Text compiled from American Association of Medical College (AAMC) 2018 Instruction Manual
The application to medical school or any type of health professional school is a lengthy and an energy consuming process. Careful thought and consideration should be taken in completing all aspects of the application. So the application itself is not something to do the night before the deadline.
The centralized application service provides students and professionals with an easier and efficient way of submitting or receiving information. Students submit one application to multiple institutions within this application service. Programs may request an additional school specific (secondary) application upon receiving the first from the service.
AMCAS Sections:
Section 1: Identifying Information
Section 2: Schools Attended
Section 3: Biographic Information
Section 4: Course Work
Section 5: Work and Activities
Section 6: Letters of Evaluation
Section 7: Medical Schools
Section 8: Essay(s)
Section 9: Standardized Tests
Section 10: Certification and Submission
Section 1: Identifying Information
This section asks you to enter your legal name as it appears on your legal documents, preferred name, any variations of your name (such as a family name or a nickname), and ID numbers that may appear on transcripts sent to AMCAS by one of the schools you have attended. ID numbers include school-assigned ID numbers, MCAT or AMCAS IDs assigned prior to 2002, or other IDs that may appear on your documents, but do not include your social security number (SSN) or social insurance number (SIN) in this part of the section. This section aids AMCAS in identifying your documents. Failure to include pertinent alternate names may delay the process of your application.
Section 2: Schools Attended
This section asks you to list the high schools from which you graduated and post-secondary institution(s) where you were enrolled for at least one course, even if credits have been transferred or if no credits were earned. You would also list any degrees that you earned or anticipate earning while attending the school(s) and major(s) and minor(s). Remember to order your transcripts early because there is usually a grace period for your official transcripts to be received by AMCAS. When requesting where to send it to please put the following:
Attn: Transcripts, AAMC Medical School Application Services, P.O. Box 57326, Washington, DC 20037
Send your registrar(s) a Transcript Request Form in order to help AMCAS match your transcript to your application (unless your school is an approved sender of eTranscript(s)). If you are not certain whether or not you have been the subject of an institutional action, contact the registrar, student affairs officer, or other appropriate party at the institution for confirmation of your record
Here is a link to order transcripts from the University of Hawaii institutions.
Section 3: Biographic Information
The biographic information section requires basic information regarding name, citizenship, legal residence, language proficiency, self-identified ethnicity and race, parent(s) or guardian(s), siblings, and criminal convictions. Make sure your address and contact information is current (this can be changed post-submission if necessary).
Due to the importance of the admission process, AAMC recommend that applicants establish a unique email address for receiving application-related messages, checking that email regularly throughout the process. If you do not list an alternate contact person, no information about your application can be given to any other party. Citizenship status cannot be changed after submitting your application. If your citizenship status changes please notify your designated medical school(s) directly.
Section 4: Course Work
Before starting this section, request a personal copy of your official transcript(s) to use as a reference while entering your coursework, so it will help ensure that your data is complete and accurate. Some information that appears on your official transcript may not be shown on an unofficial transcript. So be sure to enter courses exactly as they appear on the official transcript! For the coursework information you will have to enter your academic year and term, year in school, course number and name, transcript grade, credit hours, course classification guide, and special course type.
Here is a following guide that provides examples of how courses are often categorized. Use this resource as a guide to classify your courses based on the primary content. Applications are not returned for incorrect course classifications.
If you did take courses outside of the United States or Canada, such as study abroad programs please pay very close attention to it. Individual medical schools may request foreign transcripts to complete secondary applications. You should check with your intended medical schools about their requirements and, if necessary, request foreign transcripts as soon as possible.
If a transcript contains both numeric and letter grades, please contact the registrar’s office of the school for clarification on how it should be listed. Your AMCAS GPAs may not be exactly the same as your GPA(s) on your official transcript(s). Do not send high school transcripts or AP test scores to AMCAS. If you not list all of your attempts in a given course, AMCAS will return your application which could lead to forfeited fees, processing delays, and missed application deadlines. Your application will not be processed without an official transcript or letter.
Section 5: Work and Activities
This section of the application highlights any work experiences, extracurricular activities, awards, honors, or publications that you would like to bring to attention of medical schools to which you are applying. A maximum of 15 total experiences may be entered; however you can enter up to 4 occurrences for each experience. For each experience you would include the name of the experience, experience type, dates of participation, total hours, organization information, supervisors contact information, and experience description that is limited to 700 characters.
You may designate up to three (3) experience entries as the most meaningful. This designation will allow you an additional 1,325 characters to explain why this experience was particularly meaningful to you.
Medical schools receive your Work and Activities descriptions as plain text. This means that formatting options such as bulleted lists, indented paragraphs, and bold/italic fonts do not appear for reviewers and are therefore not available. If you remove an experience from those that you have designated as Most Meaningful, the text you entered in the Experience Summary section will be lost.
It is most helpful to keep a journal or record of your experiences throughout your undergraduate career to help you document and remember your activities and achievements. Also updating and revising your résumé and/or curriculum vitae will help you do that as well.
Section 6: Letters of Evaluation
This section gives you the opportunity to indicate who will be writing letters on your behalf. Your evaluator will assess your qualities, characteristics, and capabilities. This service enables medical school to receive all letters electronically with your AMCAS application and enables evaluators to send all letters to AMCAS rather than to each individual school.
You can have up to 10 letter entries associated with your AMCAS application. This relatively high number is intended to enable you and your letter authors to target specific letters for specific schools, if you wish to do so.
Each letter type (committee letter, letter packet, and individual letter), regardless of the actual number of letters, is only one letter entry. A committee letter is a packet of individual letters sent to pre-health committee who writes letter(s) and sends it as packet, unfortunately University of Hawaii at Mānoa does not offer this system. The letter packet is a set of letters assembled and distributed by your institution, often by the institution’s career center, and we do have that on campus, the Mānoa Career Center. The individual letter is a letter written and represented by a single letter author. If you already included an individual letter within either a committee letter or a letter packet, do not add a separate entry for that letter. You might be wondering who to ask or how to ask, here is a great resource for you to look at.
Letters of Evaluation may be available more quickly to medical schools if they are submitted electronically through the AMCAS Letter Writer Application, Interfolio, or VirtualEvals.
Section 7: Medical Schools
This section will be selecting the schools that you really want to attend and are competitive for. You should review the Medical School Admission Requirements (MSAR) and consult with a pre-health advisor if necessary to receive guidance in choosing medical schools.
When considering which medical schools to apply to make sure to consider the admission requirements, individual deadlines, and potential cost of application (including AMCAS service fees, secondary application fees, costs associated with interviewing, acceptance deposits, etc.) prior to designating any schools.
Some schools or programs may offer early decision program (EDP). This allows you to secure an acceptance from one EDP-participating medical school by October 1, while allowing sufficient time to apply to other schools if you are not accepted. You will apply to only one medical school (AMCAS or non-AMCAS) through the EDP. The AMCAS deadline is August 1, any supplemental application materials must be received to your EDP schools by the deadline they set
Section 8: Essay(s)
In this section you are required to submit a personal statement essay. You must complete two additional essays if you apply to an MD-PhD program. This essay is an opportunity to distinguish yourself from other applicants. Some questions to consider: Why have you selected the field of medicine? What motivates you to learn more about medicine? What do you want medical schools to know about you that hasn’t been disclosed in other sections of the application? In addition, you may want to include information like unique hardships, challenges, or obstacles that may have influenced your educational pursuits and commentary on significant fluctuations in your academic record that are not explained elsewhere in your application. Here is a great resource to help you get started.
You are allowed 5,300 characters or approximately one page. Spaces are counted as characters.
Section 9: Standardized Tests
In this section, you will list your Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) scores and other standardized test information required fro the programs you are applying to. Most medical schools require the MCAT scores be no more than three years old, but be sure to double check with individual schools for determining expiration of exam, if you have taken it three or more years ago. If you have not received your score or taken your MCAT exam at the time you submit your application, it is very important you include recently taken or upcoming MCAT test dates in your application.
Section 10: Certification and Submission
To complete and submit your application, you must certify a group of statements, which serves the same purpose as your legal signature. Once submitted, you can make only limited changes to your application, so be sure to carefully review your entire application.
You can do post-submission changes to the following:
- ID Numbers
- Name, including Full Legal Name, Preferred Name, and Alternate Names
- Contact Information including permanent and preferred mailing addresses
- Alternate contact information
- Date of Birth, Birth Address, and Sex
- Letter of Evaluation (only additions of up to 10 letter entries and notifying AMCAS of a letter no longer being sent)
- Next MCAT testing date
- Add medical schools and changing existing program type (deadline, fees, and restriction apply)
- Release application to your pre-health advisor
You must click the Update Application button and re-certify your application each time you make an allowable change after your initial submission. If you skip this step, your changes will not be saved. Updating your application does not affect your processing and will not result in delays.
Congratulations! You have completed step one of the application process. If you have specific questions about the application itself be sure to refer to the website for specific contact information, tutorials, and frequently asked questions. You can also contact our director, Dr Kiana Shiroma at kianak@hawaii.edu or (808)956-8646 for any further questions or concerns. Be sure to check on your application status frequently and be on the look-out for secondary applications from specific medical schools. The secondary applications include supplementary forms or additional information such as school-specific essays and/or letters of recommendation(s).