AMCAS 2009

1. AMCAS 2009 Hints & Suggestions for John Hopkins Applicants

2. What We’ll Cover • About AMCAS • AMCAS Registration • AMCAS Navigation • Tips for certain sections and special cases • Where to find help

3. About AMCAS • A service of the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) • Non-profit, centralized application service • Collects applicant information • Collects one set of transcripts • Verifies academic records • Provides standardized grading information to participating schools

4. Before you start… • Familiarize yourself with the AMCAS support materials. • Get a copy of your transcript (through the Registrar). • Read the AMCAS FAQ, which anticipates some of your questions: http://www.aamc.org/students/amcas/2008apptips.pdf • Recognize that there is no “perfect, right answer” to every nuance of the AMCAS. There are always weird exceptions, or places you have to make your best guess. If you come across such a situation, try to figure it out with an advisor/an AMCAS rep as best you can. • The AMCAS 2009 application will be available on or around May 14, 2008

5. Understanding the Process • Applying is a two-step process 1.Primary Application: AMCAS 2. Secondary Applications: Medical Schools • AMCAS does not screen applications or make admissions decisions • Admissions requirements and decision processes vary from school to school

6. AMCAS Registrationthese may sound obvious, but… • You’re using AMCAS 2009, not AMCAS 2008. • Use real information: your legal name, your Social Security number, etc. Inconsistent or inaccurate information can delay processing of your materials. • Use a professional email username that will not expire prior to the end of the application cycle. We recommend against names like “divapremed06@gmail.com”

7. AMCAS Navigation: Main Menu You can navigate through the application using the buttons at the top or the links in the middle. A button at the top is shaded for incomplete sections, solid green/teal for complete, and red if you are currently working in that section. You may have to complete some sections before you’re allowed to work on others.

8. AMCAS Navigation: Main Menu Clicking on “Details” under “Status” will give you more detail on where you are in the AMCAS process, and the status of your transcripts.

9. AMCAS Navigation: Subsections Clicking on one of the 8 subsections, you’ll get additional menus. As in the Main Menu, you can track which sections are complete. Some sections use this box differently, which you will see in the next slide.

10. AMCAS Navigation In the Course Work Section of the application, the box to the right does not list sub-sections, but is used to keep track of the courses entered for a particular school, so that you don’t have to go back to the summary or printed application to see what you have left to enter for a school.

11. Subsection 1: Identifying Information • Preferred Name: This is where you can enter your nickname, or if you go by your middle name, you can list that here. It goes without saying that they mean nickname as in shortened or alternate version of your name, not as in something you don’t need med schools to know that your friends call you. • Alternate Names: If your name has changed, enter your previous name here. If your name is going to change during the application process, I’d recommend using one name and sticking with it for the entire process. • Alternate IDs: Enter your sage ID (the 8 digit number on your transcript, it should start with ‘2’) and any other ID numbers you’ve had at other schools. This helps with transcript matching.

12. Subsection 2: Schools Attended • List ALL institutions that you’ve attended for college credit. • “Premedicine” is not a major, a minor, or a program. Please don’t list it. • There is an advisor release option that allows us to view some basic information about your application. Please choose “Yes” to authorize release. We use this data in my statistics for incoming classes, and when we’re in communication with the schools to which you’re applying, should the need arise.

13. The Advisor Release is here…

14. Subsection 2: Schools Attended Transcript Requests • You must request a transcript from every school that you attended EXCEPT some foreign institutions. • To request a transcript, you should submit two forms to the Registrar’s Office: • The JHU Transcript Request form • The AMCAS Transcript Request form, which AMCAS will generate for you to print as you complete this section of the application. • You should have the Registrar’s Office hold your transcript for your Spring ’08 grades. Fill in the AMCAS address listed on their transcript request form.

15. Study Abroad Specifics(skip if it doesn’t apply) • If you directly enrolled into another institution, and the credits transferred to Johns Hopkins (e.g., Tel Aviv)… • Enter the institution as one that you attended • Request a Transcript Exception, marking “Foreign College - Independent attendance - credits transferred to a U.S. or Canadian institution.” as the reason for the request. • When filling out the “Course Work” subsection, list the courses under the Foreign institution, using their course names, credits, grades, etc. These grades will not be calculated into your AMCAS GPA.

16. Study Abroad Specifics(skip if it doesn’t apply) • If you participated in a study abroad program sponsored by another US school (eg IFSA Butler)… • Enter the foreign institution and the sponsoring US institution as schools that you attended. • Request a transcript from the sponsoring US institution. • Request a Transcript Exception for the foreign institution, marking “Foreign College - Study abroad program sponsored by a U.S., U.S. territorial, or Canadian college.” as the reason for the request. • When filling out the “Course Work” subsection, list the courses under the name of foreign institution, but use the notation (name, credits, grade) that appears on the sponsoring US institution transcript. If you received letter grades, these grades will be calculated in your AMCAS GPA.

17. Study Abroad Specifics(skip if it doesn’t apply) • If you enrolled in an institution through a study abroad program that was sponsored by a foreign agency (eg DIS Copenhagen): • Enter the foreign program that you attended as it appears on your JHU transcript (eg, Denmark International Study). • -Request a Transcript Exception for the foreign institution, marking "Foreign College - Independent attendance - credits transferred to a U.S. or Canadian institution" as the reason for the request. • -When filling out the "Course Work" subsection, list the courses, grades and credits as they appear on your DIS transcript, under the name of the program as it appears on your JHU transcript, in the semester that they're listed on your JHU transcript. These courses will not be verified by AMCAS, and if you received letter grades, these grades will not be calculated in your AMCAS GPA.

18. Subsection 3: Biographic Information • Be sure that you keep your preferred address current, as all correspondence will be sent there. • You can only choose one state of legal residence. If you’re deciding between two, it may help to investigate the residency requirements of both states to ensure that you would indeed qualify for residency. On secondaries, you can note any significant ties to states that you can’t list as “resident” states on AMCAS. • If you think “Disadvantaged” status if you think it may pertain to you, click “yes” and then read the prompts that appear. Medical schools take this status seriously; if you have questions, contact Dr. Verrier or Ms. Kirby for more clarification/discussion.

19. Subsection 4: Course Work • AMCAS says… “When entering course work, you must include information and corresponding grades for every course you have ever enrolled in at any U.S., U.S. Territorial or Canadian post-secondary institution, regardless of whether credit was earned, and including any courses removed from your transcripts or GPA as a result of academic bankruptcy, forgiveness, or similar institutional policies. This includes, but is not limited to: • Courses from which you withdrew. • Courses for which you received a grade of "Incomplete" and for which no final grade has been assigned. • Courses that have been repeated. • Courses that you failed, regardless of whether they have been repeated. • Courses in which you are currently enrolled or expect to enroll in prior to entering medical school. • Remedial/developmental courses. • College-level courses you took while in high school even if they were not counted toward a degree by any college. • Courses taken at an American college overseas. • Courses removed from your transcripts or GPA as a result of academic bankruptcy, forgiveness, or similar institutional policies.”

20. Adding courses one at a time…

21. Subsection 4: Course Work • This section takes a long time. Try to do it from a computer with a reasonably quick internet connection. • Keep the Course Classifications help screen open in a window, to help you decide what courses fall within what classifications. • For AMCAS, a school year runs from Summer through Spring, so if you took courses in Summer 2006, for example, they would be part of the 06-07 academic year. • AP Courses may be included if they were listed on your JHU transcript. List the exact titles on your transcript as their titles. Include them within the semester for which they’re listed on your transcript. Check the “Advanced Placement” box on the Course page.

22. Subsection 4: Course Work • Enter coursework in the exact order that appears on your Hopkins transcript. Use your discretion for the titles – put yourself in the shoes of an outside evaluator, and make sure that they can connect the names of classes on the transcript with the names you enter; keeping the abbreviations is okay, unless you think something really should be expanded. • Use your discretion when designating course classifications. Don’t call Organic Chemistry an English class, but if you took a Neuroscience course, for example, that you think was very Biology-based, you can classify it as Biology. AMCAS processing may or may not change your course classifications based on their judgment of the courses. • See “Study Abroad Specifics” above if needed. • Make your best guess at what courses you’ll take next year. • Grades received after you submit your AMCAS will need to be sent to schools directly (as a rule of thumb, sending a quick update is fine – we’ll get into more details of post-secondary application communication with med schools when the time comes – focus on this step for now).

23. Subsection 5: Work/Activities • High school activities should only be included if they were very important/significant and show continuity into college activities. • Do not cut and paste pieces of your personal statement into your activities list. Each entry should be unique, and say something new about you. • Use up to 1,325 characters to describe what you did in the activity, but don’t repeat the information you’ve already included (e.g., name of PI, name of organization), and don’t be overly flowery or melodramatic. State what you did, and for the most meaningful activities, you might expand on what you gained from the experience, why it was so meaningful, etc. • Basically, remember that you’re balancing the amount you want someone to know about you, and the chance that they’ll lose interest if they read a lot of overly long entries.

24. Subsection 5: Work/Activities • If you list a publication, make sure it's been accepted for publication and cite it properly. If the paper is just being "prepared for submission" or "submitted," include this fact as part of the research description in the part where you listed the research activity. • If listing a research experience that extends through the academic year as well as summer, use the description area to indicate the amount of time spent in each time period. • If you participated in a student group and then moved into a leadership position, note that in the description. • If you made Dean's list (or any type of honor like that) for more than one semester, use the description area to list the other semesters. • If you received any scholarship, fellowship or other honor that is not nationally recognizable, describe it briefly.

25. Subsection 5: Work/Activities • Quality is more important than quantity. • You can creatively combine activities if you want to include more and are running out of space – work with your advisor to brainstorm good activities to combine. • Remember that each experience you list is "up for grabs" if you are invited to interview -- you might be asked anything about it, and places where you may have embellished beyond your actual participation will become painfully obvious. • This is the first text-heavy section. Be sure that you’re proof-reading, and having someone else double-proof, all of your text. Print out the section when it’s complete and go over it carefully!

26. Subsection 6: Medical Schools • Double-check before you apply that there is some chance you’ll be accepted; specifically, make sure that you’ve completed/will complete the prereqs, and that you meet any residency restrictions. • You can only apply to one type of program at each institution (e.g., MD, MD/PhD). If you decide to change the type after submitting your application, notify the school directly. • You can add schools after you’ve submitted your AMCAS, but you cannot delete schools.

27. Subsection 7: Essays • This is where you enter your personal statement. Again, PLEASE double-quadruple-spell-check and have all of your friends and loved ones do the same for you. Subsection 8: Standardized Tests • This one is pretty self-explanatory, but if we’re wrong, email us your questions.

28. Common Pitfalls • Missed application deadlines • Delayed processing/missed transcript deadlines • Late shipping • Incomplete or inaccurate • Missing • Unofficial • Typos and other errors in essay, experiences, etc. • Failure to receive and respond to AMCAS notifications • Course work errors • Missing course work • Missing grades / credits • Incorrect academic status • Incorrect course classifications

29. AMCAS Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)for the 2009 Entering Class • Completing Your Application • Changing Your Application • Application Processing • E-mail Issues • Deadlines • Transcripts & MCAT Scores • Applying to Special Programs • Applying to the Early Decision Program (EDP) • Fees & Refunds

30. AMCAS Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)for the 2009 Entering Class • What is AMCAS Sending Out to Schools? • Re-Applicants • System Requirements • Browser Requirements & Issues • Enabling JavaScript and "Cookies" • Performance Issues • Verification Mark

31. Pre-Prof’s Frequently Asked Questions (Applicant FAQs)for the 2009 Entering Class APPLICANTS TO MEDICAL SCHOOL:QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS http://web.jhu.edu/prepro/health /Applicants/application_faq.html

32. Applicant Responsibilities In addition to meeting deadlines and accurately completing the AMCAS application, you must: • Know the admissions requirements at each school • Promptly notify AMCAS of change in contact info • Review verified course work immediately after AMCAS processing is complete

33. Where to go for help • As you fill out AMCAS, clicking on the ‘help’ button will give you a help screen for the section you’re working on. • If you don’t see it there, try the documentation at AMCAS Support: http://www.aamc.org/students/amcas/amcas2009.htm • If it’s still a mystery, email or set up an appointment with Dr. Verrier or Ms. Kirby and we’ll either direct you to the answer, or work with you to contact AMCAS and get an answer.