AMCAS is also known as American Medical College Application Service. It is the service used by medical college applicants for submitting their requirements to the medical school. However, there are the biggest mistakes that you need to avoid if you want to make your application work. And getting the personal statement feedback is not the best way to learn about them. You`d better read about them now.
AMCAS Requirements
Upon learning the answer to the question, “What is AMCAS”, then it is the time that you need to know about the requirements.
Here are the information that you need to submit:
- Background information: In here, you need to enter basic background detail which includes your complete name, schools, birthday, citizenship, schools attended, race, ethnicity and much more.
- Coursework: In here, you need to submit your transcripts as well as other information about coursework.
- Works and activities: You need to submit your work experience, awards, extracurricular activities and others.
- Letters of evaluation: You need to submit your evaluation letter which indicates the schools that will receive the letter.
- AMCAS essay: Your AMCAS personal statement must be uploaded.
- Standardized tests: It is important to list the MCAT exam scores you have as well as other standardized test details.
9 AMCAS Personal Statement Mistakes to Avoid
- Be aware not to include too many details: If you want your personal statement to be personal, then you need not to explain everything. You do not need to explain all the activities and topics you have taken. It is compelling to read an essay having two or more examples.
- Just listing: You should not just list what you are doing. You should not just list the experiences you ad because it is better if you list experiences that are important to your chosen course.
- Mentioning activities and skills without samples: This is one of the things you need to avoid in your personal statement. You should not just list skills and activities without giving any examples. You need to demonstrate what you have done. You need to use sentence explaining your leadership skills because it is more valuable and rarer.
- Mention interest without being specific: You need to avoid general information in your essay because it is important to be specific.
- Do not exaggerate: This is what other students are doing and you need to avoid it. You should not exaggerate and lie because the committee will definitely know the truth soon.
- Not giving explanation: In your essay, you need to have explanation about mental health problems or medical problems. You need to explain what you written in your essay.
- Copy and paste: There are students who are copying from other personal statement and you need to avoid it.
- Generic essay: If you will submit many personal statements, it should not be generic. You need to tailor your essay.
- Listing academic books: do not list academic books that you have read, unless you give great explanation why you read it and why you want to read it.
Want to Write a Sample Personal Statement?
image credit: services.aamc.org
The process isn’t that easy! In fact, it can be one of the most time-consuming aspects of applying to a medical school. But if you start early and you have come up with several drafts that you can fuse together for a strong AMCAS essay, then you may do better. Most importantly, you need to remember that writing the personal statement is about writing your story and your successes, but it has to have a central theme or story. Finally, it has to be free from mistakes through proofreading and editing like a merciless editor, until you achieved perfection.
It is not easy to write a magnificent personal statement, but if you follow the tips and you avoid the mistakes, you can write well. Just be sure that you do your best in writing and you should not waste your time.
