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What is the AMCAS Application?
The American Medical College Application Service (AMCAS) is the application that pre-med students utilize to apply to medical schools. The Association of American Medical Colleges runs this "centralized application service" to submit grades, MCAT scores, extracurricular and clinical experiences, personal statements, and letters of recommendation. According to AMCAS, application materials must be received by 11:59 PM on the deadline. For instance, if you're participating in the early decision program, application materials must be received by August 1st. It takes approximately six to eight weeks to verify the submitted application, especially during the peak application season of June to September, so submitting it as early as possible is necessary to ensure adequate time for verification. You can view the status of your application in the AMCAS main menu through "View Application Status" after logging in. "Ready to Review" indicates that AMCAS has received all your application materials, like transcripts, and everything is waiting to be checked. "Under Review" means that AMCAS verifies that all the application materials are in order.
Creating an AMCAS Account
If you're applying this upcoming cycle, registering an account at AMCAS is the first step. After going to the AMCAS website, a tab to the right will be labeled "AMCAS Sign-in." If you click on it, you'll be taken to another page with an option to create an account. This requires your email address and name, and a confirmation will be sent to your email.
Starting your AMCAS Application
After signing in, you can see the available application cycles. If you're planning on applying to start medical school in the summer or fall of 2026, you'd choose "Start the 2026 application". You'll be asked for personal information, such as your legal name, citizenship, and birth info. Additionally, AMCAS will assign you an AMCAS ID, an important set of numbers needed when emailing an admissions office with an updated letter or letter of intent.
"Schools Attended" and "Biographical Information" will require you to enter the dates of your high school and college degrees attained and the dates of attendance. More biographical information will include details of your family, languages spoken, etc.
AMCAS Coursework and Transcripts
Entering all of your college coursework is a plug-and-chug process, but having your transcript accessible during it will ensure accuracy. Course classifications can be tricky, but referring to a course as how your university classified it can help. When calculating your GPA, the AMCAS application isolates Biology/Chemistry/Physics/Math (BCPM) courses from all your other (AO) courses, adding your BCPM course GPAs and AO course GPAs as two distinct GPAs.
Along with entering coursework, AMCAS needs an official transcript of every post-secondary institute, which includes your college-level courses and even college courses you've taken in high school. Wait until you've registered an AMCAS account to request an official transcript through AMCAS to avoid delays. Once the transcripts are received and verified, you cannot send any updated resumes; the grades entered in AMCAS will be locked in. However, you can send an update letter about updated grades to medical colleges with your AMCAS ID.
AMCAS Work and Activities
In this part of the application, you can add up to 15 work experiences and extracurricular activities relevant to your medical path or meaningful to you. You'll be asked to highlight three as the most meaningful. When you click "Add Work/Activity," an entry page asks you to categorize your experience into community service, artistic endeavor, honors/awards, military service, paid employment, etc. Other options will also be available if your experience matches none of the present categories. You'll then have to add the start and end dates of the experience, the contact and name of your supervisor/manager, and the organization's name. The most important part of this section is describing the experience with 700 characters available to do so. Choosing "Yes" if an experience is one of your meaningful experiences will lead to a prompt of 1,325 additional characters.
AMCAS Letter of Evaluation and Recommendation
For this section, you can submit your application before AMCAS receives letters. You can create one AMCAS entry for each letter or letter source from an individual, a committee letter like a pre-health committee or pre-health advisor, or a letter packet from your college career center office. The maximum number of entries is 10, and they can be added and assigned to medical schools after the application has been submitted; however, you will not be able to edit or delete these entries after submission. Each entry requires the category of individual, committee, or letter packet and the contact information for the author(s). After clicking "Save," you'll be asked if you'd like to generate a Letter Request Form.
AMCAS Medical Schools
There will be a dropdown menu for this section where you can filter schools through their state, deadline, program type, and school name. You can also type the school's name to search for the program. After selecting the school, you can assign letters of recommendation to it and choose the program you're applying to since some may offer dual degree programs.
AMCAS Essays
The next tab includes your statement, or "Personal Comments," with the prompt asking why you want to attend medical school. You have a maximum of 5,300 characters to explain your story. Additionally, if you're interested in a dual degree program like an MD/PhD, these programs require two additional essays: Why PhD/MD and the Significant Research Experience essay.
AMCAS Standardized Tests
Any MCAT test scores are sent automatically to the AMCAS. Most medical colleges need an MCAT score at least three years before submitting your application. If you haven't taken the MCAT yet or haven't received the score yet, you can list the date you plan to take it or the date you've taken it so admissions committees know they can expect a score from you. Other test scores like the GRE, LSAT, and GMAT can also be added here.
AMCAS Submission
After filling out all the sections, you'll be asked to certify the application through several statements, which will be your legal signature. It'll be more challenging to edit the application once submitted, so make sure everything is accurate before submitting. You can pay the application fees by credit card after the "Acceptance of Conditions." Remember that the application will not be processed until all the costs are paid.
There are many steps in the AMCAS application, but with careful review and planning, submitting it as early as possible will ensure a higher rate of success from hearing back from schools. Good luck to those applying this upcoming cycle!
Thank you for reading,
Siri Nikku
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