Pile of AMCAS Questions for MSTP

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the_one_smiley

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I sent these questions about the AMCAS in an email to my school's pre-med advisor about six weeks ago, but she hasn't replied yet. The poor woman has about three hundred detailed and personalized letters of recommendation to write singlehandedly so I don't blame her at all, and instead seek the collective wisdom of SDN:

I wrote a personal statement draft awhile ago. At my advisor's recommendation, it explicitly mentions my interest in research and desire to do an MDPhD program. However, I am getting the impression that all the MSTP programs will send me a secondary/supplemental application that has its own essay question about why I want an MDPhD. Wouldn't submitting my current essay to AMCAS be redundant, since I'll have to say basically the same thing on the secondary applications? Should I completely rewrite the AMCAS essay to focus on just the non-research aspect? Also, would anyone be willing to take a look at my personal statement once I'm done with it?

On a similar note, the Post Secondary Experiences section asks for our research/publication experiences, among other things. All the MSTP secondaries will also ask us to list all research experiences and publications. Should I redundantly list everything on both applications, or save some of the research stuff for the secondaries?

If I have a research experience that included presenting a poster, giving a talk at a conference, and ultimately being published, under what type should I classify it in the Post Secondary Experiences section?

Later this summer, after I submit the AMCAS, I'm going to continue doing research with the professor that supervised my senior thesis. If everything goes well and it leads to publications, is there any way I can inform and update
the schools that I'm applying to? I can't change the AMCAS once it's been submitted...

Thanks in advance!

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the_one_smiley said:
I sent these questions about the AMCAS in an email to my school's pre-med advisor about six weeks ago, but she hasn't replied yet. The poor woman has about three hundred detailed and personalized letters of recommendation to write singlehandedly so I don't blame her at all, and instead seek the collective wisdom of SDN:

I wrote a personal statement draft awhile ago. At my advisor's recommendation, it explicitly mentions my interest in research and desire to do an MDPhD program. However, I am getting the impression that all the MSTP programs will send me a secondary/supplemental application that has its own essay question about why I want an MDPhD. Wouldn't submitting my current essay to AMCAS be redundant, since I'll have to say basically the same thing on the secondary applications? Should I completely rewrite the AMCAS essay to focus on just the non-research aspect? Also, would anyone be willing to take a look at my personal statement once I'm done with it?

On a similar note, the Post Secondary Experiences section asks for our research/publication experiences, among other things. All the MSTP secondaries will also ask us to list all research experiences and publications. Should I redundantly list everything on both applications, or save some of the research stuff for the secondaries?

If I have a research experience that included presenting a poster, giving a talk at a conference, and ultimately being published, under what type should I classify it in the Post Secondary Experiences section?

Later this summer, after I submit the AMCAS, I'm going to continue doing research with the professor that supervised my senior thesis. If everything goes well and it leads to publications, is there any way I can inform and update
the schools that I'm applying to? I can't change the AMCAS once it's been submitted...

Thanks in advance!

Depending on your ugrad, your premed advisor may or may not know much about MSTP applications too. Not that I know any more than she does...

AMCAS essay: I think most people on this board would say to mention your research if it's important to why you want to become a physician, but not to go too in-depth like you will for your secondaries.

Extracurriculars: I redundantly listed research. I was under the impression that some MD adcoms look at your app independently of the MSTP adcom, and I thought it was relevant. I don't remember the categories for ECs on AMCAS. Just pick the one that sounds right.

Updates: Many schools (and especially MSTPs because of their lower number of applicants) will include any update letters/emails you send in your application file.

Good luck!
 
I think newquagmire's right on the AMCAS essay. When I was writing my AMCAS last year, I was told to center the AMCAS essay on why I wanted to be a doctor. So, it should mention several things that sent you looking to the medical field (community service, etc...). But since you want to do MSTP, the essay should naturally include why you like doing research. I was told to at least include a couple of sentences that specifically outlined my interest in earning a PhD and going into academic medicine, but not to dally on the topic of what my research was. I think the AMCAS essay should be more like an overview, and then you can let the secondaries and MD/PhD applications go into the details.

As far as extracurriculars, list research as much as you want. A lot of the applications are deliberately redundant, which I felt was a waste of time before. But once you get to interviews and see all the paperwork adcoms have on you, its a little understandable why they want everything they need to know about you on one application. Good luck to ya, and I hope this helped

PS - Your advisor sounds like mine last year. You wouldn't happen to be a Duke student would you?
 
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