Was I screwed over by AMCAS?

[Yellowfire]

As this application cycle is coming closer to an end, I can’t help but reflect on what went wrong for me this cycle. There’s something that happened during this cycle that made me want to consult the SDN community on whether you guys think it could have possibly affected my chances a lot or not significantly.

Out of 22 schools I applied to (split equally between low/mid/top tier schools), I only received one interview invite (for one of CA’s top medical schools). I ended up getting waitlisted there. I’ll be pretty frustrated if I lost so much money in the application process because of AMCAS. If it is because of my own inadequacies, then I will just have to work harder and prepare for the next cycle.

My stats are pretty good (96% MCAT, 3.8 GPA). I have the basic premed extracurriculars in addition to some non-typical premed activities. My writing skills may not be great, but they’re not terrible either. My dad suspects that I’m just not competitive enough for an Asian.

So what happened? I submitted my primary on a July 1 and completed my secondaries in Aug and first week of September. Then, in October, I suddenly got an email from AMCAS saying they have deleted one of my recommendation letters and contacted all my medical schools to let them know the letter I submitted wasn’t written for me.

Which is impossible for two reasons. 1) I had the letter checked by Interfolio’s service, and 2) that professor hasn’t worked with another undergrad in over five years.

I emailed AMCAS right away and resubmitted the same letter. All AMCAS replied back with was:
“Thank you for contacting AAMC Services.
Thank you for providing us with the evaluation letter.”

I’m worried that they never did anything to contact the schools to fix the problem (so if the schools saw the same rec letter together with the earlier notification, they would disregard the letter still) or that the whole thing ended up delaying my application even more. After all, I didn’t hear back from over half the schools until mid-January.

What do you guys think?

TLDR; AMCAS messed up my recommendation letter (crucial because I sent only 3 letters to most of them), and I wonder if that could’ve greatly negatively affected my cycle.

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[ThrowawayShmoaway]

Then, in October, I suddenly got an email from AMCAS saying they have deleted one of my recommendation letters and contacted all my medical schools to let them know the letter I submitted wasn’t written for me.

Wow, that’s wild. Obviously hindsight is 20/20, but it may have helped to send emails to the individual schools’ admissions offices to clarify with them that it was a real letter. But, on the other hand, I think(?) that once AMCAS transmits a letter to schools, they can’t “delete” it from the schools’ files (I think they simply deleted it from the AMCAS database). So I feel like there’s still a chance that when the screeners reviewed you file, they could have still glanced at that letter (which presumably had your name in it), so maybe it got read anyways.

 

[Nurse2MD2018]

Sorry to hear this.
Did you receive a confirmation email saying that letter was received by Amcas after your letter writer submitted it?
I’m asking because a similar issue occurred with one of my letter writers using Interfolio. In my situation, the letter writter submitted the letter twice and I never received the confirmation email which prompted me to become anxious. Both my prof and I called AMCAS and they couldn’t figure out the issue, and was informed that they never received the letter. At that point I became neurotic and had my prof mail the letter.
This is going to suck to hear but if you did not receive a confirmation email it’s going to be hard to put the blame on AMCAS, if you did receive a confirmation that’s a completely different story.

 

[gyngyn]

I heard that you can call schools and ask why you were rejected.

That won't work in CA.

 

[Yellowfire]

Sorry to hear this.
Did you receive a confirmation email saying that letter was received by Amcas after your letter writer submitted it?
I’m asking because a similar issue occurred with one of my letter writers using Interfolio. In my situation, the letter writter submitted the letter twice and I never received the confirmation email which prompted me to become anxious. Both my prof and I called AMCAS and they couldn’t figure out the issue, and was informed that they never received the letter. At that point I became neurotic and had my prof mail the letter.
This is going to suck to hear but if you did not receive a confirmation email it’s going to be hard to put the blame on AMCAS, if you did receive a confirmation that’s a completely different story.

Man, that must’ve been nerve-wrecking as well. Good thing you were able to catch the problem and have your professor’s help! As for me, yes, I got a confirmation email both times I submitted the letter.

 

[Yellowfire]

Sorry this issue falls squarely on the applicant. Even if AMCAS says all is ok, every applicant must consistently check at each individual school’s applicant portal to status of application. It is up to you to see if application is complete and follow up if it isnt.

This happened after my applications had already been marked as complete. I didn’t check all my portals afterwards, but for the few I did, they still said my application was complete. Like one of the comments mention above, my letter was still received by the schools. So I think it wasn’t so much a matter of was my application complete, but how did their discrediting of my letter effect my application?

 

[OchemOficionado]

Seems like each school had your completed app for at least a month before the AMCAS email about your letter right? I think there's no way to know for sure, but if you didn't get any IIs before this mishap and then still received one months after, maybe the letters weren't the issue. I dunno. Maybe share your school list so others can advise if it was well balanced. At the end of the day, almost 60% of applicants don't get in each year. It really could just be the luck of the draw. I'm really hoping you get off the WL though.

 

[Lucca]

Bizarre. What did your letter writer have to say about this

 

[lalalallala]

That is unfortunate. I agree that it is very possible that schools already had your letters downloaded. Out of curiosity, why did you only have 3 letters? Many schools ask for 2 science and 1 humanities and then you would want to send one from some outside of school activities. I will be hoping you get off that waitlist!

 

[EssentialOil123]

As this application cycle is coming closer to an end, I can’t help but reflect on what went wrong for me this cycle. There’s something that happened during this cycle that made me want to consult the SDN community on whether you guys think it could have possibly affected my chances a lot or not significantly.

Out of 22 schools I applied to (split equally between low/mid/top tier schools), I only received one interview invite (for one of CA’s top medical schools). I ended up getting waitlisted there. I’ll be pretty frustrated if I lost so much money in the application process because of AMCAS. If it is because of my own inadequacies, then I will just have to work harder and prepare for the next cycle.

My stats are pretty good (96% MCAT, 3.8 GPA). I have the basic premed extracurriculars in addition to some non-typical premed activities. My writing skills may not be great, but they’re not terrible either. My dad suspects that I’m just not competitive enough for an Asian.

So what happened? I submitted my primary on a July 1 and completed my secondaries in Aug and first week of September. Then, in October, I suddenly got an email from AMCAS saying they have deleted one of my recommendation letters and contacted all my medical schools to let them know the letter I submitted wasn’t written for me.

Which is impossible for two reasons. 1) I had the letter checked by Interfolio’s service, and 2) that professor hasn’t worked with another undergrad in over five years.

I emailed AMCAS right away and resubmitted the same letter. All AMCAS replied back with was:
“Thank you for contacting AAMC Services.
Thank you for providing us with the evaluation letter.”

I’m worried that they never did anything to contact the schools to fix the problem (so if the schools saw the same rec letter together with the earlier notification, they would disregard the letter still) or that the whole thing ended up delaying my application even more. After all, I didn’t hear back from over half the schools until mid-January.

What do you guys think?

TLDR; AMCAS messed up my recommendation letter (crucial because I sent only 3 letters to most of them), and I wonder if that could’ve greatly negatively affected my cycle.

Hi, I had the same issue happen this cycle and AMCAS refuses to lift a finger. My LOR submitted in August was mixed up with that of another student's and I receive an email in December that I still don't have a letter. Apparently they had removed the submitted letter. All the schools had marked me as complete already, but I have not received a single interview because none of the schools saw the correct letter written for me. Now almost none of the schools can view the letter, but the one school that could said that the letter did not match my information. And AMCAS claims that this never happened before. So that was thousands of dollars and effort wasted.

 

[southernhope1]

fwiw, the OP did end up getting into medical school last year so it all worked out!

 

[EssentialOil123]

I am happy that it worked out for the OP. However, in the OP's case, it was one LOR deleted, whereas I only had one committee letter, so when that got deleted, no schools saw the correct letter in the first place. And the school that did download the letter confirmed that the information did not match mine.

 

[HopeP]

hmm, so who is culprit to cause these isolated issues, schools, professors, some random glitch in AMCAS?

 

[Yellowfire]

fwiw, the OP did end up getting into medical school last year so it all worked out!

I got in during my second application cycle, though, so I'm still not quite sure what happened with the LOR problem during my first cycle...It was unfortunate, but fwiw, I don't regret being forced to take that gap year and now being happily where I am at now!

It must be extra stressful for those applying this year who come across the same problem...my only advice is to try contacting schools especially if there are any that you feel like you had a really great chance at getting in. One of my classmates didn't get in his first cycle because of an application mishap where his app was never marked as complete, but after speaking with the school, during his second cycle, they made sure to bump his app up so that it was one of the first they read! He eventually ended up getting in the school Otherwise, good luck on applying the second time. It's definitely easier having already gone through the process once!