Hi! I was just wondering what we should write on the HPEC file release forms for Dr. Engel if the school participates in VirtualEvals or the AMCAS letter pilot.

To all applicants for M.D. schools:

The AMCAS Letters Pilot program affects several of the schools to which our students typically apply. If you are applying M.D., you need to make sure that you have one (and only one) letter I.D. That letter I.D. should be written at the TOP of your HPEC Evaluation Request (next year we will have a line for it). Your HPEC file will still be transmitted by VirtualEvals, but the letter I.D. will need to be inserted as well. If you have already sent me Evaluation Requests without a Letter I.D. but you have given me the letter I.D., I will write it in for you.

If you have managed to create multiple letter I.D.'s, confer with me and I will communicate to you a most inefficient and inelegant way of using paper to chase down an electronic submission. If you have only one letter I.D., thank Ed DelSole for figuring it out and communicating to you what you needed to do. Best wishes to all of you.

Edited by author 07-03-2008 02:21 PM
To all applicants:

If you call our office, you may encounter a new voice. Shirley Yaworski began working in the Health Professions and Fellowships Office on Monday, June 30th. Many of you have already met Shirley, and she has had a very busy first week. If you stop by T312, please introduce yourself.

Have a great holiday weekend.

Thanks, Dr. Engel. Can we just list those schools and specify if they participate in VirtualEvals or the AMCAS Letter Pilot on the release form (i.e. simply write "Temple - AMCAS Letter Pilot")?

The simplest procedure is to list the schools, and to put your letter I.D. on every form. That way, if any given school is part of the pilot program, Career Services will not need to look up your letter I.D. when they process your file through VirtualEvals.

AMCAS Applicants:

FYI. I was in touch with AAMC this evening. I've been concerned because my HPEC file was released to AMCAS about a week ago via VirtualEvals, yet I received an email notice today which alerted me that my letter packet had not been received by the AAMC Letters of Evaluation (LOE) program.

I was told by a very helpful man over the phone that there has recently been a technical issue with the VirtualEvals release of letters to the LOE program, and that the issue is being addressed. I was told that my letters should be received by LOE by the end of the week, perhaps Monday at the latest.

Just in case you are in the same boat as I am, that's the situation.

Update:

I just received an email from AMCAS informing me that my letter has been processed so there should no longer be an issue with LOE submissions via VirtualEvals.

AACOMAS Applicants:

You must release your MCAT scores to ACCOMAS. To do so, go to the aamc website (aamc.org) and click on MCAT on the right side of the page to go to the MCAT informational page. Next, under the heading "Get and Send Your Scores" click on "Get and Send Your MCAT Exam Scores." On this page, under the heading "Sending MCAT Scores" at the top of the page, click on "Testing History THx." After logging in on the next page, you will be directed to the page that contains your scores. Under your scores, there is a heading "What would you like to do?" Below this heading, click "Send all of my scores." Now, under your scores there is a box with the label "Application Services:" Select "American Assoc. of Colleges of Osteopathic Med. App. Serv." Finally, Click "add" and complete your request.

Again, this MUST be done to complete your AACOMAS application.

From the AAMC about the letter pilot program:

"We've developed a short term solution for AMCAS 2009 applicants who will
no longer be sending letters to AMCAS. Applicants can now email us at
letters@aamc.org instead of using the U.S. Mail. Applicants will need the email to come from the email address we have on
file at AMCAS to send us the following information:
Name
AAMC ID
Author Name
Letter ID

If there are multiple letters we will not be receiving they can list the
additional author names and letter IDs in the email."

Med School Applicants:

I've stumbled upon something that may be helpful over the next 6 months of so - AspiringDocs.org (which is actually a division of the AAMC) has created a podcast that is devoted to certain issues that are pertinent to students who are applying/interviewing/curious about life as physician. Check it out here:

http://www.aspiringdocs.org/site/c.luIUL9MUJtE/b.3882651/

Have any AACOMAS applicants had trouble discerning if their application is complete? I submitted mine almost 2 months ago, and I have not heard from any schools about secondaries as of yet. Is any one else in this same boat?

Meg, since no one responded...
my advice would be to call the schools to ask if they have received your application. It cannot hurt and will ensure everything is being processed appropriately.

Meg, I have the same concern. I don't know if we are waiting for invites like the allopathic schools or not. Let me know if you hear anything; I am in the process of directly contacting the schools.

Christine, I have just recently been contacted by UNECOM. I was told by the (not so) very polite people at AACOMAS that you must wait 6 weeks from the time your application was completed. In my case, it was exactly 6 weeks. So, you are waiting longer than the allopathic schools, but hopefully you will hear soon!