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Avoid These Ten Common AMCAS Mistakes 

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Here’s a brief list of AMCAS Work and Activities section errors to avoid at all costs:

1. Don’t write to write. While you want to include many strong achievements, you do not want your AMCAS to be so wordy that your reader is tempted to skim.

2. While you need to be brief, don’t write in phrases; use full sentences. It’s a formal application, and you want to make your written materials as readable as possible.

3. Don’t assume your reader will carefully study the “header” section (including the title of the activity, hours, etc.). Make sure your descriptor could stand alone: Instead of “As an assistant, I conducted experiments…” use “As a research assistant at a Stanford Medical School neuroscience lab, I conducted experiments…”

4. Don’t be vague, dramatic, or trite. Make sure you spell out your accomplishments clearly and substantively. If your reader doesn’t understand an activity, you will not get “full credit” for what you’ve done. Make no assumptions.

5. Avoid abbreviations. Again, you want to be formal; plus, abbreviations you think are common might not be familiar to the reader.

6. Write about yourself and your role – not an organization. For example, don’t use the space to discuss Doctors without Borders. Use it to discuss the specifics of your role at Doctors without Borders.

7. Avoid generalities and consider using numbers to be persuasive. Saying that the conference you organized had 300 participants says it all.

8. Don’t merge the descriptors with the most meaningful paragraphs because they are separate sections: You can complete descriptors for up to 15 activities with up to 700 characters each plus up to three most meaningful paragraphs of up to 1325 characters each.

9. Unless your PI won the Nobel, avoid using supervisors’ and/or doctors’ names in your descriptors as they will be meaningless to the majority of your readers.

10. Choose the right category for each activity, so you get “full credit.”

Bonus: Get help. Do not submit your medical school application without having it reviewed by someone with experience. You do not want to showcase suboptimal materials for a process that is this important and competitive.

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How to Avoid AMCAS Verification Delays

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The AAMC recently posted a piece with tips on how to avoid delays in the AMCAS verification process. The link to the article is below, but I’ve created an outline of their recommendations here:

1) Submit all of your official transcripts – including college courses taken during high school. The AAMC notes that transcript issues are the most common cause of verification delays.

2) When completing your application, include alternate names that appear on your official transcripts so AMCAS verifiers can readily match your transcripts with your application.

3) While this is not a requirement, the AAMC recommends you use the Transcript Request Form (TRF) to match paper transcripts to your application. The TRF can be found in the application’s Schools Attended section.

4) When requesting e-transcripts, ensure you provide your accurate AAMC ID and Transcript IDs to avoid problems matching your transcripts with your application.

5) Make sure to fill out your coursework exactly as it is printed on your official transcripts (including abbreviations, grades, and symbols) and in chronological order. Include all courses – even ones you took more than once, you withdrew from, and/or you did not excel in. The AAMC recommends you order a personal copy of your official transcript early so you can complete the coursework section accurately.

6) If you are reapplying, resubmit all of your transcripts and your letters of evaluation, even if nothing has changed since your last application.

7) Proofread your AMCAS(!), as there are limited changes you can make once your application is submitted.

Here is the AAMC article.

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The Medical School Admissions Process is Totally Broken – From Start to End

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The medical school admissions process is cruel. I recently told that to a strong applicant who was “ghosted” by five institutions this cycle. Poor or absent communication is only one of the problems. The lack of clarity about selection criteria causes confusion, and expensive supplementary applications that generate money for schools are sometimes exploitative.

Check out my Doximity op-ed piece “The Medical School Admissions Process is Falling Short,” and feel free to leave a comment on the site about your experiences and opinions.

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How Sesame Street Can Help You Write a Good Medical School Personal Statement

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I learned an interesting fact years ago: When small children don’t understand something, they will simply tune it out and start to engage in another activity. That’s why great shows like Sesame Street use professionals to make sure their content is precisely age-appropriate. Children – and adults – don’t like being confused, and you can’t blame them.

In their personal statements, some medical school candidates make the mistake of referring to an accomplishment without explaining it. This is understandable since we are all intimately familiar with what we’ve done. The problem is that the vast majority of application readers are way too busy to do independent research or go back and forth checking an applicant’s supporting documents if she writes something that isn’t crystal clear.

I remember a talented candidate I advised who showcased an award she had won. She listed the name, but didn’t explain what it was. When I asked her, she told me the award was an academic honor given to only the top 1% of students out of several thousand. I was impressed! And, I asked her to rewrite the section so that her admissions readers would give her the credit she deserved for that extraordinary accomplishment. Because the medical school admissions process is so competitive, what you fail to adequately explain counts against you.

On a related topic, don’t expect a reader to understand something in your essay because it’s explained in your AMCAS activities. Different faculty members will approach the application in different ways, so – to get “full credit” for your accomplishments – you need to assume that your reader is seeing your essay first, independent of your AMCAS activities. Ensure your personal statement can stand alone and doesn’t rely on your AMCAS Activities section for clarification.

Contact me for help with your written materials. I have read thousands of essays, and I personally review every document sent to me.

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How to Turn the Elephant in the Room into a Cuddly Kitten

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No application to medical school (or residency) is perfect, which is why it’s important you have a well-considered strategy for managing interview questions about gaps in your candidacy. Addressing a bumpy freshman year or a suboptimal first MCAT attempt with aplomb can make a big difference in how an interviewer and admissions committee perceives you.

Check out this KevinMD article I wrote a few years back that specifically addresses how to be upfront about a major deficiency in your candidacy and how to demonstrate — with evidence from the remainder of your application — that the weakness is not representative of your abilities.

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About Dr. Michelle Finkel

Dr. Michelle Finkel

Dr. Finkel is a graduate of Stanford University and Harvard Medical School. On completing her residency at Harvard, she was asked to stay on as faculty at Harvard Medical School and spent five years teaching at the world-renowned Massachusetts General Hospital. She was appointed to the Assistant Residency Director position for the Harvard Affiliated Emergency Medicine Residency where she reviewed countless applications, personal statements and resumes. Read more

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