AMCAS

For those unfamiliar with the medical school application process, the AAMC hosts the AMCAS, an online primary application for application to many (but not all) medical schools. I started my primary application for entry in the fall of 2005. A brief summary of personal information, a personal statement, short essays about “experiences”, transcripts of coursework, and more. simple right?

Well for starters, the web application uses JavaScript quite heavily, allowing the forms to be dynamic. Unfortunately, this causes great headache because instead of simply modifying the DOM, the web page refreshes—highly annoying. Then, when you go to add coursework, you have to use individual pages to add each semester, then go to another page to add each class one by one. This must be repeated for the 9 semesters time five or six classes a semester that I have completed or in which I am enrolled. After two hours, I finally finished entering those in last night. Whew!

Get those transcripts off, finish my “experiences” essays, pick my top ten schools, and I should be ready to go. Of course, this is just the beginning, as secondary applications must be completed and returned and then (hopefully) interviews. Unlike grad school, I will be paying dearly for the secondary applications ($50 to 100) and interviews (in the form of airfare and lodging). This small burden, however, is heavily outweighed by my enthusiasm and giddiness over my future as a doctor.