{"id":206,"date":"2015-05-12T00:32:35","date_gmt":"2015-05-12T07:32:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mcatcracker.com\/blog\/?p=206"},"modified":"2016-05-31T23:06:34","modified_gmt":"2016-06-01T06:06:34","slug":"applying-to-med-school-amcas-2016-is-open","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mcatcracker.com\/blog\/applying-to-med-school-amcas-2016-is-open-2015-05-12\/","title":{"rendered":"Applying to Med School: AMCAS 2016 is NOW OPEN!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>*NOTE: This post is from last year &amp; is now outdated. Looking for the latest? <a href=\"http:\/\/mcatcracker.com\/blog\/applying-med-school-amcas-2017-open-2016-05-31\/\">Go here<\/a>.*<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>This past week the American Medical College Application Service aka the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aamc.org\/students\/applying\/amcas\/\">AMCAS<\/a>\u00a02016 officially opened!<\/strong> This application is a huge undertaking and it may seem a little early but it\u2019s completely advisable to<em> start now<\/em>. The AMCAS is used by <em>nearly all<\/em> the med programs in the U.S.<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"> <em>with the<\/em> <em>exception of schools in Texas<\/em><\/span>. They use the Texas Medical &amp; Dental School Application Service aka the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tmdsas.com\/medical\/homepage.html\">TMDSAS<\/a> and it officially opened May 1st.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>But back to the AMCAS\u2026 the whole thing is 85-pages of crazy-detailed information and the AAMC does a great job laying it all out with videos, charts, etc. so <strong>we\u2019ll only hit up the AAMC\u2019s big highlights and linked sections here below \u263a<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Before You Apply&#8230;<\/span><\/h3>\n<p>o First thing first, here is the full <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aamc.org\/students\/download\/182162\/data\/amcas_instruction_manual.pdf\">2016 AMCAS Instruction Manuel <\/a>that you are required to read. Make your life easier and actually read the whole thing. You\u2019ll have to verify that you read it and you shouldn\u2019t start this whole med school process by lying anyway, right?<\/p>\n<p>o The <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">application fee for the submitting your AMCAS is <strong>$160<\/strong><\/span> (that includes one medical school designation) and additional medical school designations: $37 each. Keep in mind there is the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aamc.org\/students\/applying\/fap\/\">Fee Assistance Program<\/a> and if you qualified to use it when registering for the MCAT you probably qualify here too!<\/p>\n<p>o You\u2019ll use your <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">AAMC username and password<\/span> to <a href=\"https:\/\/services.aamc.org\/AMCAS2_2016\/\">login<\/a>, save, edit, and submit your AMCAS. This is the same login info from registering for the MCAT and Fee Assistance Program. If you are completely new to the AAMC website you can register <a href=\"https:\/\/services.aamc.org\/AMCAS2_2016\/\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/126251006?color=003366\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/vimeo.com\/126251006\">AMCAS Overview &#8211; Part I<\/a> from <a href=\"https:\/\/vimeo.com\/aamcvideo\">AAMC<\/a> on <a href=\"https:\/\/vimeo.com\">Vimeo<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h4><\/h4>\n<h4><\/h4>\n<h4><\/h4>\n<h3><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">There are 9 sections of the AMCAS to complete.\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Click the section number to learn more about each section.<\/span><\/h3>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>o <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aamc.org\/students\/applying\/amcas\/how_to_apply\/124590\/beginning_the_application.html\">Sections 1-3<\/a>: <strong>Your Background Information<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">This is the standard personal and biographical information.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>o <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aamc.org\/students\/applying\/amcas\/how_to_apply\/130652\/entering_your_course_work.html\">Section 4<\/a>: <strong>Course Work<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">Even the AAMC admits, \u201c<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">The Course Work section is often reported as the most difficult section to complete.<\/span>\u201d Here you take a copy of your transcripts to enter detailed information regarding every single course in which you enrolled at any college you attended.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>o <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aamc.org\/students\/applying\/amcas\/how_to_apply\/129794\/work_activities.html\">Section 5<\/a>: <strong>Work and Activities<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">This is where you enter any <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">work experience or extracurricular activities, awards, honors, or publications<\/span> that you would like to show off to the admission committees.\u00a0A maximum of 15 experiences may be entered and 3 entries can be designated as your \u201cmost meaningful\u201d experiences. <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Really it\u2019s <em>quality &gt; quantity<\/em>,<\/span> so don\u2019t go crazy here.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>o <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aamc.org\/students\/applying\/amcas\/how_to_apply\/130656\/letters.html\">Section 6<\/a>: <strong>Letters of Evaluation<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">Here you will enter the information regarding your letter of recommendation writers. Up to 10 letter entries may be created but<em> keep in mind individual programs don\u2019t need\/want 10 letters<\/em>!<\/p>\n<p>o <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aamc.org\/students\/applying\/amcas\/how_to_apply\/130648\/medical_schools.html\">Section 7<\/a>: <strong>Medical Schools<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">This is where you will select the schools to which you will apply. It is also where you can designate the schools you wish to receive<em> specific letters of evaluation<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>o <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aamc.org\/students\/applying\/amcas\/how_to_apply\/130658\/essays.html\">Section 8<\/a>: <strong>Essays<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">Here\u2019s the big bad essay section where you<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"> explain why you wish to attend medical school and address any pertinent information not included elsewhere in the application<\/span>. <em>This is the place in your application where you can make a case for yourself in your on words!<\/em> Remember: <strong>PROOFREAD!<\/strong> There is no spellcheck in the AMCAS and also keep in mind no <strong>bold<\/strong> or <em>italics<\/em> will show.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>o <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aamc.org\/students\/applying\/amcas\/how_to_apply\/132900\/standardized_tests.html\">Section 9<\/a>: <strong>Standardized Tests<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">This is where you any test information goes i.e. <em>MCAT scores\/ future MCAT test dates<\/em> and even GRE score if you got some.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/126343470?color=003366\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/vimeo.com\/126343470\">AMCAS Overview &#8211; Part II<\/a> from <a href=\"https:\/\/vimeo.com\/aamcvideo\">AAMC<\/a> on <a href=\"https:\/\/vimeo.com\">Vimeo<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>It is <strong>strongly recommended<\/strong> to make use of the \u201cPrint Application\u201d button on the Main Menu and proofread your application carefully.<em> Realize that very few changes can be made after you officially submit your application, <\/em>which you can start doing as early as June 2nd, 2015.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>After you submit your completed application and all of your transcripts are received the AAMC then verifies the information like the course section of your application. You can login using your AAMC username to monitor the status of your application.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/126311460?color=003366\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/vimeo.com\/126311460\">AMCAS Overview &#8211; Part III<\/a> from <a href=\"https:\/\/vimeo.com\/aamcvideo\">AAMC<\/a> on <a href=\"https:\/\/vimeo.com\">Vimeo<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h4>Well there it is folks, the application breakdown. So until next time&#8230;<\/h4>\n<h3>Happy Applying.<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>*NOTE: This post is from last year &amp; is now outdated. Looking for the latest? Go here.* &nbsp; This past week the American Medical College Application Service aka the AMCAS\u00a02016 officially opened! This application is a huge undertaking and it may seem a little early but it\u2019s completely advisable to start now. The AMCAS is... <br \/><a class=\"moretag\" href=\"https:\/\/mcatcracker.com\/blog\/applying-to-med-school-amcas-2016-is-open-2015-05-12\/\">Continue reading...<\/a>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,15,19,20,21],"tags":[52,51,45,58,43,44],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mcatcracker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mcatcracker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mcatcracker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mcatcracker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mcatcracker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=206"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/mcatcracker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":282,"href":"https:\/\/mcatcracker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206\/revisions\/282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mcatcracker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mcatcracker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mcatcracker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}