAS my SAR, and that's it, or is there an application to fill out as well?

Hey I'm in the same boat. I graduated August of 2011 and I called aacomas just to be sure that I could send just my current tax return (all 30 some odd pages of it ) since I'm not doing the fafsa this year. They told me just send the taxes. They have received my application and haven't tossed it out yet so that's probably what you should do.

 

[tenndoc]

seems to me like this thread is a product of a knee jerk reaction.

 

[Nymphicus]

Applying to medical school is a stressful time for applicants, which it seems was compounded by unclear instructions, leaving the applicant powerless and at a possible disadvantage (probably will be ok though). Also, having materials in early has been emphasized at every step--primaries, secondaries, letters, transcripts, etc--so I can see where the confusion comes from.

 

[mcrechio]

So, while we are the topic of fee waivers, I have question. According the the AACOMAS instructions, we are supposed to submit the SAR for "the current year." Does that mean the 2011-2012 academic year? Or the 2012-2013 academic year? I just graduated, and don't have a SAR for 2012-2013. Does that mean I need to submit my tax returns instead? Also, I am a little confused about the procedure for applying for the waiver. Do I simply send AACOMAS my SAR, and that's it, or is there an application to fill out as well?

My guess is that they wanted 2011/2012 for "current year" (since 2012/2013 SAR isn't really in effect until this July). I wound up sending both because I didn't want to risk being wrong.

 

[dntke1518]

seems to me like this thread is a product of a knee jerk reaction.

As do I

 

[MedPR]

Wth only a week left, I'm wondering if I should just submit on June 1 and pay all the fees. I wonder if saving a few thousand (?) dollars is worth applying a few weeks later.. Plus, if I get denied the fee waiver AND I wait to apply I'll just be more irritated.

 

[MedPR]

If your financial situation permits, go ahead and apply. Personally, I have to wait. Either way, I don't get my spring grades until June 9th. Sending my app June 15th I doubt will kill my chances.

Well my financial situation permits because I currently have 0 balance on my credit cards and about $20k of available limits.

I'm not sure how much AACOMAS costs since they don't tell you your balance ahead of time like AMCAS does, but I think my AMCAS total is just about $800 and I assume AACOMAS will be about the same. In all honesty it would take me about 9 months to pay off $1600 of credit card debt. It would be coming out of my already dwindling food budget so I'd probably be back on a diet consisting partially of ramen 🙁

If AACOMAS only requirement is within 150% of the poverty line, I should qualify. Too bad AMCAS is 300%, but they include income of your parents even if you are no longer a dependent.

 

[Tribeca]

I submitted mine in April as well because I was going off of their instructions on the website. When I found out about the "actual instructions", I resubmitted my stuff after I started my AACOMAS application, around May 11th. Now my AACOMAS "Other documents" tab shows two fee waiver requests as "Received." The first one was dated 5/15, and I assumed initially that that was the one I sent in in May. But when I checked a couple of days later, another entry dated 5/17 appeared. I'm guessing they held on to my submitted SAR and entered it in after I started my AACOMAS.

 

[aspiringdoc09]

Bump

I just received a message today from AACOMAS saying I don't qualify for the fee assistance. I was able to get AMCAS fee assistance and I had to use my parents info, but I was denied using only my info. I guess I won't apply to as many schools as I had planned because I am applying thru AMCAS and TMDSAS as well. Good luck and I hope more of y'all can get it. My application was sent the Monday after they opened, received on 5/14, and decided on today. Hope that helps you all determine processing time.

Apparently, I make too much even after just started back working after 2 year unemployment. It was worth a try though.

 

[534455]

Quote:
Originally Posted by TriagePreMed
I just sent these clowns a message about my fee waiver. Because I submitted mine days before May 3rd, they discarded it and need everything to be sent again. This is absolute bull****. I would not know unless I had sent them a message.

Insulting them won't help your application. You have to follow the rules.
However, the rules have gaps. It's up to you to discover them and maneuver accordingly.

Did you get accepted yet?

Why did you delete your original post?

 

[hallowmann]

Insulting them won't help your application. You have to follow the rules.
However, the rules have gaps. It's up to you to discover them and maneuver accordingly.

Did you get accepted yet?

Why did you delete your original post?

Why did you bump a thread that's almost a year old? Also, why would you go out of your way to post the quote that clearly OP no longer wanted posted?

Its obvious that OP was just nervous about their app being late and their response was (as other people said) a "knee-jerk" reaction to a stressful part of the process. After thinking it through, OP probably felt it was best to remove the original post. Its as simple as that. No reason to continue this old thread.

Also, I will not be posting on this again, as I don't want to further bump it.

 

[TriagePreMed]

Why did you bump a thread that's almost a year old? Also, why would you go out of your way to post the quote that clearly OP no longer wanted posted?

Its obvious that OP was just nervous about their app being late and their response was (as other people said) a "knee-jerk" reaction to a stressful part of the process. After thinking it through, OP probably felt it was best to remove the original post. Its as simple as that. No reason to continue this old thread.

Also, I will not be posting on this again, as I don't want to further bump it.

It's because in another thread this guy/gal gave advice to someone to commit fraud on AMCAS and I called him/her out. Now this person wants to go through my post history for some kind of "gotcha!" retribution.

For the record, I deleted the post because I felt there wasn't anything relevant on it anymore and the thread was long dead. I'll re-post it just to show it's not about trying to hide something.

 

[DocGodfather]

Hey guys. My income was really low for 2012. What's the most amount of money I can make and get the fee waiver for AACOMAS and AMCAS?

 

[hallowmann]

Hey guys. My income was really low for 2012. What's the most amount of money I can make and get the fee waiver for AACOMAS and AMCAS?

I don't really know, so I would check the respective websites, but above people say 150% of poverty line for AACOMAS and 300% of poverty line for AMCAS, but AMCAS includes your parents income.


Damn, I broke my promise not to post on here again. OK, ok, I'll only post if I can answer a question, otherwise I will not post here again...