<p>I've always been curious what the AMCAS looks like vs. what a secondary application looks like. What will be asked on each and how many spaces/how much space will be left to write on? </p>
<p>Can someone who has seen one before describe what each looks like please?</p>
<p>AMCAS:</p>
<ol>
<li>Space to insert details on every single college course you’ve ever taken (credit hours, grades, whether it’s a science course or not)</li>
<li>Biographical information</li>
<li>15 slots for EC’s and awards</li>
<li>Around 5400 characters for your personal statement</li>
<li>A place to indicate which med schools you want to send your primary app to </li>
</ol>
<p>Secondary applications vary from school to school. The simplest ones will basically just ask you for money and for you to retype your biographical information. The most onerous ones will have up to 8 or 9 additional essay questions for you to answer.</p>
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That’s in addition to 2-3 additional essays requested by each school, right?</p>
<p>Here are links to some school’s secondary applications to give you an idea…</p>
<p>[University</a> of Utah Secondary Materials](<a href=“http://medicine.utah.edu/admissions/apply/secondary.htm]University”>http://medicine.utah.edu/admissions/apply/secondary.htm)
<a href=“http://medicine.uchc.edu/prospective/admissions/pdfs/supplemental.pdf[/url]”>http://medicine.uchc.edu/prospective/admissions/pdfs/supplemental.pdf</a>
<a href=“http://www.evms.edu/admissions/docs/supp-app.pdf[/url]”>http://www.evms.edu/admissions/docs/supp-app.pdf</a>
<a href=“https://www.applyweb.com/apply/mgrmedphd/instruct_mgrmed02.html[/url]”>https://www.applyweb.com/apply/mgrmedphd/instruct_mgrmed02.html</a></p>
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<p>I don’t know what you mean. Schools can request anywhere b/w 0-9 essays on your secondary in addition to the personal statement you sent in your primary.</p>
<p>what do the 15 slots of ec’s look like</p>
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<p>alot of schools actually have no essays or a generic one that you can reuse for multiple schools (such as “what have you done since you graduated?”)…typically the ones with an abusive number of essays are the “top” schools</p>
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<p>there are slots for the EC title, location, contact person, and hours/week then ~1300 characters for a description</p>
<p>Do most people actually fill up those 15 EC slots? That sounds really intimidating. What’s a typical number of ECs to have?<br>
And does an EC have to be completely non-academic? Like I’m a music major so a lot of my EC time is spent in quartet, symphony, & private lessons. These are all one credit per semester but they don’t really have homework like other classes. So would they count as ECs or just regular classes?</p>
<p>Believe it or not, there’re debates on whether or not it’s a good idea to fill up all 15 slots. The general consensus is that you shouldn’t stretch what you’ve done just to fill up the EC slots. There’s no real method to the EC section. You kind of get to decide how you want to classify things and group things, which is both nice and difficult. And, no, the EC section doesn’t have to be completely non-academic. The EC section is also where you list things like research and publications. I feel like symphony and quartet should definitely be mentioned in the EC section (maybe in the same slot?) in addition to listing the classes in your class section.</p>
<p>Do people fill up 15 slots? Yes.</p>
<p>Usually not without some fluff. I don’t think it hurts or helps you to list down every single thing that you’ve done in college but I honestly think it’s your top 3-4 EC’s that get you into med school.</p>
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<p>yes, as did i…with absolutely no “fluff” i might add…though i will be entering med school two years after graduating undergrad…if i had applied to med school junior year there is no way i would’ve come close to filling all the spots…i probably would’ve had to fluff it up a bit just to fill 10 slots!</p>
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<p>they would count as both…but this would be classified as a “hobby” …it really shouldnt take up more than one EC slot unless you got some kind of award for your music. The vast majority should be medically relevant ECs, paid employment, community service, leadership activities, awards, and publications</p>