Dear 2022 Applicants,
1. Updating schools. We are getting lots of emails about updating schools you have not heard from. With questions about updates/letters of interest, please reach out to your House tutors first. If you have additional questions after consulting with them, feel free to reach out to us. You do not want to send updates to schools that do not accept them (some schools do not accept updates/letters of interest at all or only after you have interviewed), and you want to be careful if a school has a limited number of updates allowed. You may decide you want to be able to send those updates later in the process more than you want to send them now.
**We had a longer discussion of updating schools in our previous message.
1. Zero to two interviews. If you have received 0-2 interviews, we recommend that you send emails now to the schools where you have not yet been rejected. In those emails, be gracious and acknowledge that you realize that not all people are granted interviews, but that you would be honored to receive an invitation. You can briefly comment on why you are interested in this school and can briefly give an update if you have something you would like to share. These should not be long notes. If you currently have 0-2 interviews, please get in touch with your House tutors and make an appointment with one of us at OCS. We can help you map out a strategy from here. Lots of people who were in this same situation at this point last year are now several months into their first year of medical school.
1. Two or more interviews or an acceptance. If you have had two or more interview invitations and have not been rejected from those schools (or if you even have an acceptance!), you can either sit tight depending on the number of invitations you have received and how you feel about those schools or you can send updates to other schools.
1. Post-Acceptance. Once you have an acceptance to any medical school, your House is unable to advocate on your behalf at any school. We (and your tutors) are happy to advise you, of course, as you advocate for yourself in your quest to receive additional interview invitations.
1. AMCAS Choose Your Medical School Tool. (https://students-residents.aamc.org/applying-medical-school/article/amcas-c…<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__students-2Dresidents.a…>) Please be aware of this tool and how you are supposed to use it. This link has a bunch of useful information, so be sure to read information provided there! The Choose Your Medical School tool will not be available until February 19, 2022.
1. Upcoming info session- Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai info session and diversity panel, Monday, 11/8, 4-5pm. We encourage you to attend! Please join us for a special information session with Dr. Valerie Parkas, Senior Associate Dean of Admissions, Dr. Carrie Ernst, Professor in the Department of Psychology and Member of the Admissions Committee, and Jessica Maysonnet, Associate Director of Admissions at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Our speakers will focus specifically on diversity, equity and inclusion on their campus. This is a great opportunity to ask any questions you may have, and to get to know the Mt. Sinai team in a more comfortable setting! Co-Sponsored by the Harvard Black Premedical Society and the Harvard Office of Career Services. REGISTER IN ADVANCE TO ATTEND<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__mssm.zoom.us_j_8721649…>
Best,
Emiko & Oona
The 2023 AMCAS application is now open:
1. You should plan to submit your application in the first two weeks of June. It is extremely important that you submit your application in this time frame to ensure timely evaluation by medical schools. June 24 is the first day that verified AMCAS applications are sent to medical schools, so most of your secondary applications will come in late June and early July.
1. Secondary applications. Some secondary applications are not sent to you, but rather you are required to go on the web portal for that school and retrieve them. Once you have submitted your AMCAS and have a firm list of schools, carefully check all the school websites to be sure you are clear about their policies for secondary applications. We recommend you complete secondary applications within 10-14 days of receiving them.
1. Spam filters. Check your spam filter every day of the summer and through the application year to be sure that important communication from medical schools is not getting stuck there.
1. June 24: Data transmission to medical schools begins: This is the date on which AMCAS begins to send verified AMCAS applications ('data') to medical schools. Transmission of your AMCAS between June 24 and late July-early August will ensure timely evaluation of your application by medical schools.
1. Recap about AMCAS verification and transmission from our 4/22 Completing the 2023 AMCAS Application<https://ocs.fas.harvard.edu/files/ocs/files/2023_amcas_presentation.pdf?m=1…> webinar (slides #55-63):
* Ideally, submit application and transcript/s by mid-June. You should wait for your spring grades before submitting.
* If you are taking or re-taking the MCAT in June or July, you should still submit your AMCAS Application by mid-June. You should then indicate under Standardized Tests that you plan to take the MCAT on this future test date.
* Emphasize completeness over early submission.
* Errors/typos/missing information can't be corrected after submission.
Once your application is submitted and all transcripts received, the application will join the verification queue.
* From the date of submission, verification can take up to six weeks to be completed.
* For applicants who submit AMCAS by mid-June, verification usually takes between a few days and a few weeks.
* See slide #59 for the average number of business days to complete verification by submission date for the past four application cycles.
Transcripts:
As of May 31 AMCAS is:
Marking transcripts as "Received" that were delivered on or before:
Paper (mailed) - May 26
Parchment - May 25 (Parchment is the e-transcript service used by the FAS Registrar's Office; if you need to order transcripts from any other school/s, be sure to check directly with their Registrar's Office/s for instructions)
National Student Clearinghouse - May 31
For more information about transcripts, see:
* https://students-residents.aamc.org/applying-medical-school/faq/amcas-faq?t…
* https://students-residents.aamc.org/how-apply-medical-school-amcas/amcas-tr…
----------------------------------------------------
Premedical and Health Careers Advising
https://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
[Description: cid:image001.jpg@01CD8445.F53D2F50]<http://www.facebook.com/OCSHarvard>[Description: cid:image002.jpg@01CD8445.F53D2F50]<http://twitter.com/HarvardOCS>[Description: cid:image003.jpg@01CD8445.F53D2F50]<http://ocsharvard.tumblr.com/>[Description: cid:image004.jpg@01CD8445.F53D2F50]<http://www.ocs.fas.harvard.edu/>
tel: 617.495.2595
Dear applicants,
As many of you have let us know, the link to the 'Transcripts' page on the FAS Registrar's Office's website in our Completing the 2023 AMCAS application webinar and slide deck is broken (our sincere apologies - the link did work on 4/22 when we held the webinar, but the Registrar's Office updated their page shortly thereafter). If you arrive on the broken link, you are actually on the Registrar's page, and you can click on 'home' from there and then click on 'Transcripts').
The correct link can be found in the FAQ section at https://ocs.fas.harvard.edu/amcas, under the heading
Ordering & Sending Harvard Transcripts to AMCAS
For instructions about how to obtain your official Harvard transcript, please see the FAS Registrar's Office instructions.<https://registrar.fas.harvard.edu/transcripts>
If a school has placed a financial hold on your transcripts, AMCAS will not grant an exception under any circumstances.
Important: Some of you have also asked if your House will order and send your transcript to AMCAS/your medical schools. Although your House Premed Committee requires you to send them your Harvard transcript, that is for their records and purposes only. Your House will not send your transcript to AMCAS or to the medical schools you are applying to. The correct way to transmit your Harvard transcript (and any other required transcripts you may need to request from other post-secondary schools you may have attended and taken courses at), is to order the transcript/s from within your AMCAS app (this is done in the section of your app called "Schools attended" - after adding Harvard University, you will be asked if you want to request a transcript from this school, to which you will answer 'yes'; you are then issued a Transcript ID: you will enter this ID, plus your AAMC ID, when you order your Harvard transcript via Parchment (uploading the PDF of your Transcript Request form into Parchment is optional and not necessary); all instructions and steps for how to order your Harvard transcript are provided on the FAS Registrar's page and on the Parchment platform).
The following AAMC pages are helpful for transcript ordering, status, processing times, and how to contact AMCAS if you think there is a problem with your transcript request/status/receipt by AMCAS:
* https://students-residents.aamc.org/applying-medical-school/faq/amcas-faq?t…
* https://students-residents.aamc.org/how-apply-medical-school-amcas/amcas-tr…
* See this AAMC AMCAS webinar for detailed step-by-step instructions: https://students-residents.aamc.org/amcas-tools-and-tutorials/amcas-tools-a… - scroll down to locate vimeo recording called "Navigating the 2023 AMCAS Application Cycle for Applicants" - instructions for the schools attended section, incl how to order transcripts, begin 13:11 minutes in to the video ("This session will prepare applicants for the 2023 AMCAS application cycle, including a walkthrough of the AMCAS application and available AMCAS resources.)
The next AMCAS and other application Q&A will be held next Wednesday, June 1, from 1-2:30pm (info and link to register can be found at https://ocs.fas.harvard.edu/event/2023-medical-school-application-qa-4-6).
Oona B. Ceder, PhD
Director, Premedical and Health Career Advising
Associate Director of Career Services
Ph: 617.495.2595 / Fax: 617.495.3584
Preferred pronouns: she/her/hers
http://ocs.fas.harvard.edu/medical-health
Subscribe to the Harvard OCS Medical School Applicant Listserv: If you are applying to medical school in 2022 for matriculation in 2023, please subscribe to our Applicant Listserv at https://lists.fas.harvard.edu/mailman/listinfo/harvardocs-medschool-applica… with a @college.harvard.edu address, @post.harvard.edu address, or @alumni.harvard.edu address. Note: If you do not have a @post or @alumni.harvard.edu email address, please email premed(a)fas.harvard.edu<mailto:premed@fas.harvard.edu> with your name, @college.harvard.edu email, and preferred email so we can verify that you were an undergraduate at Harvard.
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@01D871C1.92FADAD0]<http://www.facebook.com/OCSHarvard>[cid:image002.jpg@01D871C1.92FADAD0]<http://twitter.com/HarvardOCS>[cid:image003.jpg@01D871C1.92FADAD0]<http://ocsharvard.tumblr.com/>[cid:image004.jpg@01D871C1.92FADAD0]<http://www.ocs.fas.harvard.edu/>
Don't have the recommended 40-50 hrs of shadowing (or even if you do)? Then you may want to make use of one or several of these virtual shadowing opportunities (and also scroll all the way down to learn about a new way to connect with Harvard Alumni in Healthcare for shadowing and mentorship!)
Do medical schools recognize and 'approve' virtual shadowing as shadowing experience?: Yes, medical school admissions committees are by now familiar with virtual shadowing 'programs' and experiences as a way for premed students to continue to build their shadowing experience as Covid restrictions on visiting and spending time in the clinic and hospital setting have made it difficult to shadow in person. You just need to note in your AMCAS entry that this portion of your hours were virtual. You can attend live sessions or view recorded ones on these programs' YouTube channels or other platforms. One caveat is that ideally, you do want a portion of your shadowing experiences to have taken place in person. If you do not have any in-person shadowing, you have likely already discussed this with your House Premed Tutors or the OCS advisers (and assuming you have sufficient in-person hospital/clinical volunteering experience, the lack of in-person shadowing will hopefully not impact your application negatively as adcoms are aware of the challenges you have faced since 2020 around securing this type of experience).
Can I include future anticipated shadowing in my AMCAS shadowing entry? Yes, this is a reasonable thing to consider doing. Alternatively, if you cannot confirm a future shadowing opportunity before submitting your AMCAS, you may be able to add it to your secondaries or in later updates to your schools.
The following virtual shadowing opportunities are all free of charge, and all appear to offer educative and professionally managed programs:
Virtual Premedicine Shadowing: https://virtualshadowing.com/ - a program created by Dr. Raymond Fowler, Professor of Emergency Medicine and Emergency Medical Services at UT Southwestern. (https://virtualshadowing.com/meet-our-team)
Upcoming live sessions: Registration to attend live is done on a first-come-first-served basis, but anyone can watch the session recordings: https://virtualshadowing.com/shadowing-sessions
Learn more at https://virtualshadowing.com/faqs
WebShadowers virtual physician shadowing program: https://www.webshadowers.org/ WebShadowers "was founded by two best friends at the University of Central Florida during the summer before their Sophomore year. As fellow Pre-Med students themselves, the founders of WebShadowers could not find a way to shadow specifically MD and DO physicians during COVID-19. Knowing that other students were in the same situation, they decided to create a virtual program to help them achieve these hours and learn from physicians of various specialties. The program officially began in September 2020 and has hosted numerous physicians from various specialties throughout the country, with even a few international physicians as well!"
Virtual Teleconference: Reach Explore Aspire to Careers in Healthcare (VT REACH): This is "an outreach program designed for high school, college, technical school, undecided students who are interested in potentially pursuing careers in healthcare and provides an opportunity to learn from and interact with professionals and students from the Larner College of Medicine and UVM Medical Center."
Link to the VT REACH Zoom teleconference.<https://na.eventscloud.com/ereg/index.php?eventid=613888&>
Watch past sessions on the VT Reach YouTube channel<https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjIgAZhUKlb5d-zsl0zfscA>
Hearts for Health: Virtual shadowing opportunities "where students can learn and interact with healthcare professionals of various specialties": https://hearts4health.wixsite.com/hearts4health | shadowing.h4h(a)gmail.com<mailto:shadowing.h4h@gmail.com>
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hearts_4_health/<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.instagram.com_hear…>
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/HeartsforHealth<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.youtube.com_channe…>
Vascular & Interventional Radiology (VIR) virtual shadowing: This is a new initiative that offers "organized virtual shadowing for undergraduates!"
Sign up at virshadowing.com<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__virshadowing.com&d=DwMD…>.
Note: Spots are limited, and they maintain a waitlist if a session has filled. They recommend checking back often as new sessions are continuously added.
This program offers documentation of your experience (though that is not required by med schools): "We will keep track of your shadowing hours with our program and can provide a signed transcript of your shadowing hours with our program. Vascular & Interventional Radiology (VIR) is the newest, most technologically advanced specialty in medicine. It involves using imaging techniques to perform incredibly minimally-invasive interventions. Everything is projected onto the screen, so you get a great view of the action. The pictures and videos taken from each case makes it perfect for a virtual shadowing platform! Feel free to contact us at info(a)virshadowing.com<mailto:info@virshadowing.com> if you have any questions!"
And, finally: Be sure to check out the Harvard Alumni in Healthcare resources for connecting with alumni physicians in Boston and other cities across the US for both in-person and virtual opportunities. For additional resources for finding shadowing see https://ocs.fas.harvard.edu/prehealth-experience (first tab from left).
Harvard Alumni in Healthcare: Click here<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__harvardalumnihealthcare…> for the HAIH website, and join the mailing list here<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__harvardalumnihealthcare…>. You can also check out the new Harvard Alumni in Healthcare Directory<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__docs.google.com_spread…>. "This directory link is not yet accessible from our public website to keep email addresses private. Students can also provide their own information to the directory for students to connect with each other by filling out this Google Form<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__forms.gle_tNZnGnRVakYu…>. HAIH will be moving to a more aesthetic and user-friendly version of the directory in the coming months, but we hope this will be a great resource for students at the moment." Shout out to your fellow 2023 applicant Felicia Ho'23 who has been working closely with HAIH on developing this new ways for Harvard Premeds to connect with our alumni in medicine!
Oona B. Ceder, PhD
Director, Premedical and Health Career Advising
Associate Director of Career Services
Ph: 617.495.2595 / Fax: 617.495.3584
Preferred pronouns: she/her/hers
http://ocs.fas.harvard.edu/medical-health
Subscribe to the Harvard OCS Medical School Applicant Listserv: If you are applying to medical school in 2022 for matriculation in 2023, please subscribe to our Applicant Listserv at https://lists.fas.harvard.edu/mailman/listinfo/harvardocs-medschool-applica… with a @college.harvard.edu address, @post.harvard.edu address, or @alumni.harvard.edu address. Note: If you do not have a @post or @alumni.harvard.edu email address, please email premed(a)fas.harvard.edu<mailto:premed@fas.harvard.edu> with your name, @college.harvard.edu email, and preferred email so we can verify that you were an undergraduate at Harvard.
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@01D86ABB.21A28FC0]<http://www.facebook.com/OCSHarvard>[cid:image002.jpg@01D86ABB.21A28FC0]<http://twitter.com/HarvardOCS>[cid:image003.jpg@01D86ABB.21A28FC0]<http://ocsharvard.tumblr.com/>[cid:image004.jpg@01D86ABB.21A28FC0]<http://www.ocs.fas.harvard.edu/>
Dear 2023 applicants,
We are writing to let you know that Meaghan Shea, one of the members of the OCS Undergraduate Advising team, will be supporting the OCS Premed office until we have hired Emiko's successor. Many of you already know Meaghan from meeting with her to explore interests and opportunities in her usual advising areas - Life and Physical Sciences, Technology, Biotech, Pharma, Data Analytics, and Entrepreneurship. Before coming to Harvard, Meaghan was a premed/pre-health adviser at MIT, and she has kindly agreed to jump back into her old MIT role by offering individual 20-minute appointments to go over school selection questions as you finalize your school lists.
Starting this coming Monday, 5/16, Meaghan has openings in Crimson Careers for "2022-23 Applicant: School list review" appointments. To book one of these slots, log in to your Crimson Careers account and click on the "Advising Appointment" tab. Select "2022-23 Applicant: School list review" as the appointment type, scroll down and check the box "Premed & Pre-Health (Meaghan Shea)" and then click on "Refine results" to see her available appointment times.
Note: Both Meaghan's "School list review" appointments and Oona's current applicant appointment types (2021-22 Med School Application & 2022-23 Med School Application) are 20 minutes long in order to serve as many of you as possible during this time of high advising demand.
Our weekly Medical School Application Q&A webinars (see https://ocs.fas.harvard.edu/calendar for each week's schedule and the registration links) will continue through mid-June, and you are also welcome to send your application-related questions to premed(a)fas.harvard.edu<mailto:premed@fas.harvard.edu>.
We wish you all a smooth launch of the 2023 application cycle!
Oona and Meaghan
Oona B. Ceder, PhD
Director, Premedical and Health Career Advising
Associate Director of Career Services
Ph: 617.495.2595 / Fax: 617.495.3584
Preferred pronouns: she/her/hers
http://ocs.fas.harvard.edu/medical-health
Subscribe to the Harvard OCS Medical School Applicant Listserv: If you are applying to medical school in 2022 for matriculation in 2023, please subscribe to our Applicant Listserv at https://lists.fas.harvard.edu/mailman/listinfo/harvardocs-medschool-applica… with a @college.harvard.edu address, @post.harvard.edu address, or @alumni.harvard.edu address. Note: If you do not have a @post or @alumni.harvard.edu email address, please email premed(a)fas.harvard.edu<mailto:premed@fas.harvard.edu> with your name, @college.harvard.edu email, and preferred email so we can verify that you were an undergraduate at Harvard.
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@01D866E8.AA548020]<http://www.facebook.com/OCSHarvard>[cid:image002.jpg@01D866E8.AA548020]<http://twitter.com/HarvardOCS>[cid:image003.jpg@01D866E8.AA548020]<http://ocsharvard.tumblr.com/>[cid:image004.jpg@01D866E8.AA548020]<http://www.ocs.fas.harvard.edu/>
Dear 2023 Applicants,
Anyone with AMCAS or other application process related questions is welcome to attend today's Q&A webinar. I will start at 4pm and go till 5pm, and you are welcome to join and leave at any time.
https://ocs.fas.harvard.edu/event/2023-medical-school-application-qa-1-6
2023 Medical School Application Q&A
Date:
Wednesday, May 11, 2022, 4:00pm to 5:00pm
Location:
Virtual
Join us virtually to ask questions about AMCAS, the application process, and more. PLEASE REGISTER TO ATTEND.<https://harvard-csm.symplicity.com/students/app/events> If you have accessibility needs or questions related to this event, please contact ocsrecep(a)fas.harvard.edu<mailto:ocsrecep@fas.harvard.edu>.
Best,
Oona
Oona B. Ceder, PhD
Director, Premedical and Health Career Advising
Associate Director of Career Services
Ph: 617.495.2595 / Fax: 617.495.3584
Preferred pronouns: she/her/hers
http://ocs.fas.harvard.edu/medical-health
Subscribe to the Harvard OCS Medical School Applicant Listserv: If you are applying to medical school in 2022 for matriculation in 2023, please subscribe to our Applicant Listserv at https://lists.fas.harvard.edu/mailman/listinfo/harvardocs-medschool-applica… with a @college.harvard.edu address, @post.harvard.edu address, or @alumni.harvard.edu address. Note: If you do not have a @post or @alumni.harvard.edu email address, please email premed(a)fas.harvard.edu<mailto:premed@fas.harvard.edu> with your name, @college.harvard.edu email, and preferred email so we can verify that you were an undergraduate at Harvard.
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@01D86527.45142E30]<http://www.facebook.com/OCSHarvard>[cid:image002.jpg@01D86527.45142E30]<http://twitter.com/HarvardOCS>[cid:image003.jpg@01D86527.45142E30]<http://ocsharvard.tumblr.com/>[cid:image004.jpg@01D86527.45142E30]<http://www.ocs.fas.harvard.edu/>