2008-2009 AMCAS Questions Thread

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1-Does the AMCAS count the W somehow when calculating your GPAs? also is there a way to let the AMCAS calculate your GPAs without submitting your primaries(I'm intending to apply next year)?
2-I took orgo II and got a C I repeated the course and got an A, how does the AMCAS calculate the grade for the course? does it take both grades or it takes the higher grade or average? and how do medical schools look at the grade of a course that was repeated twice? do they consider higher grade or they average the two grades?
3- I started at a community college where I took english courses(to learn english) whose credits were not counted towards my biology degree, do I have to enter these courses when I submit my primaries and are these courses used when calculating my GPA?

Thank you
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jclaude2007 said:
1-Does the AMCAS count the W somehow when calculating your GPAs? also is there a way to let the AMCAS calculate your GPAs without submitting your primaries(I'm intending to apply next year)?
2-I took orgo II and got a C I repeated the course and got an A, how does the AMCAS calculate the grade for the course? does it take both grades or it takes the higher grade or average? and how do medical schools look at the grade of a course that was repeated twice? do they consider higher grade or they average the two grades?
3- I started at a community college where I took english courses(to learn english) whose credits were not counted towards my biology degree, do I have to enter these courses when I submit my primaries and are these courses used when calculating my GPA?

Thank you
Click to expand...
1. W's do not count at all for your GPA. AMCAS will not calculate you a GPA unless you submit a completed primary.
2. Repeats are "averaged" in that they both count equally for your GPA. Every single class you took, repeated or not, is used for your GPA.
3. All college classes count, no matter when you took them, where you took them, or whether or not they counted for a diploma.
 
Does it delay the processing if I add a school? What if I change a school from MD to MD/PhD?

I submitted about 2-2.5 weeks ago, and don't want that to be wasted time.
 
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Adding a school will not delay. Not sure about changing programs though. I don't think it would.
 
Changing programs will not delay the processing of your application.
 
tco said:
Does it delay the processing if I add a school? What if I change a school from MD to MD/PhD?

I submitted about 2-2.5 weeks ago, and don't want that to be wasted time.
Click to expand...

Changing programs will not delay the processing of your application.
 
xiaoyi666 said:
Does anyone know how long it takes AMCAS to upload your LOEs? Mine were supposedly sent out last week.
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It can take up to 15 business days to process a letter once received via mail. If letters were sent via VirtualEvals it takes up to one business day. If letters are sent through the Letter Writer Application they are uploaded real time.
 
Wow! Hi AMCAS! Thanks for your help! :)

Out of curiosity -- will schools see what changes have been made to my AMCAS application? (I mean the X or / symbols off to the right hand side).

Thanks!
 
I submitted my primary app in june, took my mcat in august, and just got my scores back. I got and completed some secondaries (from places that didn't screen or review my mcat scores because they didn't have them yet), but many schools told me that they would need to wait for my mcat scores (along with their official receipt of receiving my primary amcas app).

Do I have to do anything for them to see my mcat scores? Do I need to email anybody? It showed up on my amcas profile (the mcat scores), but I'm not sure if the schools need to be reminded that it's there somehow.

Thanks.
 
How old is too old for a letter of rec? Do schools place a requirement on the age of the letter of rec?

I'm thinking about waiting until June to apply for 2010 entrance. What if I started gathering my letters of rec now?
 
To any Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) School of Medicine applicants and/or VCU med students out there,

I'm concerned about my current status right now as a pre-interview and out-of-state (California) applicant. On 8/6, I received the updated applicant status about my HOLD for a possible interview...the one that begins with, "The committee's file review indicates that they would like to consider your file further." On other forum posts, it says that applicants with this status usually takes about anywhere from a couple of days or longer for the status to be updated (for an interview). However, it's been a little over a month since I received that message. How often is it that applicants with this status will NOT be scheduled for an interview by February? I appreciate your feedback.
 
I am currently working at a biotechnology company by doing research. In the past month, I have begun documentation on Analytical Test Methods, Standard Operating Procedures, and Manufacturing Templates. According the the AMCAS standards, are these considered publications? Of course documentation in academic journals are publications, but what about these? I am the author to these documents, but they are proprietary documents that are withheld from the public. Any thoughts? If they are publications, how would I list them?
 
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PRodulous said:
I am currently working at a biotechnology company by doing research. In the past month, I have begun documentation on Analytical Test Methods, Standard Operating Procedures, and Manufacturing Templates. According the the AMCAS standards, are these considered publications? Of course documentation in academic journals are publications, but what about these? I am the author to these documents, but they are proprietary documents that are withheld from the public. Any thoughts? If they are publications, how would I list them?
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My thoughts are that they want journals or if you've published a chapter in a textbook or things like that to be counted.
 
Hi, my AMCAS app has been processed/verified for a while. I had previously specified my LOR writers who will be using the AMCAS LOE service.

Now that AMCAS has marked all my letters as received, do I need to resubmit? Thx!
 
Status:AMCAS Processing is Complete, whats next? they send my application to the med schools by mail?
 
Hi,
I just had a quick question to ask, I was wondering when it is to late to submit secondaries?
My proffs are taking a century to give me my letters and Im worried.
thanks
Ali
 
Hi,

I'm a reapplicant. do i need to send in the transcipts and LORs again or would they be able to pull it with my AMCAS ID #?
 
I did a search on this thread but couldn't find the information.

The deadline for most of my schools is October 15th. Is that the date I should submit before or the date my AMCAS should be verified before?
 
fileserver said:
I did a search on this thread but couldn't find the information.

The deadline for most of my schools is October 15th. Is that the date I should submit before or the date my AMCAS should be verified before?
Click to expand...

date by which AMCAS should be submitted!!!!

Then once things are verified there are deadlines given by different schols for time in which they give for 2ndary materials to be sent in. That is different.

Verification has nothing to do with deadlines. Deadlines pertain to date of submission. At least that is true of the primary application.
 
alikarimi said:
Hi,
I just had a quick question to ask, I was wondering when it is to late to submit secondaries?
My proffs are taking a century to give me my letters and Im worried.
thanks
Ali
Click to expand...

Usually I'd consider extremely late like when its getting closer and closer to the deadline i.e. you shouldn't wait til Dec and Jan to send out apps if u actually want to interview this cycle. ;)
 
thank gujudoc. I was getting worry because I thought they were talking about verification.
 
gujuDoc said:
Usually I'd consider extremely late like when its getting closer and closer to the deadline i.e. you shouldn't wait til Dec and Jan to send out apps if u actually want to interview this cycle. ;)
Click to expand...

umm I had a question up there, if you don't mind answering?
 
AMCAS said:
It can take up to 15 business days to process a letter once received via mail. If letters were sent via VirtualEvals it takes up to one business day. If letters are sent through the Letter Writer Application they are uploaded real time.
Click to expand...

so on this topic, I sent some letters to AMCAS via interfolio, so does the AAMC AMCAS people upload them directly??? That is what I'm confused about. I know its a stupid question.
 
Mah said:
Hi,

I'm a reapplicant. do i need to send in the transcipts and LORs again or would they be able to pull it with my AMCAS ID #?
Click to expand...

I was reading somewhere on one of my applications that if you are a reapplicant you need to send in letters again. So hopefully you have them saved. But I'd call the schools individually and see if they have it on file. Some do and some don't.

Also transcripts I'm not sure about because a lot of times the application is saved from previous year's submissions. However if you took classes since that time that were not on there the previous year you'd of course have to resend transcripts.

I'd call the AAMC office to double check.
 
gujuDoc said:
I was reading somewhere on one of my applications that if you are a reapplicant you need to send in letters again. So hopefully you have them saved. But I'd call the schools individually and see if they have it on file. Some do and some don't.

Also transcripts I'm not sure about because a lot of times the application is saved from previous year's submissions. However if you took classes since that time that were not on there the previous year you'd of course have to resend transcripts.

I'd call the AAMC office to double check.
Click to expand...

Thanks guju, i haven't taken any classes since my last application. Just didn't want to call since I'm visiting another country right now. thanks for info though!
 
question about letters.

my letter ID is not showing up on my application. did i do something wrong, or do i look somewhere else? help i'm new at this..
 
Hi everyone,
I apologize for the basic question, but how does one receive her BCMP and cGPA? Once AMCAS has received all my transcripts, does it e-mail me my BCMP and cGPA? Thank you in advance for your assistance.
 
llp said:
Hi everyone,
I apologize for the basic question, but how does one receive her BCMP and cGPA? Once AMCAS has received all my transcripts, does it e-mail me my BCMP and cGPA? Thank you in advance for your assistance.
Click to expand...

Once your AMCAS has been verified, you can click the print application button. It will pull up a print preview of your entire app, including your GPAs and which classes were used to calculate them.
 
cloosh said:
question about letters.

my letter ID is not showing up on my application. did i do something wrong, or do i look somewhere else? help i'm new at this..
Click to expand...

Letter ID... I think you have to get that from your pre-medical advisory team that is sending the committee letter for you. <--- at least that's what I did, I don't know what to do if you are using Interfolio or another service yourself.
 
thank you madevans
 
HI y'all, I had a question about AMCAS protocol and wasn't really sure if this was the right forum to post it on, but here goes...
I just got my first acceptance letter, and while it is a top choice of mine, I have some others I'm still waiting to hear from...by sending in my deposit and signing the letter for a declaration of intent, am I committing to go to that school? Or can I still withdraw at some point before May 15th? Or after May 15th if I get taken off a waitlist???? Just want to make sure I'm not signing any kind of crazy soul-binding thing! thanks for any advice :D
 
Roastbeef said:
HI y'all, I had a question about AMCAS protocol and wasn't really sure if this was the right forum to post it on, but here goes...
I just got my first acceptance letter, and while it is a top choice of mine, I have some others I'm still waiting to hear from...by sending in my deposit and signing the letter for a declaration of intent, am I committing to go to that school? Or can I still withdraw at some point before May 15th? Or after May 15th if I get taken off a waitlist???? Just want to make sure I'm not signing any kind of crazy soul-binding thing! thanks for any advice :D
Click to expand...
Congrats on your acceptance! Sending in that declaration is NOT binding. You can send in declarations of intent to as many schools as you want - it just reserves you a spot. However, by May 15, you'll have to withdraw all but one of your acceptances. You can remain on as many waitlists as you like as long as you like... I stayed on two until the end of July. Once you attend an orientation, you are officially bound to that school.
 
silverlining1 said:
Congrats on your acceptance! Sending in that declaration is NOT binding. You can send in declarations of intent to as many schools as you want - it just reserves you a spot. However, by May 15, you'll have to withdraw all but one of your acceptances. You can remain on as many waitlists as you like as long as you like... I stayed on two until the end of July. Once you attend an orientation, you are officially bound to that school.
Click to expand...

WHEW! What a relief! Thanks for helping me out, I feel like throughout this application process I've been sort of flying by the seat of my pants, not really having any idea what I'm doing. SDN has been a huge plus. Thanks again!
 
I took my junior year off for two reasons. First, I was at a crossroad as to what I wanted to do; medicine, health related services, or research. Second, I wanted to devote full time to training for competitive competition in my sport to see where I could place nationally and internationally.

I hedged a little and took some credits at another college where I was then living. Needless to say my grades were terrible (B, C, D, D-), as I was not able to devote the time necessary to achieve high grades. I should note that I haven’t gotten a grade below a B in any of my courses at my college.

I’ve decided on medical school. I have almost all the prerequisites completed with only Organic Chemistry II left to go. My BCMP is 3.84 and my overall GPA is 3.86, which I expect will be 3.9 or slightly higher by the time I graduate.

The above ranking is not based on adding those four courses into the calculations. Two those deficient courses were math courses (not a prereq course for med school). Adding them in will kill my BCMP to the point of making me non-competitive for any top school.

I have just looked at the AMCAS application for the first time and it says that you must list all courses taken at all colleges. Since I am not transferring those courses to my college for credit why should I have to list them to AMCAS? If I don’t list them how likely is it that AMCAS will discover such an omission? I’m really bummed out about this whole mess. I don’t want to be locked out of consideration to a top medical school having maintained a high GPA because of a lapse which at the time I did not consider important.

I’m really stressing….
 
AMCAS requires you to report all grades. No exceptions. Everyone is under this same rule.

This rule disadvantages you. That's unfortunate. Clearly, anyone who looks at your application will see the downward blip in your application and wonder, "what the hell happened?" It will be the role of your PS, your experience section and/or your committee letter to answer that question. Left unanswered, an adcom may think that you have a skeleton in the closet that makes you a high risk applicant. So, get it out on the table. With any luck, your aspirations to make the Olympic team (or whatever) will cast a glow on your application that will overshadow the poor academic showning that went along with the intense period of training.

As for the temptation of leaving it off, IF this is ever discovered it is grounds for withdrawal of an offer of admission or expulsion. Lying on an application is the very worse thing you can do.
 
how do you see your AMCAS GPA after you put in all the coursework???
 
Hi guys!
I was wondering if the AMCAS application changed every year or does the format pretty much stay the same? I'm planning on applying next cycle (2010) but I will be traveling all of May so I wanted to get a head start on the AMCAS application. I was wondering if anyone would be kind enough to send me a copy of the 2009 AMCAS app?

Question for LizzyM or anyone else that might know the answer:

I was taking a Mcat prep class with MCAT but realized I couldn't handle all the schoolwork with the MCAT work and I talked to my pre-med advisor and he said that I could submit the rest of application minus my MCAT in the beginning of june and take my MCAT over the summer. He said that the schools will have received everything except the MCAT score. I go to a top tier school, I have good ECs but my GPA isn't amazing. My question is: How much will holding off the MCAT put me at a disadvantage amongst the applicant pool?
 
xiaoyi666 said:
Does anyone know how long it takes AMCAS to upload your LOEs? Mine were supposedly sent out last week.
Click to expand...
Depends on how many we're processing at the time they're received. Currently, it takes about 24 hrs. after a letter arrives to be associated with its application. Once it is marked as received you will receive email confirmation.
 
Raryn said:
1. W's do not count at all for your GPA. AMCAS will not calculate you a GPA unless you submit a completed primary.
2. Repeats are "averaged" in that they both count equally for your GPA. Every single class you took, repeated or not, is used for your GPA.
3. All college classes count, no matter when you took them, where you took them, or whether or not they counted for a diploma.
Click to expand...
In many circumstances W's are not included in the AMCAS GPA. However, if the school where the course was taken counts it as an F, so will AMCAS.
 
i love watching the price go up as you add more medical schools...ugh
 
Right now I have an MCAT score in the lower range (although good enough for certain safety schools I have in mind) and I am confident I can imporve it 1 or 2 points bringing it upto an acceptable range after taking the august MCAT. But the problem is that if I mark I want to retake the MCAT, many schools are saying they will not proceed with my application. That is my application won't be complete until my new MCAT score is in and thus wasting all this effort that I went through to apply early.

So I was wondering if it is possible for me to just apply to these lower range schools with my existing MCAT and mark on the application I don't plan to take the MCAT any time soon. Then, after taking the MCAT I could call up the schools and update them with my new scores.

This way I am assuming my file will be complete atleast at certain schools pretty early and I can apply to certain upperlevel schools late in the process with my new scores.

Am I correct in making this assumption, or would this not work?

Basically if I say I am not going to take an mcat on the AMCAS, but I end up taking one any way at a later point, would schools not look at the later MCAT? Or would they consider it any way if I update them about it?

Thanks in advance for your replies.
 
RE: AMCAS application_Academic term = ?
I was in accelerated program at pharmacy school...Out of all options listed in AMCAS (academic term), I can't figure out which one applies to me!Any help!!!!!!!!!!!
Curriculum: http://my.lecom.edu/pharm/pharm/curric.asp
(I know it sound stupid, but worth making sure). Thanks.
 
I have a question on filling out the AAMC application and I'm sure it has already been addressed elsewhere and I just haven't seen it. How detailed do you need to be in the work/activites descriptions? Is a sentence or two ok?
 
jessiesmalls00 said:
I have a question on filling out the AAMC application and I'm sure it has already been addressed elsewhere and I just haven't seen it. How detailed do you need to be in the work/activites descriptions? Is a sentence or two ok?
Click to expand...

I'll answer your question but for future reference there is a 2009-2010 thread for AMCAS questions. I'll PM it to you so you get it right away.

Might want to post there instead.

AMCAS work activities should either be filled in the description area with bullet points of what you did or as a paragraph or narrative about what you did, why you did it, and what you learned.

you can use any of those approaches or combo of such, but do what works best for you to get your point across and market yourself to the best of your ability. If you can do that with just bullet points then go ahead. If you feel telling a bit more will accomplish that goal then do that instead.
 
Okay, I have a question regarding AMCAS.

If I have my transcripts sent in to AMCAS before I submit the actual application, is there any way for me to see that my transcripts have been verified before I submit?

Or do I have to wait until everything is in?

Thanks for your help!
 
I just have a quick question about entering my courses on amcas. I tested into second level Spanish out of high school so I never took Spanish 101 and 102. (Not through AP). However, because I did test out of them, my transcript says that I have credit for these classes. I dont have any grade for them but they do count towards my total credit hours. Do I include them on amcas? This may be a silly question but I dont know exactly how to classify them cause I never actually took the class. Thanks!
 
boardgal said:
I just have a quick question about entering my courses on amcas. I tested into second level Spanish out of high school so I never took Spanish 101 and 102. (Not through AP). However, because I did test out of them, my transcript says that I have credit for these classes. I dont have any grade for them but they do count towards my total credit hours. Do I include them on amcas? This may be a silly question but I dont know exactly how to classify them cause I never actually took the class. Thanks!
Click to expand...

List anything on your tranny that is there exactly as it is printed. The credits still count, even though there is no grade (like a p/f class).
 
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