Just a reminder that AMCAS activities character limits are 700 (with up to 15 activities total) and ERAS experience character limits are 1020 (with a limitless number of activities). (The ERAS “reason for leaving” is 510.)
You do not need to write up to the character limit! In fact, brief, streamlined writing makes a much bigger impact. Your written materials are critical to your application; ensure you submit your best work.
In crafting your AMCAS or ERAS activity descriptors, make sure you write formally. By that I mean write in full sentences and avoid contractions and colloquialisms. The AMCAS and ERAS are important documents that deserve respect!
Also, ensure your descriptors – without going over the character limit – can stand alone from the activity title in case the reader skims through the latter. In other words, assume the reader has not read the organization and title before your prose.
Contact me for editing help.
As soon as June 1 hits, I have a multitude of medical school candidates panicking about the urgency of their application submissions. Plan ahead! Good writing takes a long time.
Even if you have a super-fast editor like me on your side :), you should expect that you will revise your materials multiple times and that each revision will take you many days or weeks.
Residency applicants: Take note. Start working on your written materials now, as some of my organized clients have already done.
“You say it’s urgent
Make it fast, make it urgent
Do it quick, do it urgent
Gotta rush, make it urgent
Want it quick
Urgent, urgent, emergency
Urgent, urgent, emergency
Urgent, urgent, emergency
Urgent, urgent, emergency
So urgent, emergency
Emer… emer… emer…
It’s urgent”
This year a significant new addition has appeared on the AMCAS. Applicants are being asked to identify their most significant extracurricular experiences (up to three) and support their choices.
Here’s the prompt:
“This is your opportunity to summarize why you have selected this experience as one of your most meaningful. In your remarks, you might consider the transformative nature of the experience, the impact you made while engaging in the experience and the personal growth you experienced as a result of your participation. 1325 max characters.”
This new section will add to the prose a candidate must craft, so if you are hoping to apply early (beginning of June), make sure to plan accordingly.
Don’t forget that May 1 is the first day AMCAS 2012 is available on the AAMC website and that June 1 is the earliest date for submission of the AMCAS.
Submitting a strong application early is important for your candidacy, particularly with rolling-admissions schools. Your personal statement should be closing in on its final form now. For those of you who don’t know where to start with your essay, consider my new Writer’s Block Package.
Dr. Finkel is a graduate of Stanford University and Harvard Medical School. On completing her residency at Harvard, she was asked to
stay on as faculty at Harvard Medical School and spent five years teaching at the world-renowned Massachusetts General Hospital.
She was appointed to the Assistant Residency Director position for the Harvard Affiliated
Emergency Medicine Residency where she reviewed countless applications, personal statements and resumes. Read more
