Applications, Letters and Essays

The three most important things to remember: apply early, apply early, apply early! I CANNOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH! DON'T BE LAZY! GET STARTED! AMCAS

applications are earlier and earlier these days. Application procedures change annually, so check with AAMCAS each year to look at the deadlines. Some begin in Sep/Oct, while others are in November. The earlier you do your application, the sooner you will be interviewing at your choice medical schools. You can register online for the AAMCAS application and begin at least entering in all the demographic/biographic information if you don’t feel like working on the essay stuff yet.

Where and when should I ask for letters of recommendation?
One also very important tip. Get your letters of recommendation as soon as humanly possible in your third year. You will need two science letters, and one non-science (academic). It's a good idea to have one non-academic one also (volunteer work, lab research, etc.) This means you must ASK your writers VERY EARLY. It may take them 2 weeks, or 2 months before they get around to writing it! After 4 weeks or so, you can stop by and give your interviewers thank you cards, subtly reminding them to finish your letters ASAP! Be nice! Letters cosigned by TAs and Profs are just fine. I had 2 of 3 academic letters cosigned. Some large public schools do this routinely and it will not really affect your application adversely.If you don't know if a letter will be a very good one, you may not want to waive access to the letter. This way you can read it first and see if you want it sent to a school. By the way, some schools will ask for 3 or more letters and some will limit you to three letters. Choose wisely.

Who to ask? Try to ask a professor or a TA that you have had close contact with, such as in a lab class or a discussion group. This gives them the chance to say more than "Joe was in my General Chem class of 200 students, and Joe finished in the top 20 students in my class. He is a nice guy." I have seen letters of rec (that the applicant waived the right to see) that were only 4 lines!! When in doubt, DON'T ASK!

Some undergraduate institutions have a pre-med committee where they will have a panel go over your entire transcript and file and then write a letter on your behalf stating you as “strong”, “excellent”, “exceptional” etc… as a candidate for medical school.

The AMCAS application.
Actually not too bad. The medical school applications have improved since the application went electronic. Get a copy of your latest transcript to help you fill out the grades section. Remember AMCAS requires transcripts from ALL colleges you EVER attended. Including for a chem. class you may have taken in the tenth grade from a junior college! Read each page carefully as you submit your application online!

DON'T go running off on any long trips unless you have a reliable person checking the mail for you. And don't stay away too long. Secondaries will pour in about a month after your AMCAS is certified, and you NEED to be home to fill those suckers out!

The essay: one page.
They don't give you any instructions on this, so you can do anything you want. Don't write the basic: I got sick once and now I want to be a doctor essay. Everyone is sick of these. Also avoid the temptation to do the “My relative was sick and now I need to be a doctor” essay. Be creative. But also be careful. If you write one that is too creative (or too weird), either people will love it or hate it. Some schools will not ask you to write any more essays in their secondary application so that is the ONLY essay they will see (unless they read your MCAT essays) so be careful. This is the hardest part of your AMCAS application! Have someone read it over. No Typos! ( I had one!) Don't type up your entire resume in story format! It's repetitive and BORING! Expect that medical school screeners and review committees take only 2 minutes to read your essay! (no kidding!)

Where to apply. Go to your career office and pick up the latest stats on your University’s students and acceptance ratios. Remember most state schools take mostly students from their own states. Don't even think about applying to U of Washington (Seattle) unless you are a Wash resident! (or NW states) Save money! Remember class size (Mayo School in MN takes only 40 students!). The bigger the better. Also remember location. Do you want to go to school in the middle of nowhere? Will you enjoy the South, the East? Do your parents have connections- are they alumni at any private schools? (public schools don't give a crap) Is a school known to be a very strong religious school?

How many of your University students got into a school in recent years? Some schools are reputed to liking students from particular school (though I have found that at Ivy schools, there seem to be an awful lot of East coast students interviewing there: Dartmouth, Yale, Brown students etc....) So apply to all UC schools if you are a Cal resident, some big schools, and some not so big schools (Penn State, Wayne State in Detroit) etc...

Aim High, but not too High.
Try and be realistic. Should you apply to non-AMCAS schools? I think so. I applied to 4 non-AMCAS and was invited to interview at all of these. Most everyone is AAMCAS now, but go ahead and apply to a few. To get their applications, you have to write the school and request one. I suggest writing for these around the first of June. There are about 15 non-AMCAS schools, you can find the addresses for these in the back of the AMCAS bulletin. By the way, Texas state schools have their own mini-AMCAS, and their schools are heavily Texas resident biased. Visit http://www.utsystem.edu/tmdsas/ for details

Secondaries.
Get these puppies in ASAP. Some have deadlines within 2-6 weeks, others not until Jan., Feb. Either way Get them in SOON!! Almost all schools will ask for a photo. DO NOT go and get a million passport photos taken. First of all, its EXPENSIVE! Second, many schools have odd picture sizes. You are better off shooting off a roll of 24 exposures. Wear something nice! (No T-shirts, tank tops) Shoot one with your head and neck and shoulders at a variety of distances to make sure you get it right. Then take your negatives to Costco and make 25 copies at really cheap prices. Or shoot some digital pics, and print them on nice paper (nothing that will fade!) Do this sometime in June too. If you get your AMCAS application in by June 1st, you will be swimming in secondaries by July. Most schools will ask you to write extra essays. Some you can recycle. TYPE these! Many times you can do them on the computer and then load their application form into your printer. Be CAREFUL and test print!! If you do this right your application will look sharp.

Avoid writing the same thing you wrote as your personal statement in your AMCAS essay. Also, if you were a bit wacky on your AMCAS application, it's a good idea NOT to be wacky here. Schools will get worried if all your stuff seems weird! Add in some info about why you want to attend school X, if you don’t have any, make something up! Regional stuff like having family or friends in the area, will help. All schools will ask you for more money. From $35-$100! It averages about $55. UC schools ask for $40. So be selective here also! Weed out some schools and save yourself a couple hundred bucks. If you are receiving a large amount of secondaries, consider dropping a few of your least favorite.

Mailing
If a school sends you a return envelope for you to send your application back then use it! Otherwise I recommend using a full size 8.5 x 11 inch manila envelope, so you can avoid folding the application (unless it arrived folded in the first place!). Make copies of everything before you send it just in case! You should get postcards or emails back from most schools that receive your completed secondary. Follow up on these and call a school if it takes longer than 4 weeks to acknowledge your application (same goes for your letters of rec)

Essay Writing Help and Med School Application Help
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