My FULL AMCAS Application that got me 14 Interviews + Tips for Success 

But you are missing the most important and determining piece of the puzzle.

Oh man I’m sorry to hear that! Yeah, Penn is…interesting 🥴 😂😂 I wish you the best I am sure you will be successful:)

Thanks so much!! Best of luck on your cycle. Also hoping for a few more acceptances we’ll see!! :D

roooting for you❤️

Thank you! Yes of course, thanks for the vid idea :)

Absolutely! Adding that to the list of video ideas :)

Hi thanks so much! Honestly they almost all gave me great vibes. Emory, BU, Michigan, and Icahn were some of my fave interviews

I did! I don’t know very many people in medicine or med school so I felt I needed an extra set of eyes. I used MedSchoolCoach’s services and they were great!

thank you!!

Of course! My main tip is to start early. You can and should pre-write secondaries. I started writing them sometime in April or May. Something else to keep in mind is there’s a lot of writing involved for this process lol bc you have your personal statement, your activities (which you def wanna spend time on!), and secondaries. I started writing my PS around Feb and kept fine tuning until May, then started my activities around March and i think about finished in April, then as I said I started secondaries in April/May and kept working on them through July. Lmk if you have any more questions I know it can be confusing. As for how many schools, I’d have to know a little more about your stats, ECs, state of residence, etc. but in general 25-30 is considered good. Feel free to message me on ig (@amandaparedes_) or email me at amanda28paredes@gmail.com if you want more personalized advice!

Lets gooo!! Love to hear that, congratulations!!

Yeah of course! So I did my job through work-study and my school had a directory of jobs for us to look through. I sorted by clinical research assistant jobs and applied to a few. If your school doesn’t have a similar work-study directory or if you dont do work-study, there’s a good chance they have a research directory. From there, you can contact professors/doctors and often times they will have paid positions. I recommend applying/emailing several because sometimes the directories arent updated and you might get some duds.

Hi, I did not complete a program to become a medical assistant. In my state, not all MA jobs require certification! I basically just learned on the job

So completed hours refers to the amount of hours you have completed of the activity at the time that you submit your application. Anticipated hours are hours that haven’t happened yet but you’re anticipating they will. Let’s say you’re submitting your application in May 2023, but you’re planning on doing a particular activity until May 2024, you would calculate out the amount of hours you plan on contributing and put that under anticipated hours.

Hi, I took both Casper and Preview!

And they are not interchangeable

Yes I applied to all the schools listed! It came out to about 47 or 48

Also, I think that your writing is amazing. Congrats on your application results so far

I threw my hands in the air and relocated from that area to Colorado for my post bacc at CU Boulder which has 95% acceptance rate. Got into one of their research labs and got a medical assistant job to keep my pt experience and research hours current. The university has a great volunteer center to so it’s overall great accessibility to the experiences you need for med school and your surrounded by even better mountains lol. Their students get into John Hopkins, San Diego, etc. I’m hoping to get into UColorado Med school so I don’t have to relocate until residency. My family member on the other hand had a business BA and never got a job after college (but did do marketing internships) she just continued education and took the pre-med classes at a state college in New England non-matriculated (no post bacc or specialized masters) right after her BA and got right into a great med school with 2 years of paid research and volunteer EMT experience for her pt experience and volunteer hours. So while you might see bleakness there are many who do it without one too. Best of luck to you in your decision making.

Hi, yes indeed I did the specialized studies one, and I highly recommend it. It was a great experience. The only thing that isn’t great is I think the advising team could do better and be more proactive about helping their students. But, if youre self motivated and you make sure to use online resources and you’re on top of the timeline and stuff like that, you can definitely be successful. My colleagues have also been successful, some have gotten interviews to T10 schools.

@@j.l.5836 Thank you thats very kind! :)

@@amandaparedesmedthanks! I remember looking at the program's page a few months ago to see the program outcomes and something that concerned me was that it listed a mid-tier school (T60-70) as their top matriculation for specialized studies students. I can't find it anymore, so it must've been updated. It really felt like even the best postbac programs (that aren't for career changers) were barely able to get their students in anywhere, but hearing that and seeing your success gives me hope. My experiences are strangely identical to yours (even hobbies 🤣) and my GPA is a 3.55 with a sharp upward trend, so I'm hoping that I can get anywhere near a successful cycle as yours after my postbac/MS.

unfortunately they didn’t 🤣 oh well

They can contact people from any of your activities you list! It’s not common but it happens every now and then

@@amandaparedesmed would they ask me to provide them with their contact information ?

@@DrTorres444 yep!