Some random tips for everyone applying right now. Today is July 5. By now you should have started and (ideally already have submitted) your completed AMCAS.
Disclaimer -- Any advice I provide is given in good faith with the objective of helping you reach your goals. I have followed all of my own advice and am in medical school now. But what worked for me might not work for you. So be smart and take it all with a grain of salt and reason.
For the newbies, the AMCAS is sort of like the Common App that you completed for colleges, except for medical school. It has 8 sections:
1) Identifying Info (AKA name, SSN, etc).
2) Schools Attended (High school, and all colleges/programs).
3) Biographical Info (Address, Citizenship, parents, felony status, etc).
4) Course Work (Type in every class you've taken since graduating high school - more about this later).
5) Work & Activities (15 opportunities to write - each one with a limit of 1325 chars)
6) Which Med Schools? (Pick which ones to send your app to)
7) THE ESSAY!!! (5300 characters to explain why you want to go to med school)
8) Confirm the MCAT scores you're sending
So as you can see it's a grueling process. Some details step-by-step will follow. Most of this is either common sense or a review of what people have been advising for years. Premeds have a cool way of needing to hear things 5x from 3 different people before believing them though...
1 -- Identifying Info
If this takes you longer than 30 seconds, stop the application, and switch to a career in business or law. You're not cut out for medicine.
2 -- Schools Attended
Just make a list. Make sure every letter you type is correct. The AMCAS is no place to make a typo. A question I had was whether I should include a summer school I attended in college. AMCAS's official stance is that you must include any college work you've done, I believe. I therefore complied. MAKE SURE YOU REQUEST THE TRANSCRIPT FROM THE SCHOOL IF YOU WRITE THE SCHOOL DOWN HERE. Have them send it directly to AMCAS.
3 -- Bio Info
Simple.
4 -- Course Work
The key here is to be as anal as possible. This is no time to be the cool, chill premed that you feign to be to get the chicks. no. Roll up those tube socks, sharpen your #2s and tighten that external sphincter, because one typo can mess you up for weeks.
The AMCAS requires you to type in every class you've taken: the school it was taken at, when it was taken, course name, course number, # credits and grade. AMCAS staff then takes the official transcripts that are mailed to their office and manually look for differences between what you type and what they receive from schools. [note - there has to be a better way... if i can buy a clock for goddamn 99 cents at IKEA... there just has to be a better way]
Credits - Look into the credit conversion at your school. At mine, I had to divide by 4. You may have to multiply by 9. AMCAS looks to standardize your grades in order to calculate a comparable GPA for all applicants.
Classification - There's a big debate over what to classify biopsychophysiology and other classes that blend the BPCM categorization. Read the AMCAS manual and do your best. Be honest and you'll be fine.
Perhaps I'm making this more anal that it has to be.. maybe.. but i've heard horror stories and it worked for me just fine.
5 -- Work & Activities
You have done incredible things with your life so far. I'm sure at least 15 things. This is where you get to brag and talk about some of them. Include your extracurriculars, clubs, awards and honors, scholarships, articles that were written about you, leadership, conferences, shadowing experience, research, etc.
You then have 1325 characters to write about them. Be descriptive without being a bore. I wrote this in prose, personally. I wonder if anyone has done this resume-style...
6 -- Picking Medical Schools
Exciting! My school told me the average applicant applies to 15-20 medical schools. I applied to 18. I won't yell at you for applying to 20, or even to more. But the cost does add up! Not only is there a charge for AMCAS, but there will likely be a charge for your school's career office, not to mention for each school's secondary.
Apply broadly. Meaning get a good spread of SAFETY, COMPETITIVE and REACH schools. You know what that means by now. If you have a state school, apply to it -- chances are you'll have an easier time of getting in as well as enjoy the very cheap tuition it offers.
7 -- THE ESSAY!
Probably the most feared section of the AMCAS. I'll write something about it shortly, but until then definitely search the SDN forum for essay advice. I found great gems there when I was looking.
Some key, but perhaps obvious points:
+ Convey Personality
The tone needs to match who you are and how you think. If you're funny, maybe write with a humorous slant. Remember that the reader will be reading a lot of essays. Try to stand out by showing how 3D you really are.
+ Make it Memorable
Everyone will write about how their PCP inspired them to go into medicine. And increasingly, everyone will soon be writing how their trip to X country opened their eyes to Y, etc. As a result, I say just write what you feel is important. If you write with feeling and purpose, chances are the reader will be impacted.
+ Spell Check and Edit
Send the drafts to your family, writing professors, pre-med advisor, academic advisor, PCP, whoever. Take all their suggestions for what they are: suggestions. Obviously if you're missing a period, put it in, but you're the one going to medical school, not them. If you disagree, even after they do their best to convince you, I would put my money on you, not them. Because you'll likely get conflicting edits.
8 -- MCAT Scores
This is easy... the computer automatically pulls your scores.
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So that was a long-winded explanation of the AMCAS. A few general ideas:
- Apply Early! Search the SDN forum and you'll read posts by people who are panicking over approaching deadlines and what not. If you apply early, you'll have a better chance of getting into your choice medical school due to rolling admission.
- Request Transcripts Now! I had a hiccup with transcripts. I was waiting for a professor to assign me a grade before I could send the transcript out. As a result, I couldn't get the transcript out until the end of June. By then there was a long line of transcripts that needed to be read. The transcript took like (est) 5 days to arrive and 7 to be read and confirmed. I don't remember the exact numbers, but it made me sweat...
- Read the AMCAS Manual and FAQ: http://www.aamc.org/students/amcas/amcas2009.htm
- Check, Double-check, Triple-check, Quadruple-check, pentuple-check, then print out your final draft of the AMCAS on physical paper and check that. Have your mom check it.
I was stupid and didn't submit the AMCAS until early July. I'll go into it later, but I didn't get my full app into schools for consideration until early November. This is horrible. Don't let that happen to you. I cannot describe the anxiety you will feel when your friends and others on SDN are getting interviews while you're still trying to complete your app. It's a cross between constipation and an abd aortic aneurysm.
That's all for now. GOOD LUCK on everything! Remember to take what I wrote with a skeptical eye. It worked for be, but don't accept everything without thinking first... you know that though.
PM
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