I am a bit confused by the payments being collected by AMCAS as well as colleges. Why does AMCAS collect so much money if they are not passing it on to colleges?
AMCAS only collects fees for the primary application–application processing and verification.
AMCAS fees cover things like employee salaries, employee training, software licensing & maintenance & customer support fees, access fees for student clearing house databases, server costs/maintenance, IT support staff, employee workstations & networking equipment, physical plant costs & maintenance, overhead (electricity, heating/cooling, employee benefits, taxes, accounting fees, banking fees, credit card processing fees, etc) and all the other associated costs of running a non-profit. Remember that application verification has to be done manually and is enormously time-consuming & labor intensive (and therefore expensive).
Individual med schools used to do their own verification on just their own applicants as recently as 10 years ago, but they got out of that because the whole process costs so much.
Secondary fees go to pay for costs of running the admissions offices at individual med schools. I’ve heard that med schools actually lose money on the admissions process, esp at school that process either large volumes of applicants or very small volume of applicants. Just the data management software used to process applications cost major bucks……
As for the auto-reject immediately after secondary. D1 got a couple of those and she believed it had to do with her home state of residence because her stats were in their top quintile. (Why would she go to a private school in the SE when her home state med school was ranked higher, cost 1/4 as much and admits 30% of applicants each year? The same issue that TX resident face when applying OOS.) D2 had the same thing happen with a private med school in the upper midwest. Made it thru the first (MCAT/GPA) screen in under a week and place in the small pool for an interview slot, but then ended up on indefinite hold until she withdrew at Christmas. AMCAS keeps increasing the fee based on colleges applied to and it seems to go up lot more for certain colleges. D paid over $700 but I remember when there were only few colleges initially, the fee was 150 or so. Adding some colleges didn’t seem to increase the fee at all.
Does anyone know anything about CASPer testing? 2 of son’s schools require it.
It’s a computer-based personality assessment with short videos followed by question prompts. It’s not something you can study for. In some ways it’s similar to a MMI. It’s been used as a screening tool by a number of Canadian med schools for about 4-5 years now.
It is a personality based test. I know NY Med uses it heavily…their secondary app is nothing! It is this exam and the LORs that they seem to utilize. They say it gives them a very accurate indication if the student will be a good 'fit" for Med School. My D is taking it on Wed for NYMed…they do supply a sort of “practice” exam that your S can take to get a feel for the format of the test…
Mine is taking it Wednesday also for NYMC. He said the sample that he looKed at was asking questions on medical ethics. I looked at the site and there’s source of a ‘class’’ that you can take to prep for it. 2 lectures and 4 sample tests. It’s only $85. Is it worth it?
^^^ If these are his top choice schools then it makes sense to put his best foot forward by taking the classes. D is taking CASPER on Wednesday for the one school that needs it. We didn’t see a need to plunk down another $85.
Thanks for the input!! She has gotten 2 now from schools that definitely pre-screen. No idea if she’ll get an immediate rejection, but she’s working on the secondaries as much as time allows!
Son just got email from AMCAS. His committee letter is in! That was a really nice surprise. He didn’t expect it until sometime in August. He’s done with 22 secondaries. Taking CASPer for 2 others tomorrow. Still waiting on 2 more secondaries. How long does it take for schools to get LORs after AMCAS recieves them?
AMCAS uploads LORs to schools once a week. So most (all?) of his schools should have his letter by the end of the week.
He started getting emails from schools about his application being complete. One of the school’s email said “complete:in review”. Does is actually mean that the school is reviewing his app while others are not. Or is it just wording different schools use?
Major issues with CASPer today. From SDN looks like the majority of people had technical issues and couldn’t take the test today. CASPer is trying to reschedule test for those people before the next test date on August 15. That’s crazy. Their servers definitely were not ready for all these people taking it. Thankfully son was one of the very few that was able to complete the test without any issues.
“In review” just means his file is complete and is available for review and no final decisions about its disposition have been made yet. It’s a holding pattern, often a long-term holding pattern that can last for months. It doesn’t mean that some schools have reviewers reading his file and some don’t.
Adcomms haven’t started meeting to review RD applicants yet. (And won’t until mid-August.) The adcomm members are busy dealing with ED applicants right now.
DS should be verified tomorrow. His letter is in. One concern is that a few schools are having difficulty downloading the May 2015 MCAT. Emory and MCW are experiencing the problem. I am just hopeful they can get that worked out before his app is late. One nice surprise is how many schools have sent secondaries before his primary app is verified. One of his friends already has II from Pitt and U of Chicago so this process is about the start. I expect his first rejection is just around the corner.
Any of your kids take CASPER today. How did it go? I hear the server crashed.
@momworried glad your son got the test in. My son is taking it in August. Im wondering how many schools most of your kids applied to? I think my son is up to 27 now.
@GCmom415 My D applied to 21, 15 MD and 6 DO.
@GCmom415 mine applied to 26 MD school.
So this application cycle is up to a rocky start. A lot of technical issues. UVA is having problems uploading LORs from AMCAS. They are aware of the problem and working on it. Bunch of kids that took MCATs in May reporting on SDN that there is a problem with test score reporting with some schools and they’re not getting secondaries. Apparently AMCAS has scores but they’re not transmitting correctly to the schools. And then there is the CASPer fiasco. They’re giving everyone a chance to retake the test from Wednesday on August 2nd. As I mentioned earlier son was one of the few lucky ones who was able to finish the test. The email from CASPer was not very clear so he talked to their tech support on live chat to find out about his particular test. This is what they said. They’re going over every test from Wednesday. It will take some time and then they will email the kids that had a problem and will tell them to retake. So I’m thinking about a week for them to do that. At least. After that it takes 4 weeks to transmit the results of the test to the schools that require it! So this will put us in mid to late August. That is just crazy!! I don’t think it’s a problem for NYMC since everyone are in the same shoes. But he also took the test for one of our state schools. There was an option to take CASPer or do regular secondary essays. But the way the option was worded it was obvious they wanted you to do CASPer. (We strongly recommend). Our state school is rolling and they usually start interviewing end August with some decisions coming out in mid October. I’m just wondering if kids that took CASPer are at the disadvantage and should now fill out the regular secondary essays because they’ll be a month behind from the kids that do. I suggested that my son call the school and see what they think. He told me that I’m insane and he’s not writing any more essays.
Sorry for the long post. Just needed to vent. Going to grab that drink now.
@momworried I feel your pain…its very stressful. My son is out of state still so I am constantly asking about his secondaries. Ive been stalking SDN and see some interview invites have been given out already! He applied a little later than I would have liked. He was finishing a paper for a Masters Program he just completed. He also decided to take the new MCAT in August which I am worried about. I know its kind of late for this cycle but he insisted but I do think his last MCAT should be strong enough to get secondaries. Hes also applying for a research opportunity for this year. I honestly dont know how these kids do it…To be young! Ill be having that drink as well after work!!