2017-2018 Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine (PCOM)

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@PCOM Admissions
Thank you for the clarification. I just have a small question. On my transcripts,it does not specifically listed that I had taken lab for General Biology, General Chem etc, however, the credit was high (4 and 5 credits for these 101 class). On my primary application, under academic history, the AACOMAS listed these class as "lecture only". This was incorrect, and they cannot fix it since my app were verified, so they advised me to contact school for this issue. I have sent a update letter to PCOM but the admission got back to me and said "no additional update is being reviewed." Is this something I should concern and call the admission? Or you will look at my credit and know that the lab were taken?

Thank you again

Hi. I'm sorry to hear about your issue with the application. We will generally be able to tell based on credits that a lab was completed. Likely, you have taken other lab coursework that will help satisfy the requirements.

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Same thing happened to me actually...except AACOMAS said it was my mistake and they would not fix it. And I definitely did not enter 5 classes incorrectly into my transcript. Kinda frustrating that AACOMAS can't fix their own mistake.
Wait I didnt even think to check after they verified but one of my classes lecture/lab classes only says "Lecture only" now! I went through my app 100 times before submitting so it definitely wasnt me. What do i do?!
 
Same thing happened to me actually...except AACOMAS said it was my mistake and they would not fix it. And I definitely did not enter 5 classes incorrectly into my transcript. Kinda frustrating that AACOMAS can't fix their own mistake.

I actually had the professional transcript entry services put i and they did that to me...

Wait I didnt even think to check after they verified but one of my classes lecture/lab classes only says "Lecture only" now! I went through my app 100 times before submitting so it definitely wasnt me. What do i do?!

I called the AACOMAS before and they said not to worry about it much, because school will look at the credit and figure it if we had taken the lab or not. If you are concern, you can call or write an email in, send in update letter...I called and send letter.. being neurotic a little bit, because it happened with all of my prerequisites classes, that's why I worry.
 
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@PCOM Admissions
Thank you again. I hope you would look at my degree (biological sciences) and the credit to know that my labs were completed, because this issue happened with most of the prerequisite courses (Gen Bio, Gen Chem and Organic), except Physics.
 
I actually had the professional transcript entry services put i and they did that to me...



I called the AACOMAS before and they said not to worry about it much, because school will look at the credit and figure it if we had taken the lab or not. If you are concern, you can call or write an email in, send in update letter...I called and send letter.. being neurotic a little bit, because it happened with all of my prerequisites classes, that's why I worry.

I understand the worry... But we're pretty diligent. Deep breaths. :oops:)
 
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Wait I didnt even think to check after they verified but one of my classes lecture/lab classes only says "Lecture only" now! I went through my app 100 times before submitting so it definitely wasnt me. What do i do?!
You can try and contact AACOMAS but they have made it clear that they don't care and will not fix it.
 
II's did not go out last year until 09/08, so we still have a long way to go guys!
 
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@PCOM Admissions

Would a letter from my PI qualify as a faculty LOR? I received academic credit under his supervision and he is also university faculty.
 
Hi - that's a great question. Thanks for posing it. If we see that a letter required was submitted incorrectly (no letter head, etc.) then you will see the letter listed at the bottom portion of your application checklist with an annotation indicating what the issue is for that specific letter. If a letter is sent that is not required, we do not post those to the portal. We simply get too many letters per candidate to label every one in our portal.

Thank you for this clarification! I have a few additional letters that are not listed in the portal which I believe are very important as they know me well. So although they aren't listed are those letters still reviewed in the review process of our applications?


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Thank you for this clarification! I have a few additional letters that are not listed in the portal which I believe are very important as they know me well. So although they aren't listed are those letters still reviewed in the review process of our applications?


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Oh yes! Absolutely! We use a holistic review, of course. :)
 
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@PCOM Admissions Will a lab instructor from which I received a grade from count as one of the 3 required faculty letters of recommendation?
 
Just submitted my secondaries ! Now the waiting game...
 
I did research before applying, hence why I emailed them. This wasn't a post-application "please change your requirements for me" email. I think you missed the point of my post, which was not a serious jab, more of a "dang, wish I could have applied here." I just found it kind of strange/curt to send a one-sentence email, no signature, telling me to buzz off. Literally every other school response was along the lines of "Hey, thanks so much for your interest, we understand your predicament..." sort of thing. I'm 5 years removed from college, so going back and getting another faculty letter is more or less impossible at this point unless I want to enroll back in undergrad. Considering only 2 of the 25 schools I applied to weren't flexible on this, I'll just stay the course.
If they had answered the way you wanted you wouldn't complain. Some schools don't even answer emails. At least they answer. They have over 10000 apps to work on so why can't we just be grateful they respond. A friend is applying this year and has emailed them three times and they have answered three times all within 24 hours
 
If they had answered the way you wanted you wouldn't complain. Some schools don't even answer emails. At least they answer. They have over 10000 apps to work on so why can't we just be grateful they respond. A friend is applying this year and has emailed them three times and they have answered three times all within 24 hours

So true lol. I don't understand why people fuss over small things like these.
 
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So I got 2 emails for supplemental application (Georgia and Philadelphia), submitting just one supplemental be enough for both schools? OR should i complete both supplemental from the 2 links provided in each email? thanks!
 
So I got 2 emails for supplemental application (Georgia and Philadelphia), submitting just one supplemental be enough for both schools? OR should i complete both supplemental from the 2 links provided in each email? thanks!
I only applied to PCOM, but you need to submit supplementals for both PCOM and PCOM-GA if you applied to both.

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@PCOM Admissions
Sorry to bother you about another LOR question but my faculty letters are:
Engineering professor
Orgo professor
Undergraduate research advisor

These are 3 faculty letters with two from science professors so they would satisfy the letter requirements correct?
 
With the secondary question being the same for PCOM and PCOM-Georgia Campus, can we use the same response? Or is that frowned upon?
 
With the secondary question being the same for PCOM and PCOM-Georgia Campus, can we use the same response? Or is that frowned upon?
Nope. Just copy and paste them, just don't copy and paste things directly from your primary but if it's between two branch campuses, just send them the same secondaries. It anything, having different answers would probably look weird, almost like you changed your mind in between submitting both apps.
 
Just found out physiology does not count as a science, as far as evolutions go. Time to start emailing! lol
 
My portal is counting it as a non-science letter, so i called and admissions said physiology does not count?
Oh weird, mine counts :D probably because it's an intro level physio course?
 
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This has probably been asked before but:

I received an email about the completion items of my application, along with a portal to check for the completion and to pay the fee. I have not yet received anything about filling out essays. Will I get the secondary essay prompt email later? OR do I pay the $75 first? When will my LORs say complete?

(sorry... many questions, much ded rn)
 
This has probably been asked before but:

I received an email about the completion items of my application, along with a portal to check for the completion and to pay the fee. I have not yet received anything about filling out essays. Will I get the secondary essay prompt email later? OR do I pay the $75 first? When will my LORs say complete?

(sorry... many questions, much ded rn)
I got an email with a link to the portal to check completion and another link to the secondary further down the same email. hope this helps!
 
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This has probably been asked before but:

I received an email about the completion items of my application, along with a portal to check for the completion and to pay the fee. I have not yet received anything about filling out essays. Will I get the secondary essay prompt email later? OR do I pay the $75 first? When will my LORs say complete?

(sorry... many questions, much ded rn)
Letters will take awhile to show up, but they do not start sending II until September so you have time
 
Is there a requirement that we have to have our rec letter writers put the course number in the letter? Is it okay if they just stated what course they taught us?
 
How long after submitting AACOMAS did y'all receive the secondary?
 
Does anyone know why PCOM's secondary is asking for AAMC ID instead of the AACOMAS ID?
 
Does anyone know why PCOM's secondary is asking for AAMC ID instead of the AACOMAS ID?

Probably for MCAT purposes (especially if you have a pending one), and so correlating your app with MCAT score report is easier if they know your ID.
 
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Probably for MCAT purposes (especially if you have a pending one), and so correlating your app with MCAT score report is easier if they know your ID.
Oops I thought it was a typo on their end and provided them with my AACOMAS ID. Should I email admissions to update it? My MCAT was received by AACOMAS pretty early on.
 
Oops I thought it was a typo on their end and provided them with my AACOMAS ID. Should I email admissions to update it? My MCAT was received by AACOMAS pretty early on.
I'm pretty sure earlier in this thread the PCOM admissions person said something about this... page 3 of thread
 
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Just found out physiology does not count as a science, as far as evolutions go. Time to start emailing! lol
Are you serious... if we have a committee letter do we need to meet this requirement?
 
Does our LOR need to mention the course code?
 
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PCOM just updated my letters and noted that one of them was not on letterhead. I had another school (WCUCOM) tell me that none of them were signed. I applied to 24 schools and so far these are the only schools that have contacted me and/or updated their portal to show that I need to fix my letters. Do some schools place an app on hold for letters not signed or on letterhead without indicating this to the student either via email or portal? I am worried that other schools have put my app on the shelf without updating me.

This is extremely frustrating as I gave each of my letter writers a form which stated that schools only accept signed letters on official letterhead. One of my writers is out of town until September which happens to be the writer that did write it on letterhead or sign it.
 
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