Harvardocs-medschool-applicants-list June 2018

harvardocs-medschool-applicants-list@lists.fas.harvard.edu

1 participants
3 discussions

OCS summer schedule, secondary applications, options questions, withdrawing from AMCAS

by Premedical College

Dear Applicants, 1) Reminder about OCS premed summer schedule. We will see students and alumni for the remainder of June and throughout August in scheduled appointments as usual, but will not have drop-in hours. In July, OCS advisers throughout the office do not to see students so that we can focus on publications, web revision, and program planning for the upcoming school year. We will not be answering routine email advice questions in July. Your House premedical tutors are available in July to answer questions related to secondary applications. Our office is not closed, however, and Emiko and Oona are available to speak to applicants about urgent issues. If you have an urgent issue, please send an email to premed(a)fas.harvard.edu<mailto:premed@fas.harvard.edu> or call the front desk at 617-495-2595 to ask that the advisers be notified. One of us will get back to you within one business day. 2) Timing of turning around secondary applications- We recommend that you turn around your secondary applications in 10-14 days. Some schools will give you a specific deadline. Others do not. Our rationale for suggesting 10-14 days is three-fold. First, we know that being early in this process is an advantage and you lose that advantage if you hang on to your secondary applications a long time. Second, turning them around quickly shows interest and good organization. Third, in our experience, hanging on to them just makes them pile up and causes more stress and anxiety. However, do not worry if something comes up and some take you a bit longer to get in. There is nothing magic about our 10-day guideline. You do not need to stress over them excessively, but do make sure they are error free. As we mentioned in an earlier email, some schools expect you to access their secondary applications on their websites or through their application portal, so check MSAR and your school websites to make sure you know what to expect with regard to receiving secondary applications from the schools you have selected. 3) Optional Questions-Are they optional? --It really depends on the wording. At times, the question is worded in such a way that they only want you to answer if you have clearly had a hardship, a disadvantage, or a significant bump in the road. Other times, it is an invitation to tell them something else. For schools that do not have a "why this medical school" question, then telling why you are interested in being at that particular school can be great. For schools that already have that question, it is fine to talk about something that helps them understand you better. Some people use it to talk about a significant interest (backpacking, running, kayaking, etc.) that might not have found a place in your original application. Just look at your overall AMCAS, look at the secondary for that school, and think about what more you want to convey. It should not be repetitive, but you can use the space to provide more information or a different perspective on something that is important to you even if you touched on it in your original application. 4) Withdrawal of your AMCAS application. If you choose to irrevocably withdraw your 2019 AMCAS application, it must be done before it is sent to medical schools in order for you not to be considered a re-applicant in the future. No AMCAS applications will be sent to medical schools before June 29. Verification times are variable, so if you submitted later and will verify after June 29th, it gets much harder to predict when your application will be sent to schools. You can withdraw after your application has been sent to medical schools, but you will be considered a re-applicant when you next apply. Please contact an adviser if you are considering doing that. Good luck with all this and keep checking those spam folders! With all best wishes, Emiko and Oona Premedical and Health Careers Advising http://ocs.fas.harvard.edu/medical-health Office of Career Services<http://www.ocs.fas.harvard.edu/>, Harvard University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences 54 Dunster Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, Ph.: 617.495.2595 [Description: cid:image001.jpg@01CD8445.F53D2F50]<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.facebook.com_OCSHar…>[Description: cid:image002.jpg@01CD8445.F53D2F50]<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__twitter.com_HarvardOCS&…>[Description: cid:image003.jpg@01CD8445.F53D2F50]<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__ocsharvard.tumblr.com_&…>[Description: cid:image004.jpg@01CD8445.F53D2F50]<http://www.ocs.fas.harvard.edu/> tel: 617.495.2595

5 years, 10 months

CASPer

by Premedical College

Dear Applicants, Just a quick note about CASPer (we will get this same info on our site soon, but wanted to share this now): At this time, over 20<https://takecasper.com/test-deadlines-ids/#americanmed> U.S. medical schools require applicants to do an online situational judgment test (SJT) called CASPer as a pre-interview screen. The test presents a scenario which includes an ethical dilemma and then asks applicants to comment on how the individuals in the scenario should proceed. Proponents of the test believe it measures personal traits such as integrity and the ability to reason. If applicants are required to do this, we strongly recommend that they do free online practice (see https://takecasper.com/sample-casper-test/ and http://apetest.com/caspersim/practice-test/ for two examples). The SJT requires timed, rapid typing about specific scenarios, so applicants need to practice that skill if possible. Note: There are on average just 1-2 test dates per month<https://takecasper.com/test-dates/#usmed>, so be sure to register ahead of time. Please be sure to review the CASPer FAQs<https://takecasper.com/faq/>. Hope this is helpful to those of you applying to schools that require this test! Best, Emiko & Oona Premedical and Health Career Advising Office of Career Services Harvard University 54 Dunster Street Cambridge, MA 02138 tel: 617.495.2595 http://ocs.fas.harvard.edu/medical-health

5 years, 10 months

AMCAS and Advising

by Premedical College

Dear Applicants, 1) AMCAS opened for submission on May 31st (last Thursday) and some of you may have already submitted. While we encourage all applicants to get their applications in before June 15, please know that we do not believe that it makes any difference whether you submit in a few days or by June 15. AMCAS will send the first batch of applications to schools on June 29th and applicants who submit by June 15 are likely to be in that batch. Even if that is not the case this year, then applications submitted by mid-June will likely arrive at medical schools by the first week of July. Starting around mid-June, AMCAS historically begins to bog down in its ability to process applications, so it can take longer and longer to verify. You do not want that to happen to you. However, it is most important that your application is error-free, so plan to have it done on time, but do not rush to submit it and do not submit it when you are tired or up late frantically finishing. Put it aside and come back to it the next day. One more day will never matter. 2) Meetings and email with us. We are experiencing a large volume of emails, appointment requests, and appointments at the moment. We are getting to these as fast as we can, but please be patient and do not be surprised that if it takes us a few days at times to get back to you. As a note, for general questions, we recommend you email us at premed(a)fas.harvard.edu<mailto:premed@fas.harvard.edu> instead of emailing Emiko or Oona individually- we both review this email and you will sometimes get a faster reply from premed@fas. In addition, please remember that your House premed tutors and non-resident tutors are important resources for you, particularly for final AMCAS review, your personal statement, and school list. Good luck submitting your AMCAS soon. Best, Emiko and Oona Emiko Morimoto, PhD Premedical and Health Careers Advising morimoto(a)fas.harvard.edu<mailto:morimoto@fas.harvard.edu> 617-495-2595 Office of Career Services<http://www.ocs.fas.harvard.edu/>, Harvard University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences 54 Dunster Street, Cambridge, MA 02138 [cid:image001.jpg@01CD8445.F53D2F50]<http://www.facebook.com/OCSHarvard>[cid:image002.jpg@01CD8445.F53D2F50]<http://twitter.com/HarvardOCS>[cid:image003.jpg@01CD8445.F53D2F50]<http://ocsharvard.tumblr.com/>[cid:image004.jpg@01CD8445.F53D2F50]<http://www.ocs.fas.harvard.edu/> http://ocs.fas.harvard.edu/medical-health If you are applying to medical school in 2018 for matriculation in 2019, please subscribe to the Harvard OCS Medical School Applicant Listserv, by visiting https://lists.fas.harvard.edu/mailman/listinfo/harvardocs-medschool-applica… and signing up using a @college.harvard.edu address, a @post.harvard.edu address, or an @alumni.harvard.edu address.

5 years, 11 months

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Harvardocs-medschool-applicants-list June 2018