when should I submit my AMCAS

  • Thread starter Thread starter Chankovsky
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My experience was that you should have your personal statement etc ready to go by the first day that you can turn in your app, but the best advice I received was to wait about one week after the first day possible day to transmit it to turn it in. There are a few flaws in the system usually and you can avoid them by waiting a few days. That being said, if you wait much longer than a week or two, your time for verification will increase by quite a bit. For now though (you have 6 months, right?) just get started on a draft of your statement and you'll already be ahead of the game.
 
I agree, wait about a week and then submit.

HOWEVER, you can start sending in your transcripts weeks before they open for application processing. I would reccommend you send in your transcripts as soon as AMCAS will let you. And make sure they have your correct names, address, EMAIL address, and SS #.

Also make sure you use a reliable email account and check it too make sure the email filters don't filter out messages from AMCAS and or the schools you apply to. I almost lost my secondary application request from UIC because it went to my bulk mail folder which as you may know empties itself over time.
 
I would recommend sending your transcripts from each school 3 to 4 times. It's well worth the security, knowing that at least one of those transcripts will be received by them.

I sent 3 sets, each approximately 5 days apart from eachother. I figured that come submit time, I didn't want to be 'The Applicant' that is venting on the 'Why Has AMCAS lost my Transcripts Again' thread.

🙂
 
As a note, the main thing I've heard keeps people back are the letters of rec. Make sure those are solicited by now. If not, then ask for them now. Assume it takes a few months to get done since those profs are always busy. Also, schedule you're interview with your pre-med advisor if he or she is writing your cover letter.
 
Originally posted by Chankovsky
I'm applying this year and I wonder when I should have it completed by.

Simple answer:

A - S - A - P.

In other words, immediately. 🙂

-Ice
 
Did I totally misread your post before when I orginially posted today?

You do mean this year starting in June 2004 not this cycle right?
 
I think the best answer to this question is as soon as you feel comfortable with your application. Going into the process, everyone was telling me, FIRST DAY POSSIBLE. When I didn't have my personal statement ready on that day, everyone around me was freaking out. I just didn't feel it was done. That was my decision. I sent it mid july in the end and it was transmitted on august 15th, about 2 weeks later than my friend who sent it in on june 1st. That's the other thing you hear little about...sending it in doesn't mean that schools get it then. But I guess as a general rule of thumb, you def. want to have it in sometime later june or early july for sure. I have a friend who waited until Sept and even though he has much better #'s than I do, I have 3 acceptences, and he has none. I don't think sending it in late will close any doors for you, but you might not get that extra interview or two and you certianly will be waiting much longer for interviews and such than if you had sent it in on time.
 
Originally posted by facted
I have a friend who waited until Sept and even though he has much better #'s than I do, I have 3 acceptences, and he has none.

That's me, by the way. The friend.

Anyway, yeah, if I had a chance to do this process all over again (I may still yet have that chance), the one thing I would have done differently would be to get all my stuff in as early as possible. I had advice to wait a little, and so I did, but then I had a problem with my transcript, and I ended up being AMCAS-verified about a month and a half later than I would've liked. Start on the personal statement ASAP. People will tell you this over and over again, which should indicate that there's something to it. This isn't the time to procrastinate.
 
Originally posted by Chankovsky
I'm applying this year and I wonder when I should have it completed by.

Generally, the AMCAS system accepts applications and allows you to start filling out the form before you can submit it (usually on or near June 1). You should start filling out the form as soon as it opens (with your info on HS, etc). Ideally, you will click the submit button with a complete app and personal statement that has been done and read over many many times for a few months) one second to one minuter after AMCAS is open for final submission, around June 1, 2004 this year.

Coops
 
Originally posted by Cooper_Wriston
Generally, the AMCAS system accepts applications and allows you to start filling out the form before you can submit it (usually on or near June 1). You should start filling out the form as soon as it opens (with your info on HS, etc). Ideally, you will click the submit button with a complete app and personal statement that has been done and read over many many times for a few months) one second to one minuter after AMCAS is open for final submission, around June 1, 2004 this year.

Coops
Last year, the system became available in early May. I had a month to input, review and revise, and when the "submit" button became available in early June, I was ready.
 
So what kind of material should you have prepared before AMCAS opens. I assume personal statement and essays(how long?).
 
for the 2005 entering class. Do you mean that you cannot get started with your AMCAS application until may of 2004. And then it will allow you to submit in june. Is this correct?
 
I think it's pretty hard to have your "essays" ready. Those are individualistic to the schools. All sorts of schools ask all sorts of questions. Hard to prepare those in advance. The AMCAS has no essays other than the PS.

As for the starting date, you won't be able to start on the applicaiton until may 2004 and then you submit in june, as you said.
 
What's the personal statement?

Is there a specific question... like Why i want to be a doctor?

What exactly does one talk about ?
 
You can't start on the AMCAS appl until they open it for that year's cycle.

the personal statement is your chance to tell about what lead you to want to be a doctor, any flaws on your application that you may need to deal with BRIEFLY, and anything you will want the adcoms to know about you. It is used to basically set you above the rest of the applicants. It is for the adcoms to read and say "Wow I want to meet this person and see what they are like becuase this essay is great. It really draws me in to see why this person wants to be a doctor."
 
Originally posted by DrSal
What's the personal statement?

Is there a specific question... like Why i want to be a doctor?

What exactly does one talk about ?

There is no specific question you have to answer for the personal statement. People choose all sorts of things to write about, but I think a general theme is to talk about your desire to do medicine. Perhaps what led you into medicine. Talk about an experience you had that led you into, or something related to that. Hopefully you have a guidance counsler of some sort who can give you some more specific advice relavent to your own specifics.
 
As soon as possible is generally good advice, but quality is infinately more important than expedience. The only two difficult things on it are coming up with discriptions to your extra carricular activities (500 characters apeice, 15 experiences max) and then writing your personal statement (5300 characters). Work on it so that it's the best you can be and don't worry so much about when you end up actually submitting it. That being said, submitting your best work in June is better than submitting your best work in August. The AMCAS becomes available to fill out sometime in May, so you can set up your account then and fill it out. Submission starts June 1, so you can send it in anytime after that. What I told by my advisor was to not submitt it right away for two reasons. One was that if you wait a week, any problems in the AMCAS servers will have time to be worked out and you don't have to worry about worrying if your application has been lost or what. The second reason was that schools can see when your application was submitted, and I've heard that some schools could look poorly if you submit your application at 12:01 AM on June 1, as it shows too obsessive-compulsive of a behavior that could be viewed negatively on you. Most schools probably don't care, but like everything else in this process, who knows what little thing will set a school against you. One thing that you should do as soon as possible is get your transcripts sent as soon as you can, and send multiple copies, and keep sending them until you get the transcript received confirmation E-Mail. This past summer, schools didn't start downloading applications until July 15, so it's worth getting your application completed before that date, but it's also not absolutely necessary to submit it on the first day possible, as there's a good amount of time before schools look at it.
 
How soon after AMCAS is sent in will the requests for LORs come in (assuming that the schools want them)? My school has a LOR service that can send out stuff pretty quickly.

Will the schools look down on my transcript if it won't include my spring quarter? If my GPA goes down this quarter, is it ok to wait until mid-june to actually send the transcript, hoping that my spring grades raise my GPA? Does the AMCAS tell me what transcripts have been received? I will have over 4 different transcripts to send.
 
For those of you filling out AMCAS this summer, here is some info on the personal statement from the 2004 AMCAS instruction booklet:


Personal Comments

Consider and write your Personal Comments carefully; many admissions committees place significant weight on
this section. To avoid formatting issues, we recommend typing your essay directly in the AMCAS application rather
than cutting and pasting your essay from other software.

? Proofread carefully! No changes (including grammatical or typographical errors) may be made after your
application is submitted to AMCAS.

? You cannot run a spell check in the AMCAS Application.

? Applicants who plan to cut & paste their essays into the application should draft their essays in a text-only format,
preferably in text-only word processing software, such as Microsoft Notepad. Copying formatted text into the
application may result in formatting issues that cannot be edited once your application is submitted.

? Applicants should enter all text responses in the application just as they would like the medical schools to see
them, avoiding use of ALL CAPS or all lower case. Medical schools have indicated that they prefer to receive
applications that evidence normal writing practices regarding case. For example, Medical schools prefer reading,
"I attended Dr. Mitchell's summer workshop in Nevada" to reading either: "I ATTENDED DR. MITCHELL'S
SUMMER WORKSHOP IN NEVADA" or "i attended dr. mitchell's summer workshop in nevada."

? This essay cannot be added or changed after your application is submitted to AMCAS.

? Plagiarism or misrepresentations will prompt an investigation.

? It is not necessary to repeat information reported elsewhere on your application.

The available space for this essay is 5300 characters, or approximately 1 page. You will receive an error message
if you exceed the available space.
Some questions you may want to consider while drafting this essay are:
? Why have you selected the filed of medicine?
? What motivates you to learn more about medicine?
? What do you want medical schools to know about you that hasn't been disclosed in another section of the
application?

In addition, you may wish to include information such as:
? Special hardships, challenges or obstacles that may have influenced your educational pursuits
? Commentary on significant fluctuations in your academic record which are not explained elsewhere in your
application




Hope this helps,

Jason
 
The one thing I would like to emphasize in Jason's post: DO NOT USE MICROSOFT WORD. Use a TEXT only format as was mentioned. If you use word and copy it in, all your apostrophe's and comma's end up being random symbols (I cna't remember which ones...i think quesiton marks). Nearly gave me a heartattack when I had already sent it and only then decided to take a look at it under the "print your amcas" options. Definately check out the "print your amcas" before you send it!!!
 
If I remember correctly, WORD to AMCAS application turns the apostrophes to the question marks. I did go through and change them and it was fine. Without a doubt you should use something to make sure your spelling is perfect. Just make sure you proof it after you paste it into the AMCAS application.

And heed the warnings, once you submit, that's it, you are done with the whole thing. you can only change your address and the schools you are applying to. you will NOT be able to make any other changes after submitting. So go through your whole application before you hit the submit button.
 
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