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And what action did SJA take?
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*~*~*~* Official AMCAS Questions Thread 2019-2020 *~*~*~*
Started by Matthew9Thirtyfive
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1) enter EXACTLY as on transcript so no letter grade.
2) read the section on AP in applicant guide. You can split up your AP credit and self label such BIOLOGY 6 credits CHEMISTRY 8 credits
They just told me not to do it again even though I did not drink. They said it was a formality to talk to me about it because I was around alcohol and under age at the time. Then we had a second meeting with my friend that I was taking care of and they just told me not to do it again
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Still, you spoke to them in a formal capacity, I am inclined to note it on AMCAS
@Goro @LizzyM thoughts?
I recommend reporting it because the infraction itself isn't lethal (except at LUCOM and Loma Linda) and I have seen people get rejected when someone omits this type of info, but gets outed by a LOR writer who writes something like "Traveling medicine has grown so much as a person since the incident"
Ask the school if you have an institutional action on your record, or if you ever had anything on your record that has since been erased. If yes, you must report. If not, you need not report.
Frankly, caring for someone who is sick (alcohol poisoning can be fatal!) is not something any medical school should "ding" you for but if your school did not take "institutional action" against you then it is easier not to have to report.
Do letter writers need to mention their AMCAS Letter ID somewhere in the letter? And if so, where?
Thank you all for your input. I am going to email SJA to see if they have something that was formally put onto my record.
If I applied to a medical school's early assurance program and did not get in, do I need to list myself as a reapplicant to that school?
no, it isnt neccessary
@gonnif question for you about filling out coursework as a confirmation.
if my transcript says "subject number" for course number and lists BL xxxx for my General Biology I course, do I just list it as xxxx, or do I put BL xxxx?
Additionally, for a 4 credit lecture and lab combined, clicking the "combined lab and lecture" button means that you do have to put "General Biology I and lab" even though it doesn't say "and lab" on the official transcript?
thanks,
if my transcript says "subject number" for course number and lists BL xxxx for my General Biology I course, do I just list it as xxxx, or do I put BL xxxx?
Additionally, for a 4 credit lecture and lab combined, clicking the "combined lab and lecture" button means that you do have to put "General Biology I and lab" even though it doesn't say "and lab" on the official transcript?
thanks,
1. Use letters and numbers
See page 28 (PDF page 35) of
https://aamc-orange.global.ssl.fast...473/aamc-2020-amcas-applicant-guide041119.pdf
2. You can add AND LAB
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Why dont you call AMCAS first
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I took some language courses that had a discussion section that was distinct from the lecture. Do I mark these as Lecture Only or Combined Lecture and Lab?
Also, I have AP credit that was accepted at the community College I went to as well as some that were accepted by my university. Chronologically, I went to the CC first so do I only list those AP courses for the CC or list them twice for the CC and 4 year?
Were these discussion sections separate course? You can mark AND LAB but I suggest no as it can be looked as misleading
List them once see bottom page 30 (pdf page 37) of applicant guide for specifics on this
https://aamc-orange.global.ssl.fast...473/aamc-2020-amcas-applicant-guide041119.pdf
They were part of the same course and those classes that did have the extra discussion section were an extra credit hour as compared to classes that didn't.
givesumacceptpls
Full Member
What happens if I submit to 1 school to get verified, but then my mcat comes back and I decide to no longer apply to schools, am I going to be labeled as a re-applicant accross the board next cycle?
Im going to apply to only one MD/PhD program so I am not focusing on the MD/PhD essays yet, but I can't submit my AMCAS until I finish all essays. Is it possible to submit my AMCAS without adding that one school to my list and then add it once my app has been verified? Will there be any additional wait time involved if I do it this way?
you will be a reapplicant ONLY at that one school
I am unsure if this is possible; you have to ask AMCAS directly
It should be on letterhead which isnt the same as logo. If it written as a business letter including full practice name and/or “PC” then it should be ok. I am suprised if the doctor does not have some sort of letterhead.
When entering high school courses into AMCAS, if the course was
-"college-level" (such as organic chemistry)
-not an AP course
-not listed on any college-level transcript
-not taken through any college, offered directly through high school
Should I enter it into AMCAS? and if so, how? Additionally, should I then list the organic chemistry I took in college as a repeat course?
-"college-level" (such as organic chemistry)
-not an AP course
-not listed on any college-level transcript
-not taken through any college, offered directly through high school
Should I enter it into AMCAS? and if so, how? Additionally, should I then list the organic chemistry I took in college as a repeat course?
If you did not get college credit and/or it does not appear on a transcript, then it is not a college class. Do not list it
D
deleted981412
This may be neurotic, but I started filling out the application for 2019 and never submitted but sent in my transcript. Didn't add any schools, didn't link it to Interfolio. My information has carried over while filling out the 2020 form. Isn't that strange? I hear that it's not supposed to. I'm 99.9% sure it's okay but just wanted to check in case there is something to be concerned about
D
deleted981412
Also, I would like to ask, is there a difference between submitting on May 30 and being verified and waiting till 28 for transmission vs submitting say June 6 and being verified June 27 and being shipped at the same time? If so, where does the "submit by June 1" theory come from?
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I would call AMCAS as I think you may be filling out the wrong year. Double check
Because verification isnt a standard timeline. The earlier you submit, the more time to ensure verification, especially if some issue arises that needs to be addressed. However, the paranoia about timing is just that, paranoia.
On the other hand, while many schools will send out unscreened secondaries almost immediately after being transmitted, most places do not start looking at them until mid July. Application and candidate evaluations timeline varies widely by school may not done in a linear, chronological order. EDP, High achievers, URM, family of alumni, feeder schools, associated UG programs, linked postbaccs, and other factor may push an app forward in the process. and then the applications are prioritized and not done in a linear chronological order.
Lastly, with schools getting 5,000+ application and when they are running at full processing capacity, usually not until August, they can look at maybe 500 applications a week. Therefore, it can take up to 12-16 weeks (3-4 months) from the time your application is complete to actually being evaluated and reviewed. Hence why being complete by Sept. 1st may mean you wont be evaluated until Thanksgiving or later
********AMCAS 2020 Timeline Summary (post count #008)************
-AMCAS May 1, 2019, Primary application opens up. Can send formal requests for transcripts from your schools and letter requests to your letter writers.
-AMCAS May 30, 2019, Completed primary applications with all ECs, PS, and course information can be submitted.
-You enter the verification queue (“time to verify”) only when both completed primary application and all transcripts have been received.
-AMCAS does not, repeat, does not verify LOR or MCAT score. Your primary application will be verified regardless of LOR or MCAT score status
-AMCAS June 28, 2019, begins transmission verified applications (though some schools have secondaries sent to contact info upon submission to AMCAS)
-Verification peak is about August 1st and takes 20 days
-Most Primary Apps are transmitted early July thru early September
-Secondaries timelines can vary widely as to when to they are sent out from almost immediately upon submissions to 3 months, though most are in the range 1-3 weeks after transmission.
-Letters via AMCAS are processed/transmitted separately from primary
-Letters can be added after primary has been submitted and transmitted and are mostly not needed until secondary reviews at the earliest.
-While applications are transmitted at end of June, most schools do not start any processing until at least mid-July at the earliest; even then, most dont get up to full speed until mid-August.
-There are usually 3 main phases in processing application
----1) Initial Screening/Evaluation: A hybrid of automatic GPA/MCAT screen plus human for "quick review" of application. Used to for general priority and, in some cases, which team/subcommittee gets application. At some schools, preset criteria or informal policy can lead to II at this stage.
----2) Full Evaluation: This is where evaluator/reader/team/subcommittee will fully evaluate all sections of primary, secondary, and LOR and generally summarize in broad categories or point system. This essentially becomes your priority for adcom review and II. This function may be split up among several evaluators and may go to a team or subcommittee for II decision. Application are not typically evaluated until complete with Primary, Secondary, MCAT, and LOR
----3) Full adcom: this is where your fully evaluated application is reviewed and voted on by adcom for II on later on for acceptance/WL/rejection
-Application and candidate evaluations timeline varies widely by school may not done in a linear, chronological order. EDP, High achievers, URM, family of alumni, feeder schools, associated UG programs, linked postbaccs, and other factor may push an app forward in the process.
-Most adcoms dont start meeting for review of evaluated applicants until at least mid-August, more likely September, though some reviews may be done earlier for groups mentioned above. Evaluation may start almost immediately at some schools.
-Schools receive 5,000-10,000 application but can only evaluate several hundred applications a week. Therefore, it can take anywhere from 4-16 weeks (1-4 months) or more to be evaluated, reviewed and invited for interview after your application is complete.
-Schools must reduce several thousand applications to several hundred interviews. Therefore at least 80% of applicants at any individual school must be rejected pre-interview.
-Applicants should check each applicant portal daily until application is marked complete, under review, or similar. After that, you should check applicant portal 2 to 3 times as week as schools may invite you for interview solely by portal; some schools do not send email for interview invite.
-Submitting Primary Application June is Early, July Medium, August Late
-Having Primary verified and transmitted to school by middle of August is normal speed
-Having Secondary and all LORs complete to school by Labor Day is early/ontime. By late or end of September is about middle/normal speed, by end of October is about late.
--After that point you will generally start getting impacted by the number of applications submitted, the finite number of interview slots, and seats given by rolling admissions. These aren’t absolute dates nor is it a fixed timeline. It should be used as a guideline
Getting primary in on time does matter because of all the other items that follow it. But applicants often see the beginning and not understanding how it flows from there. Additionally, how each school then opens a file, reviews them on GPA, MCAT, and other factors, and what order they wind up in a queue has less to do with when the primary arrives then when the secondary is completed and received. Since the majority of schools, I dare say, send out pre-transmission, unscreened, or minimal cut off screened secondaries, this is probably a larger factor in where you wind up in the queue for 1) reading an application and 2) decision on interview invite. As I have said previously, and will undoubtedly say dozens of time during this 2020 application cycle (see count above) review of apps is not simply done in a linear chronological order. High achievers, URM, family of alumni, feeder schools, associated UG programs, linked postbaccs, and other factor may push an app forward in the process.
Updated
Paul19
New Member
I am a nontrad with a significant number of credit hours, counting undergrad pre-military, military credit hours, EMT credit hours, and now my post-military undergrad hours. Following AMCAS coursework entry guidelines exactly puts almost all of my post-military coursework in senior year. This just seems a bit ridiculous. I am wondering If it would be okay to go 5-10 credit hours over per year in school (ie 38 credit hours for sophomore rather than 30) or if I should just follow the credit hour guidelines exactly? The applicant guide seems to vaguely suggest some leeway with these hours but I don't want to shoot myself in the foot.
The 2020 Applicant guide states "Your AMCAS GPAs are calculated during verification and will be listed on your printable application once AMCAS processing is complete."
Does this mean we won't know our official AMCAS GPAs until our apps are verified and already sent to the schools we indicated when submitting the application?
I believe my GPA calculation is pretty straightforward, but it would be good to know if I got it wrong before submitting.
Does this mean we won't know our official AMCAS GPAs until our apps are verified and already sent to the schools we indicated when submitting the application?
I believe my GPA calculation is pretty straightforward, but it would be good to know if I got it wrong before submitting.
You can actually make freshman year as large as you want, especially if you think it will show a more accurate context of your educational background. I would work backwards figuring what you think best show your post military hours for junior/senior year. If your sophomore and freshman credits are large, dont worry about it
You are required to review application post-verification but pre-transmission
https://aamc-orange.global.ssl.fast...473/aamc-2020-amcas-applicant-guide041119.pdf
P58
Academic Change Requests
AMCAS requires you to review verified coursework and GPA information. If you find discrepancies or you disagree with changes made during the verification process, you may submit an Academic Change Request for review by AMCAS. After the review, the request is either granted or denied. The Academic Change Request option is available in the Quick Links tile of the Main Menu.
Thanks for the info, I didn't realize there was a review loop in there, so that's good to know! So to recap:
1) I submit my app to AMCAS (say June 1);
2) They verify everything and notify me that my app is ready but I need to review my coursework/GPA info before they transmit it to my schools (mid-June);
3) I have to let them know that everything looks good;
4) After I confirm, they submit to my selected schools (no earlier than June 28).
Is that accurate?
1) I submit my app to AMCAS (say June 1);
2) They verify everything and notify me that my app is ready but I need to review my coursework/GPA info before they transmit it to my schools (mid-June);
3) I have to let them know that everything looks good;
4) After I confirm, they submit to my selected schools (no earlier than June 28).
Is that accurate?
yes, you have an "accept" setp. Most applicants just rush to accept and do not review, line by line
1. If transferred from previous college, do not list them (page 26 https://aamc-orange.global.ssl.fast...473/aamc-2020-amcas-applicant-guide041119.pdf
2. You only list courses from the actual institution where you took the class. Transferred credits do not get listed
Thank you!
D
deleted965528
1) For one quarter of organic chem at my school, we had "discussion" instead of a traditional bench lab, while the other two quarters had lab included with the course. "Discussion" basically covered supplemental topics including labs and experiments and we did other hands on stuff with models and on the computer, just without the reagents and experiments. Would this be considered a "lab and lecture" course?
2) It is appropriate to enter research lab units as "Biology" (the research was in the field of biology)? Or should they be "Other"?
3) For credits received from clinical experience, should they be entered as lecture, lab, or lecture+lab?
2) It is appropriate to enter research lab units as "Biology" (the research was in the field of biology)? Or should they be "Other"?
3) For credits received from clinical experience, should they be entered as lecture, lab, or lecture+lab?
1. Yes, discussion could be called lab
2. Yes, biology research credits would be “biology”
3. No call it lecture
Fullsend97
Full Member
Hey guys need help figuring out if I would be considered disadvantaged or not
Lets keep this short and objective without getting into feelings too much. Mom was diagnosed with oral cancer when I was in grade 3, radiation,chemo,surgery she beat it , came back in grade 5 radiation,chemo,surgery.. and thankfully she beat it again. However she was never the same due to the surgeries/radiation/chemotherapy all of which were focused around her neck/mouth area/ Made her unable to work and caused her to stay at home while my dad, a taxi driver brought in about 30-40k per year. Keep in mind I live in Canada so the healthcare system was very helpful, wouldve been a different story if we lived in US. Essentially she was forced to be in bed/monitored all day and couldnt work and this happend when I was 10 years old. During highschool I did get a job and was the only one in my grade for a small amount of time to have a job, granted I wasnt ONLY pressured to do so because of my families finnancial situation, anybody in highschool wants their own money. So about 10 years after her second cancer diagnosis Im starting my second year of undergrad (orgo incoming). Unfortunately at the beginning of this school year we found out the cancer came back and unfortunately she passed away this time. She passed away about 1 week before my final exams of that semester and I actually ended up writing one of them before her conditioned worsened too much to the point where the whole family(4 of us) had to be by her side. For my exams which I missed I was thankfully allowed to do this thing called "aegrotat status" which is basically unfit to write the exam and I received a grade based on all my coursework throughout the year. Given that I had very good attendance and had not missed an assignment or test in any of my classes my professors were pretty quick to grant me the "aegrotat status" once I had explained what happened. My mom passed away on December the 22cnd and I went back to school and continued on in my next semester about 3 weeks later as planned in the new year. Im now finishing up 4th year and making my application So, yeah does that count as disadvantaged for any part of AMCAS.
Again lets keep it objective, im not tryna be a sob story and wont take offence to anything. Do you guys think this counts as Disadvantaged?
So ya dont worry about hurting my feelings, tell me the truth boys and girls, Also worst fear is claiming disadvantaged when im not LOL.
So far im thinking of just writing about it in my personal statement.
Lets keep this short and objective without getting into feelings too much. Mom was diagnosed with oral cancer when I was in grade 3, radiation,chemo,surgery she beat it , came back in grade 5 radiation,chemo,surgery.. and thankfully she beat it again. However she was never the same due to the surgeries/radiation/chemotherapy all of which were focused around her neck/mouth area/ Made her unable to work and caused her to stay at home while my dad, a taxi driver brought in about 30-40k per year. Keep in mind I live in Canada so the healthcare system was very helpful, wouldve been a different story if we lived in US. Essentially she was forced to be in bed/monitored all day and couldnt work and this happend when I was 10 years old. During highschool I did get a job and was the only one in my grade for a small amount of time to have a job, granted I wasnt ONLY pressured to do so because of my families finnancial situation, anybody in highschool wants their own money. So about 10 years after her second cancer diagnosis Im starting my second year of undergrad (orgo incoming). Unfortunately at the beginning of this school year we found out the cancer came back and unfortunately she passed away this time. She passed away about 1 week before my final exams of that semester and I actually ended up writing one of them before her conditioned worsened too much to the point where the whole family(4 of us) had to be by her side. For my exams which I missed I was thankfully allowed to do this thing called "aegrotat status" which is basically unfit to write the exam and I received a grade based on all my coursework throughout the year. Given that I had very good attendance and had not missed an assignment or test in any of my classes my professors were pretty quick to grant me the "aegrotat status" once I had explained what happened. My mom passed away on December the 22cnd and I went back to school and continued on in my next semester about 3 weeks later as planned in the new year. Im now finishing up 4th year and making my application So, yeah does that count as disadvantaged for any part of AMCAS.
Again lets keep it objective, im not tryna be a sob story and wont take offence to anything. Do you guys think this counts as Disadvantaged?
So ya dont worry about hurting my feelings, tell me the truth boys and girls, Also worst fear is claiming disadvantaged when im not LOL.
So far im thinking of just writing about it in my personal statement.
@Fullsend97
Disadvantaged generally means that you had economic hardship from age 0-18 (up through HS graduation) that put you behind your peers upon arriving in college. This could include living in poverty, receiving government assistance (subsidized housing, subsidized or free school lunches, supplemental nutrition assistance "SNAP"), working to support your family while in HS (paying for utilities, rent, essential clothing). It could mean attending poorly resources schools that lack laboratories, libraries, and gymnasiums. It could mean growing up in poverty in a rural area without access to facilities or in a dangerous urban area where it was unsafe to travel after dark.
Disadvantaged status does not, at least in my mind, stretch to explain your poor grades in college due to your mother's fatal illness.
If you want to explain that you were disadvantaged because your family got by on 30-40K/yr in Canada because your mom was unable to work, you could make that case but you need to tie how that low income put you at a disadvantage in comparison to your peer group.
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deleted! have a good one!
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You can do it either way: by “actual” year or by credit. I suggest most traditional students should do it by year, not credits as that will reflect the actual context of your college experience
Is a transcript required from a community college for a single class taken for no credit? After high school, I enrolled in an EMT class through a community college, but it was through some kind of community partnership program rather than through the college itself. I called them today, and they said that due to the nature of the class, it is not on any kind of official transcript. They said at most, they could provide a letter verifying my attendance.
Also, would a study abroad language institute count as a college/institution to denote on the application? I am studying abroad this summer but am not getting any kind of university/institutional credit for the language study. I already know this falls under the transcript exemption rules.
Also, would a study abroad language institute count as a college/institution to denote on the application? I am studying abroad this summer but am not getting any kind of university/institutional credit for the language study. I already know this falls under the transcript exemption rules.
Both are no, you do not need to list them
D
deleted688779
If I took my final course needed to graduate the summer immediately following spring of my senior year (2016), should this be entered as the year of my senior year (2015-2016) or the following school year (2016-2017)? Given that AMCAS puts summer as the first term.
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