The AMCAS Process - An Overview
The primary application goes in to AMCAS (American Medical College Application Service) mid-June. The site is www.aamc.org.
- Ideally you will have strong MCAT scores from April or before.
- You pay a base fee which covers 5 applications - you pay extra for each additional school to which you apply.
- The application is submitted on-line. You fill in pages of questions - record keeping type information -about grades, experiences, etc.
- You also submit a personal statement. The personal statement is a one-page statement about why you want to go to medical school.
Note that the personal statement is often the distinguishing element at the first evaluation since all applicants will be expected to have good grades, strong MCAT scores and a healthy laundry list of activities/honors. No letter of support accompanies this level of application - students must make the first cut on their own, hence, the importance of grades, MCAT scores, and that personal statement.
Once AMCAS has your application, it goes out to your selected schools.
- The schools examine your application and then decide whether to invite you to complete a secondary application, one that's directly tailored to that institution.
Students should receive secondary applications in July.
- These secondary applications involve more questions, statements, and a separate check payment to each school ($75-$100 per school.
- The schools expect that secondary applications will be returned in about 2 weeks. Getting them right back can really make a difference as those who delay response may be perceived as being less serious about attending a particular medical school.
When a letter of recommendation is sent.
- Only after the secondary application goes back to the school is the letter of recommendation sent from HSAC.
YOUR RESPONSIBILITIES FOR ENSURING THE SECONDARY PROCESS IS COMPLETE INVOLVES COMMUNICATING TO YOUR HSAC ADVISOR/COMMITTEE CHAIR THE ACCURATE ADDRESSES FOR THOSE INSTITUTIONS TO WHICH YOU NEED THE INSTITUTIONAL LETTER SENT.
Addresses:
- Create a word document of the addresses that you continue to update and send as an attachment throughout your application process.
- Sending this list early, during the primary process, may result in incorrect addresses for letters as these addresses sometimes change.
- Sending letters to the address listed in the AAMC or web may also be incorrect. Make sure you convey the exact name of the medical school and the exact address to us.
- Your list will grow throughout the summer. Include the full name of the program in this list even if it is not part of the address. Make a note, for your records and for ours, as to when the secondary was received and returned.
- Every time you send an updated version of your address list, you should update the file title by including the date. This way all your HSAC chair/advisor will need to do is drag the file into your folder and it would shuffle in place.
- Note that when your chair puts the address into the letter, he or she will copy and paste it as YOU typed it. In this way typos are on the your shoulders and not on your advisor's! This system allows the advisor to check back and be sure he or she sent all the letters that were requested and is especially helpful when letters go astray.
- Your HSAC letter of recommendation will get to the school, for the most part, 7-10 days after your application arrives. This sequence ensures that when the letter gets to the school it has a "home" in your file. The sequence also allows you to make a legitimate phone call to the school to ask, politely, if your application is complete. Most schools cut you some slack and will be happy to receive them even 3-4 weeks after the secondary is received, but once you send your secondary, all that should be left to complete the file for final evaluation is our letter.
Identification:
- Both social security numbers and AMCAS, VMCAS etc., numbers should be included in the first paragraph of the letter and on every page.
Checking to be sure your file is complete:
- Once our letter has gone, your chair will email you; contact each individual program in 2 weeks to be sure the letter has arrived and your file is complete. Letters get lost and misplaced at this point in the process. Every year we resend about half a dozen letter out of the 150-200 letters that go. Unfortunately, some students don't check on their files for months and a second letter from our end may arrive too late to really make a big difference.
A word about transcripts.
- Other students have had their applications held up because their transcripts didn't arrive at AMCAS. When this happens the application never makes it out of the starting gate. If you don't check, they may sit in limbo for months while other applicants' primaries are processed, they are sent secondaries and they are evaluated for and receive interviews, leaving you without the same advantage that applicants enjoy who have completed applications. It is very, very seldom a glitch in our Registrar's office that results in non-submission of transcripts to AMCAS; it is your responsibility to follow up on your application and find out if it is complete.
Important:Legal citations.
- Student's legal profiles are critical. Even small citations on your record may come back to haunt you during the application process. Even though the AMCAS application may not ask explicitly about your legal record, when given the opportunity to provide "other information," do so and explain the circumstances.
Interviews:
- If all goes well (a) June primary to AMCAS, b) July/August secondaries, c) followed by our letter of recommendation) interviews can happen as soon as late August or September.
- UMD usually starts interviews around the last week of September.
- Private schools always seem slow.
- Good candidates are interviewing all fall.
- Appreciate that some of our students have already interviewed and been accepted before others find time to send their secondaries back. When this happens, if you are "late to the gate, "you are not usually interviewed until Jan.-Feb. after the class if nearly or completely filled. Then you may find you're in the categories "waitlist," "hold" or "alternates."
