My school can’t send my official transcript to AMCAS, what do I do?

[hello-doc]

I asked my school to send my official transcript to AMCAS 3 weeks ago, and was told they don’t do paper transcript anymore. Emailed them again, the registrars office told me they made arrangement with AMCAS and offered to email my transcript to a secure email provided to them by the AMCAS. However it was never marked as received. I contacted AMCAS and was asked to check with my school. When I contacted my school, I was told I need to contact AMCAS. After over 2 weeks of emails, I was told by AMCAS today that my school doesn’t have permission to email etranscripts… when I emailed my registrars office, they told me that they have been doing it for other students without an issue. I feel lost, and I don’t even know who to blame other than my bad luck. What do I do? How much time do I have to solve this issue before it could have a significant impact on my application?

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[LizzyM]

You should aim to have this resolved by July 1st. That's a bit more than 4 weeks from now.

Start over making a request online with your registrar to have the transcript sent electronically to AMCAS. Be sure you have your correct AMCAS ID number so the transcript can be linked to the application. Pay the fee, if your school charges one.

Don't look at this as someone being to blame. Something was derailed somewhere along the line. I do think it would be best to go back to square one and request that the transcript be sent electronically from your school to AMCAS.

 

[hello-doc]

You should aim to have this resolved by July 1st. That's a bit more than 4 weeks from now.

Start over making a request online with your registrar to have the transcript sent electronically to AMCAS. Be sure you have your correct AMCAS ID number so the transcript can be linked to the application. Pay the fee, if your school charges one.

Don't look at this as someone being to blame. Something was derailed somewhere along the line. I do think it would be best to go back to square one and request that the transcript be sent electronically from your school to AMCAS.

Thank you!

 

[KnightDoc]

You should aim to have this resolved by July 1st. That's a bit more than 4 weeks from now.

Start over making a request online with your registrar to have the transcript sent electronically to AMCAS. Be sure you have your correct AMCAS ID number so the transcript can be linked to the application. Pay the fee, if your school charges one.

Don't look at this as someone being to blame. Something was derailed somewhere along the line. I do think it would be best to go back to square one and request that the transcript be sent electronically from your school to AMCAS.

The problem here is that AMCAS ONLY accepts electronic transcripts from two vendors -- Parchment and National Student Clearinghouse. If OP's school does not use one of those two vendors, and absolutely refuses to send a paper transcript (which is TOTAL BS!!!), then OP very well might be SOL.

AMCAS made an exception last year due to the pandemic, but, there are obvious security and QC issues inherent in taking electronic transcripts from just anywhere, which is why AMCAS doesn't do it. The question remains regarding a school screwing over its students like this. Either AMCAS is making an exception for this school, in which case the school should know exactly who to contact to get this resolved, or, the school is referring to last year's exception, and is flat out lying to OP about its ability to directly send an etranscript to AMCAS this year and have it be accepted.

The AMCAS position on this is clear, and the solution lies with OP's school serving its student/customer.

Sending Transcripts to AMCAS​

Electronic Transcripts:​

AMCAS accepts official PDF eTranscripts from:

• National Student Clearinghouse
• Parchment

Only AMCAS-approved senders can submit PDF eTranscripts to AMCAS. We will not accept PDF eTranscripts by email or any other way.

Requesting an electronic transcript from a school that is not approved will result in delays for your application, as you will have to submit another request to your registrar for a paper transcript. AMCAS continues to accept official paper transcripts from all institutions. Please make sure that you are using the correct AAMC and Transcript IDs to prevent any processing delays.

 

[candbgirl]

I’d try LizzyM’s suggestion first. And see what happens. I’m sure things will be fine with a new start. If it doesn’t workout, then you need to go to the Registrar’s Office and talk to the person in charge. If that doesn’t work start moving up the chain of order. Colleges want their students to be successful and they certainly don’t want a story like this getting out.

 

[KnightDoc]

I’d try LizzyM’s suggestion first. And see what happens. I’m sure things will be fine with a new start. If it doesn’t workout, then you need to go to the Registrar’s Office and talk to the person in charge. If that doesn’t work start moving up the chain of order. Colleges want their students to be successful and they certainly don’t want a story like this getting out.

With all due respect, @LizzyM's suggestion to begin with an online electronic transcript order is a dead end if the school doesn't use one of the AMCAS approved vendors, and will only waste time at this point, as AMCAS helpfully points out on its website. OP needs to go right to the registrar, explain the situation, point to the relevant AMCAS web page, and demand a resolution. Refusing to provide an official paper transcript over a year after the pandemic hit, at the very time the entire country is reopening, is totally unacceptable.

I'm the last thing from an AAMC cheerleader, but, it's unreasonable for any UG to expect AMCAS, which is processing 60,000+ applications, to conform to the needs of a single school that finds it more convenient to send an e-mail than produce an official piece of paper. The end result here, if the school doesn't get with the program, will be that school's education will become worthless to a student wishing to enter a US MD program, and OP will be SOL, not that the American medical education system as we know it will be brought to its knees. 🙂

 

[LizzyM]

With all due respect, @LizzyM's suggestion to begin with an online electronic transcript order is a dead end if the school doesn't use one of the AMCAS approved vendors, and will only waste time at this point, as AMCAS helpfully points out on its website. OP needs to go right to the registrar, explain the situation, point to the relevant AMCAS web page, and demand a resolution. Refusing to provide an official paper transcript over a year after the pandemic hit, at the very time the entire country is reopening, is totally unacceptable.

I'm the last thing from an AAMC cheerleader, but, it's unreasonable for any UG to expect AMCAS, which is processing 60,000+ applications, to conform to the needs of a single school that finds it more convenient to send an e-mail than produce an official piece of paper. The end result here, if the school doesn't get with the program, will be that school's education will become worthless to a student wishing to enter a US MD program, and OP will be SOL, not that the American medical education system as we know it will be brought to its knees. 🙂

I am very grateful to KnightDoc for this very thorough explanation of what the OP needs to do to resolve this issue. I see just a tiny bit of the iceberg and this is a good look at what is below the surface.

 

[hello-doc]

My school’s registrars office told me that they just emailed AMCAS today to request for permission to email transcript, which means they (likely unintentionally) lied to me for the last 3 weeks even after I told them that the process is VERY time sensitive. As a public school with over 35k students, I believe it is unprofessional and unethical to engage in such behaviours… I sincerely thank you all for your kind advice. I guess I will start prewriting my secondary essays while I wait. Fingers crossed it gets resolved soon. It is frustrating to be penalized for factors outside of my own control.

 

[LizzyM]

Cool your jets. You won't be penalized for having your transcripts arrive on July 1 rather than June 1. This is not an admissions process that closes you out if you apply "later" than day one even though on day 1 we have enough applicants to fill the class many times over.

 

[KnightDoc]

Cool your jets. You won't be penalized for having your transcripts arrive on July 1 rather than June 1. This is not an admissions process that closes you out if you apply "later" than day one even though on day 1 we have enough applicants to fill the class many times over.

I dunno. I totally get that needing to be in on Day 1 is a nonsensical SDN myth, but, IMHO, this is different and my jets would be just as hot as @hello-doc's under similar circumstances.

The school flat out lied for 3 weeks, saying it had done something it clearly did not do, and claiming it had also done for others. Total BS. Now, they are claiming to have asked for permission to do something AMCAS has explicitly stated on its website it will not allow.

Maybe AMCAS will make an exception for a large public institution that apparently doesn't want to force its people to come back to the office two months after vaccines have been widely available all over the country, but, given how inflexible AMCAS typically is with its requirements, I certainly wouldn't count on it.

All I know is I haven't heard of another large educational institution refusing to provide hard copy official transcripts upon request. This was a problem this time last year, and AMCAS made the necessary accommodation so that literally thousands of people would not find themselves unable to apply. That's over, just like holding first application transmissions until the middle of July, shortened MCATs and two week turnarounds on score reporting.

There has not been a single other report of a school refusing to provide paper transcripts, and I'd be just as worried as @hello-doc about being caught in the middle until my school sent its people back to work or signed a contract with Parchment. I certainly wouldn't count on AMCAS fixing this for me by granting the waiver the school first claimed it already had, and is now, 3 weeks later, first seeking.

 

[teddy_tu]

I dunno. I totally get that needing to be in on Day 1 is a nonsensical SDN myth, but, IMHO, this is different and my jets would be just as hot as @hello-doc's under similar circumstances.

The school flat out lied for 3 weeks, saying it had done something it clearly did not do, and claiming it had also done for others. Total BS. Now, they are claiming to have asked for permission to do something AMCAS has explicitly stated on its website it will not allow.

Maybe AMCAS will make an exception for a large public institution that apparently doesn't want to force its people to come back to the office two months after vaccines have been widely available all over the country, but, given how inflexible AMCAS typically is with its requirements, I certainly wouldn't count on it.

All I know is I haven't heard of another large educational institution refusing to provide hard copy official transcripts upon request. This was a problem this time last year, and AMCAS made the necessary accommodation so that literally thousands of people would not find themselves unable to apply. That's over, just like holding first application transmissions until the middle of July, shortened MCATs and two week turnarounds on score reporting.

There has not been a single other report of a school refusing to provide paper transcripts, and I'd be just as worried as @hello-doc about being caught in the middle until my school sent its people back to work or signed a contract with Parchment. I certainly wouldn't count on AMCAS fixing this for me by granting the waiver the school first claimed it already had, and is now, 3 weeks later, first seeking.

I had a similar issue. Parchment wasn't working for the AAMC. After multiple calls with AAMC and my school, I sent two paper transcripts. No idea why your program is having an issue. Super sorry about this

 

[KnightDoc]

I had a similar issue. Parchment wasn't working for the AAMC. After multiple calls with AAMC and my school, I sent two paper transcripts. No idea why your program is having an issue. Super sorry about this

It's not me, it's @hello-doc, and the problem isn't Parchment, it's that his school doesn't use Parchment and it is flat out refusing to send a paper transcript. They want to e-mail it, which was allowed last year since everyone was working from home and many schools did not have the ability to produce a paper transcript under the circumstances. That is no longer the case, AMCAS is no longer allowing e-mailed transcripts, and @hello-doc is stuck in the middle!

 

[teddy_tu]

It's not me, it's @hello-doc, and the problem isn't Parchment, it's that his school doesn't use Parchment and it is flat out refusing to send a paper transcript. They want to e-mail it, which was allowed last year since everyone was working from home and most schools did not have the ability to produce a paper transcript. That is no longer the case, AMCAS is no longer allowing e-mailed transcripts, and @hello-doc is stuck in the middle!

Sorry!

 

[KnightDoc]

Sorry!

No problem!! 🙂

 

[LizzyM]

If the school is in Canada, it might be worth remembering that only 6% of the Canadian population is fully vaccinated so the expectations of what school officials there can/should do might be different than what we'd expect right now from US administrators. It might be a little bit unreasonable to expect a university to jump through the hoops set up by a foreign entity for applicants to medical school in that other country.

 

[KnightDoc]

If the school is in Canada, it might be worth remembering that only 6% of the Canadian population is fully vaccinated so the expectations of what school officials there can/should do might be different than what we'd expect right now from US administrators. It might be a little bit unreasonable to expect a university to jump through the hoops set up by a foreign entity for applicants to medical school in that other country.

Absolutely! It might also be unreasonable to expect AMCAS to make a foreign jurisdiction exception, versus just telling whoever is impacted to sit out a cycle. I'm not an IT expert, but, aside from the extra work, I think AMCAS worries about spoofing, hacking, etc. in accepting e-mail docs. Parchment and the other vendor use a server to server file transfer protocol that is very secure. OP's school really did him a disservice by just assuming last year's accommodations would be made without verifying that ahead of time.

That said @hello-doc said it's a public school with over 35,000 students. Isn't that like half of Canada's adult population?? 🙂

I hate that the school lied to OP, and I really wouldn't relax until I knew AMCAS was going to fix it. If this is a Canadian thing, they might very well punt, and that will leave @hello-doc SOL. After all, it's not like the Canadian schools are wide open to Americans, or that there is some kind of heavy duty cooperation going on between AMCAS and its Canadian counterpart. Without a critical mass of people impacted, AMCAS might not do anything. I really hope I am wrong here, but I certainly wouldn't relax after being jerked around by the school for close to a month.

 

[DoctorFate]

@hello-doc What ended up happening? Did you manage to make it in time for this cycle?

 

[KnightDoc]

@hello-doc What ended up happening? Did you manage to make it in time for this cycle?

I think I read on another thread that AMCAS fixed it and made an exception for the impacted Candians.

 

[hello-doc]

@hello-doc What ended up happening? Did you manage to make it in time for this cycle?

Yup, my school made arrangement with AMCAS and I believe my school’s registrars office emailed my transcript. I wasted almost one month tho, sadly.