American Applications 2010 General Discussion

[Quester]

Anyone actually purchased the MSAR 2011-2012?

 

I've been trying to get a hold of it but it's over $50 on AAMC. Know anywhere to get it cheap?

[Apixaban85]

For the US med schools in MSAR, there's different stats for resident, non-resident, and international. I assume resident means in-state, non-resident means out-of-state, and we Canadians are considered international? Please correct me if I'm wrong.

 

There's also a distinction between resident and non-resident for the Canadian schools. However, I think they mean 'Canadian resident' and 'International', respectively, rather than 'IP' and 'OOP'.

 

Someone please verify.

 

Some universities that I've seen consider Canadians to be in the same category as 'out-of-state' so I'm not sure.

 

Also, approximately what GPA/MCAT would a Canadian have to get for admission into Virginia Commonwealth University or George Washington University?

 

Thanks

[madskillz99]

Anyone actually purchased the MSAR 2011-2012?

 

I've been trying to get a hold of it but it's over $50 on AAMC. Know anywhere to get it cheap?

 

Considering the amount your going to spend in applications and secondaries $50 is immaterial.

[keith_015]

Considering the amount your going to spend in applications and secondaries $50 is immaterial.

 

+1. Plus the huge cost of tuition should you choose to go.

[Wizard-22]

There is a list of course classifications here:

http://www.aamc.org/students/amcas/crseclassificationsheet.pdf

 

Withdrawn courses won't affect your application. I don't think you have to include those, when I read the instructions it said not to include courses withdrawn without academic penalty.

 

 

All my transcripts are in, huzzah!!

 

 

Thanks guys.

[TurkandJD]

For the US med schools in MSAR, there's different stats for resident, non-resident, and international. I assume resident means in-state, non-resident means out-of-state, and we Canadians are considered international? Please correct me if I'm wrong.

 

There's also a distinction between resident and non-resident for the Canadian schools. However, I think they mean 'Canadian resident' and 'International', respectively, rather than 'IP' and 'OOP'.

 

Someone please verify.

 

could someone who has applied before verify?

[reflex]

could someone who has applied before verify?

 

Certain USA schools consider Canadians as OOS (e.g. Wayne State). Most of them will consider Cdns as international.

 

In terms of Canadian schools, there is a difference in residency of provinces. If you're a resident of the prairie provinces you have a leg up on those other ppl that are considered OOP. However, in Ontario there is no distinction between OOP and IP, in general, with some different designations if you're say..from a rural part of Ontario or from around London, or in the Ottawa city etc.

 

Hope that helps, it's just a quick summary.

[sohini10]

As you know, the transcript at UofT doesn't show lab components (at least St. George doesn't) and so for AMCAS we are required to get a letter from our registrar confirming that there is a practical component to the med prereqs we took (i.e. chem, physics, bio).

 

I have had the letter written up by my home college (UC) and when I took it to the Transcript Center they said (I asked to speak to the higher ups) they could not put the letter and send it with my transcript (because they didn't write the letter). To those who have done this before, how did you get this to work out?

 

I've called AMCAS already and barring them allowing me to fax them the letter or my registrar to send them the letter (without a transcript attached, because only the transcript center has access to transcripts) [which they are unlikely to allow according to a nice AMCAS lady/she'll let me know in a day], I can't really do anything about this.

 

Going to drop by my transcript center again but would appreciate any insight in advance.

 

I can speak to this.I did my undergrad at U of T and applied and got into the states.I am sure it was mentioned in the instructions last year,I dont know about this year,but basically you write the name of the course as it appears on your transcript and add the 'and Lab' part to the end.So if you took Human Anatomy and it had a lab you would say 'Human Anatomy and Lab'.You dont need to do anything else like confirming it from the registrar and all.Also a lab course is more course credits,so keep that in mind.

[reflex]

I can speak to this.I did my undergrad at U of T and applied and got into the states.I am sure it was mentioned in the instructions last year,I dont know about this year,but basically you write the name of the course as it appears on your transcript and add the 'and Lab' part to the end.So if you took Human Anatomy and it had a lab you would say 'Human Anatomy and Lab'.You dont need to do anything else like confirming it from the registrar and all.Also a lab course is more course credits,so keep that in mind.

 

I can double confirm that, I went to UWO and put exactly the same as sohini10 did. No hassle in verification.

[Guest viscous]

i never had to get a letter for my lab courses at uoft

[GGGSaint]

Thanks for all 3 responses above guys. I never realized that this was a non-issue or I wouldn't have brought it up. AMCAS apparently is in contact with U of T officials but other than that I've been told to continue my application without bothering with the letter.

 

Just an update for those who may be interested.

 

The 'and lab' sounds good. I suppose I'll attach that to the end of the courses with a practical component.

[Quester]

Could anyone else also verify this scenario?

 

Biology (with lab) is only 3 units, but if you actually write that the course has a lab component beside the name, it gets counted as 4 units?

 

Someone from the forum told me that 3 units just get calculated as 3 units whether or not it has a lab.

[reflex]

Could anyone else also verify this scenario?

 

Biology (with lab) is only 3 units, but if you actually write that the course has a lab component beside the name, it gets counted as 4 units?

 

Someone from the forum told me that 3 units just get calculated as 3 units whether or not it has a lab.

 

I checked my verified application from last year and any course with "AND LAB" got counted as 3.0 units. Not a big deal. School's understand that Canadians have a different system.

[Quester]

I checked my verified application from last year and any course with "AND LAB" got counted as 3.0 units. Not a big deal. School's understand that Canadians have a different system.

 

Alright, sweet. Thanks for checking up again It's just that, unfortunately, I've quite f'd up on first year science pre-req courses and was hoping that they wouldn't weigh more than they should:o

[Dice]

Hi! Newbie here.

 

About the referee contact info in Work/Activities, there are only blanks for name and title, so am I correct to assume we don't put the phone, address, or email?

 

Thanks!

[sky_blue2000]

I can speak to this.I did my undergrad at U of T and applied and got into the states.I am sure it was mentioned in the instructions last year,I dont know about this year,but basically you write the name of the course as it appears on your transcript and add the 'and Lab' part to the end.So if you took Human Anatomy and it had a lab you would say 'Human Anatomy and Lab'.You dont need to do anything else like confirming it from the registrar and all.Also a lab course is more course credits,so keep that in mind.

 

I'm just wondering if the "and lab" is necessary, cpnsiderig you have the Orion to state if it's lecture, lab, or lecture and lab. If you select te "lecture and lab", shouldn't it also be accepted by medical schools?

[reflex]

I'm just wondering if the "and lab" is necessary, cpnsiderig you have the Orion to state if it's lecture, lab, or lecture and lab. If you select te "lecture and lab", shouldn't it also be accepted by medical schools?

 

Instructions in the AMCAS manual clearly state that you should put "AND LAB", in addition to choosing the lab and lecture option.

[The Law]

Time to figure out what schools to apply to! Now that my MCAT is fairly decent 32R, 10/9/13, I'm finally entering a cycle where I feel that I have some hope.

[The Law]

Hey guys,

 

Quick q about:

 

Letters of Evaluation/Recommendation Summary

 

This section enables you to provide information about your letters of evaluation/recommendation only to those medical schools that are participating in the AMCAS Letters service.

 

* For Schools that do not participate in this service, you will need to contact them directly regarding their letters of evaluation/recommendation requirements. AMCAS will not forward your letters to these schools.

 

You must create an entry for each letter of evaluation being sent to AMCAS. Up to 10 letter entries may be created. Letter entries may continuously be added throughout the application process; however, after submission of your application, letter entries can not be edited or deleted. Would you like to create an entry for a letter of evaluation now?

 

AMCAS Letters Service (List Of Participating Schools)

 

 

Can someone explain this a bit better? Does this mean we can always add people (even after we submitted the primary), but we can never edit them afterwards? Also, can we choose which reference to send to which school?

[The Law]

I need some advice guys, one of my major experiences is my work with the Cancer Awareness Society at UWO. This club began in my 2nd year of university and I was one of the key members of the organization until I graduated (as VP). I probably spent 10-15 hours/week working on things for this club. Over that time, I planned tonnes of events to raise awareness about cancer, and money for research. How should I put this in my AMCAS application, should I enter it as one entry and describe it fully, or should I split up some of the major events and list them separately? I'm not exactly sure how to do it.

 

Do you think I could list me being VP with some of the activities in the description, but then take a few of the major events I planned and list those separately to discuss them in depth?

 

Thanks for any tips!

[mystery_chick]

I need some advice guys, one of my major experiences is my work with the Cancer Awareness Society at UWO. This club began in my 2nd year of university and I was one of the key members of the organization until I graduated (as VP). I probably spent 10-15 hours/week working on things for this club. Over that time, I planned tonnes of events to raise awareness about cancer, and money for research. How should I put this in my AMCAS application, should I enter it as one entry and describe it fully, or should I split up some of the major events and list them separately? I'm not exactly sure how to do it.

 

Do you think I could list me being VP with some of the activities in the description, but then take a few of the major events I planned and list those separately to discuss them in depth?

 

Thanks for any tips!

 

I think you should put your activities with the CAS as one entry. (I did the same with Pre-Med) and describe everything in depths. Hopefully you have other meaningful experience you can list. The US adcoms do see how "meaty" your entries are, so if you don't have enough meaty ones, putting something huge (i.e. relay for life, which you don't necessarily have to put as a part of the CAS) should be ok too.

[The Law]

I think you should put your activities with the CAS as one entry. (I did the same with Pre-Med) and describe everything in depths. Hopefully you have other meaningful experience you can list. The US adcoms do see how "meaty" your entries are, so if you don't have enough meaty ones, putting something huge (i.e. relay for life, which you don't necessarily have to put as a part of the CAS) should be ok too.

 

I think I'm going to do this, it's just some of the events I organized were such big projects it's hard to describe them all accurately in one heading. Do you think it would be ok to list some of these separately too? This is tough!

[reflex]

I think I'm going to do this, it's just some of the events I organized were such big projects it's hard to describe them all accurately in one heading. Do you think it would be ok to list some of these separately too? This is tough!

 

How "big" is big? Were they individual fundraising events? Multiday things? If you think that they're big enough to separate them, then go for it?

 

I would do this as 2 listings:

 

1) Cancer Awareness Society - VP

-role/responsbility descrip.

-leadership descrip.

-minor events

 

2) Fundraising Events/Charity etc

-lump together and describe several of the major events that you organized

 

That is along the lines of how I did my AMCAS app. Maybe mystery_chick will agree.

[lll]

Hey guys,

 

Quick q about:

 

Letters of Evaluation/Recommendation Summary

 

This section enables you to provide information about your letters of evaluation/recommendation only to those medical schools that are participating in the AMCAS Letters service.

 

* For Schools that do not participate in this service, you will need to contact them directly regarding their letters of evaluation/recommendation requirements. AMCAS will not forward your letters to these schools.

 

You must create an entry for each letter of evaluation being sent to AMCAS. Up to 10 letter entries may be created. Letter entries may continuously be added throughout the application process; however, after submission of your application, letter entries can not be edited or deleted. Would you like to create an entry for a letter of evaluation now?

 

AMCAS Letters Service (List Of Participating Schools)

 

 

Can someone explain this a bit better? Does this mean we can always add people (even after we submitted the primary), but we can never edit them afterwards? Also, can we choose which reference to send to which school?

 

In AMCAS, you create an entry for each letter. For ex. Mr. X, your supervisor for Masters is writing a reference. So you would create an entry for that letter (entry meaning their name, affliated institution etc. ). This entry would give you a LOE ID. Once the entry is done, you'll get a list of school you've assigned your AMCAS application to. You can check the schools that you wish to receive the letter from Mr. X.

If you are using interfolio for references, which I highly recommend, DO NOT forget to assign the LOE ID from AMCAS when you send them. AMCAS also generates a cover page for each entry. Upload that to interfolio and send it along with the letter.

 

And YES you can add entries after submitting primary but you can not remove them. If you want school Y to get Mr. X's letter, then once you've assigned and saved that you can't change. I think it's ok if you send more letters but I'm not sure on that.

Hope that was helpful and clear. It took me a while to understand when I applied lol.

Good Luck

________

vapir no2 vaporizer

[The Law]

Thanks lll! What's interfolio? lol