**official** Aacomas Help Thread

[DD214_DOC]

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I foresee many questions in the future, so might as well start this now. Here are some:

Where do I list my ECs, Shadowing, etc.? I only see a list for honors/awards and volunteering/internships. Do I stick them into the volunteering/internship area?

 

[Aaron Earles]

Hey JKDMed,

The ECs and shadowing go into the volunteering / internship section of the aacomas. If you have any more questions, dont hesitate to ask.

Aaron

 

[Aaron Earles]

Also, on the discription following the title of the volunteer work, award, ect, there is a maximum number of characters that can be used in each field. I am pretty sure that last year the discription field would only allow 500 characters. Just a heads up.

Aaron

 

[DD214_DOC]

One more question. For physiological psychology, aacomas says that, "determined by department".

I take it since the class is listed as PSYC 460, it won't count as a science credit?

 

[kdances]

One more question. For physiological psychology, aacomas says that, "determined by department".

I take it since the class is listed as PSYC 460, it won't count as a science credit?

It might be considered a behavioral science.

 

[DD214_DOC]

It might be considered a behavioral science.

I meant in anything that would count in the science GPA.

 

[Aaron Earles]

One more question. For physiological psychology, aacomas says that, "determined by department".

I take it since the class is listed as PSYC 460, it won't count as a science credit?

JKDMed,

I took physiolgical psychology as well. It was listed as Behavioral Science on my AACOM application. My class was more bio than psych but nevertheless. Sometimes AACOM will review your application and make the necessary changes if they feel that they are appropriate.

Aaron

 

[theDr.]

How far back is everyone going w/ work experience?

 

[theDr.]

Also, can we submit the application in now or do we have to wait until June 1st in order to submit the application? Thanks.

 

[Aaron Earles]

I think the first day that you can acutally submit your application is June 1st. However, there is usually a delay and you cannot submit until around june 6 or 7th. Just keep checking the site to see if it will accept your submission.

Aaron

 

[DD214_DOC]

Are we only able to view our "applicant profile" after paying the money? I'm just curious if aacomas calculates my GPA the same way I did.

 

[ArcherM2]

After the high school information, are we supposed to put our year of graduation from college or from high school??

 

[DD214_DOC]

Secondary School: Enter the name, city and state of the secondary school where you graduated and the date of graduation.


So high school 🙂

Should we write brief descriptions of our EC's and volunteer work in the box?

 

[ArcherM2]

I was wondering the same thing about work experience. I figure in order to report the level of responsibility I've held, I would need to describe the position, right?

btw thanks for the high school thing!

 

[CoverMe]

I think the first day that you can acutally submit your application is June 1st. However, there is usually a delay and you cannot submit until around june 6 or 7th. Just keep checking the site to see if it will accept your submission.

the "certify and transmit" button was "unfuzzy" just now... so i clicked it to see what would happen... had to check a few boxes (no academic actions against me, no felonies, never matriculated to a M.D. school before) and then i got a warning box that my FAP would automatically get deleted if i transmitted now. So, I stopped... but if everything's filled in, apparently they at least "unfuzzy" the box for you.. can't tell you what happens after those steps though!

BTW... 😍 to Aaron.. have gotten a few HUGE 👍 regarding the PS. I'm muy pleased!! thank you!!!!

****** EDIT ********
Sorry, had more than one thread up on my screen... thought this was an AMCAS question, not a AACOMAS. Again, sorry for the confusion... mea culpa!

 

[CoverMe]

How far back is everyone going w/ work experience?

I'm going back to my first "real" job after HS, when i was a Deputy. I haven't held oodles of jobs, and it all feeds into my PS, so I'm listing everything.

incidentally... this means i'm going back to 1992.

 

[JohnDO]

I have a couple of questions:

Exactly what constitutes an "EC"?

Also, for volunteer positions, are they looking for exact dates? (i.e. July 5th, 2002-) or just rough ideas. Unfortunately, I don't remember the exact month I started volunteering at a local church (it was a long, long time ago). I remember I volunteered all the way up until 2002, but again I'm not sure on the month. I can do my best to make a good guess, but I have no formal documentation and the church isn't even around anymore. What do you all think?

Edit: How much documentation of my volunteer positions am I going to need to provide? Many of my positions/projects aren't documented and probably couldn't be followed through on (like the church, or various positions held in clubs at school)...do I need to exclude these?

 

[DD214_DOC]

As far as I know, we're not required to provide any documental proof of our activities.

 

[theDr.]

First) Can we start asking out university to send out transcripts to AACOMAS

Second) We can start submitting our application June 1st or can we submit it right now?

Thank you.

 

[dancote]

Hi,

I am not sure what term designations I should use. At my school, we have a fall semester (sept-Dec) and then a winter semester (jan-april). There is also a short spring and summer session which a small number of students take. The choices on the Aacomas are for semesters, trimeseters, or quarters. But, the semeseter choice does not seem to fit because it requires 'summer semester', 'fall semeseter', 'interim', and 'spring semester'.
My transcript lists my credits for each fall or winter semester as QHRS for example, QPTS 16.00
Can someone please help me determine the proper terms to select?

-Thank you!

ps- why do we have to fill all this gpa stuff in anyway if they are going to determine it later anyway!?

 

[DrLiver]

Is anyone having problems with the limit on this and the vol section? I have got it down to 650 words, but I am still getting an error? What should I do?
I'm afraid this might happen with my PS as well.

 

[Robz]

Just cut it down to the appropiate words....remember spaces count as letters too.

You'll get a chance to add to the EC's and such when the secondaries come in too.

 

[JohnDO]

Should I go ahead and have my transcripts sent to AACOMAS, and will I receive any sort of verification that they have received them?

Also, I take it that I cannot submit my application until after I send my MCAT scores to AACOMAS (they're not released till June 15th)? That means I won't be applying till later june early july if I accoutn for processing and mailing time.. 🙁 🙁

 

[DD214_DOC]

You can submit without scores (I'm going to) but waiting a couple weeks isn't really going to hurt that much. I'm not taking the test till August and most admissions people I have spoken with say it isn't a big deal.

 

[JohnDO]

I have a real quick question: Can I only send AACOMAS my transcripts AFTER I've paid? I havn't paid yet, but I had my transcripts sent today, is that ok? Also, once I pay, will I receive updates as to whether or not they've confirmed my transcripts?

Thanks!

 

[scubadiva]

Yes, you should send it and they will hold it for you. It's better than waiting until you turn in your aacomas (that's what I did) and then I waited until it was verified, so it took me a long time to get verified. I recommend sending it that way you get verified faster.

 

[JohnDO]

Thanks scuba!

 

[DD214_DOC]

I mailed mine out a couple weeks ago, which was stupid since I need to update fo rusmmer anyways. Oh well.

 

[JohnDO]

Anyone know what credit cards AACOMAS accepts? I can't see without "finalizing" my application. 😛


Oh, and one more question: there wasn't a slip of paper I was supposed to print and sent with my transcripts to AACOMAS right? When I was at the registrar's office she said "there's no slip to go with this one?" ... I didn't see anything on the website about it though..

 

[DD214_DOC]

Nope, AACOMAS doesn't have anything like AMCAS.

 

[OnMyWayThere]

In filling out the application, what do you put under Course Name?

Say Psych 321 is Experimental Psychology... Do you put:

Number: 321
Course Name: Experimental Psych
Subject: Behavioral Sciences

Or do we put Psych under course name?

 

[dollarbincommon]

Anybody else like me?

Do you have your volunteer/intership and honor/awards boxes empty? I haven't done any volunteer or have gotten any trophies since I got into college. 🙁 (But I have the employment box filled). I did hospital volunteer back in high school. Does that count?

 

[dollarbincommon]

In filling out the application, what do you put under Course Name?

Say Psych 321 is Experimental Psychology... Do you put:

Number: 321
Course Name: Experimental Psych
Subject: Behavioral Sciences

Or do we put Psych under course name?

yeah, that's what I did. I just typed out the name of the course ("experimental psych") under course name. That way, so that the AACOMAS peeps don't get confused from the other psych courses....

 

[kaikai128]

Anybody else like me?

Do you have your volunteer/intership and honor/awards boxes empty? I haven't done any volunteer or have gotten any trophies since I got into college. 🙁 (But I have the employment box filled). I did hospital volunteer back in high school. Does that count?

Since you do not have anything else to put, I would put HS info in. You can't think of any volunteer work that you did--i wish all of my work was paid???? No Scholarships, financial awards, deans list, honors societies, etc? I had to do some digging, but I came up with quite a bit to put in here.

 

[scubadiva]

Anyone know what credit cards AACOMAS accepts? I can't see without "finalizing" my application. 😛


Oh, and one more question: there wasn't a slip of paper I was supposed to print and sent with my transcripts to AACOMAS right? When I was at the registrar's office she said "there's no slip to go with this one?" ... I didn't see anything on the website about it though..

I think your standard Visa and Mastercard or American Express.

Last year's application didn't have a form to fill out to go with the trascripts.

 

[scubadiva]

Anybody else like me?

Do you have your volunteer/intership and honor/awards boxes empty? I haven't done any volunteer or have gotten any trophies since I got into college. 🙁 (But I have the employment box filled). I did hospital volunteer back in high school. Does that count?

Look at your college organizations, and you can probably scrounge around for some sort of "humanitarian" work that you did.

 

[OnMyWayThere]

Anybody else like me?

Do you have your volunteer/intership and honor/awards boxes empty? I haven't done any volunteer or have gotten any trophies since I got into college. 🙁 (But I have the employment box filled). I did hospital volunteer back in high school. Does that count?

If you made Dean's List, that would fit into honor/awards...

 

[JohnDO]

Anybody else like me?

Do you have your volunteer/intership and honor/awards boxes empty?

Try and dig for SOMETHING to put in there. Any clubs, sports, groups you're involved with? Any mentoring, tutoring?

 

[DD214_DOC]

If you made Dean's List, that would fit into honor/awards...

When we do Dean's list, do we put the date and the college, or just date? I was on the list in the College of Science & Mathematics, but I'm currently in Liberal Arts.

 

[OnMyWayThere]

When we do Dean's list, do we put the date and the college, or just date? I was on the list in the College of Science & Mathematics, but I'm currently in Liberal Arts.

I put only date.... the rest doesn't do anything... they see what classes you took that semester and that's what counts.