Medical School Application 2015-2016
MAY 2015
It’s hard to believe, but the AMCAS application (along with Osteopathic AACOMAS, Veterinary, and
Dental ones) ARE LIVE. It’s time to jump fully into this next phase!
1. Applications are LIVE: WATCH IMPORTANT PODCAST: IMPORTANT WORKSHOP!
2. AMCAS FAQ’s
3. Key Things All Applicants should know, even if you are applying to Texas or Canadian schools,
Osteopathic schools, Veterinary or Dental schools.
4. Composite Letter Process (aka Committee letter in med school lingo): now what?
5. WRITING: Activities and Personal Statement
6. Choosing Medical Schools
7. Workshops the rest of the Term
8. Check In with Dr. Witters or Sarah Berger if you have questions about applying this year; or
Annette Hamilton for questions about Interfolio or AMCAS.
1.
2. Applications are LIVE: WATCH IMPORTANT PODCAST of THIS WORKSHOP!
 HOW to Fill out the AMCAS application as a DARTMOUTH STUDENT or ALUM; access of
NSS web site (‘Medical School’>>>’Medical School Application 2015-16”)
2. PLEASE READ THROUGH The FAQ’s DOCUMENT (ENCLOSED AND ON NSS SITE)There is essential information about correctly filling out the application as a Dartmouth student.
Much is relevant to other application processes as well. It has many answers to questions that
might arise. Please use it before asking Sarah, Annette or Dr. Witters a clarifying question!
3. Key Things ALL APPLICANTS should know-much of the below is relevant to DO, Dental
or Veterinary as well:
 PLEASE SAY YES TO RELEASING INFORMATION TO YOUR PRE-HEALTH ADVISOR: we
can’t read your application, but it gives us data every year to help understand how the
cycles unfold and use the data to advise you, and future students/alumni! This remains
completely confidential to our office.
 Make sure to have an OFFICIAL transcript in hand when filling out your courses. Write
courses in exactly as they are described on transcript. If you are taking Dartmouth
courses this term, you must wait for your spring transcript before you submit your
application so you can write you last courses in exactly as they are written, and with
your grades.
 All DARTMOUTH courses are ONE CREDIT. Please make sure to put in credits exactly as
they are listed at Dartmouth or any other school at which you took courses. AMCAS will
translate those for you. Please see FAQ’s for more details.
 To note: Freshman Seminar and Writing 5 can both be designated as ENGLISH courses.
 You will designate your Composite Letter as a COMMITTEE LETTER.
 Your PRIMARY CONTACT for your letter is SARAH BERGER (not your composite writer).
Please see FAQ’s as to how to fill out that contact info.
 You will NOT use the AMCAS letter request form. Just ignore it.
 You WILL use the Transcript Request Form and sent it to the registrar of any institution
at which you took courses (EXCEPTION: you won’t need a transcript from schools at
which you did a Dartmouth FSP/LSA program, those will show on the Dartmouth
transcript). See FAQ’s for details!
4. THE COMPOSITE LETTER: IMPORTANT REMINDER: The final Composite Letter is almost
always submitted AFTER you submit your AMCAS application. It is not necessary to wait for the
completed Composite Letter to submit your AMCAS application (or AACOMAS, or Dental apps).
 NOW WHAT:
You will:
o Be responsible for sending a gentle, follow up reminder to your support writers
confirming your agreed upon deadlines at least one-two weeks before the deadlines
o Be responsible for checking your Interfolio Account to know when all support letters
are in.
o Notify Annette Hamilton when all your supporting letters are in, AND when YOU
have uploaded your resume, transcript and autobiographical sketch onto
Interfolio. You will submit a RELEASE TO COMPOSITE form to her at that time
(enclosed)
 THEN:
o Annette gathers all the supporting materials from Interfolio (support letters,
resume, auto sketch, transcript), processes them, and submits them to your
Composite Writer (can take 2-3 weeks)
 Your Composite Writer will then:
o Work with your whole file and write your Medical School Composite (aka
Committee) Letter
o Submit their completed letter to Annette Hamilton when they are done (can take 46 weeks unless otherwise agreed upon)
 Annette Hamilton will then:
o Review the Composite Letter to ensure it is properly formatted
o Prepare the Composite Letter (aka Committee Letter in medical school terms) for
submission. The final product will be a pdf that will include the Composite Letter
and all Supporting letters (can take 2-3 weeks).
o Notify you that it is ready for you to submit to your application.
5. WRITING THE APPLICATION: ACTIVITIES AND PERSONAL STATEMENT: Please take this
assignment to heart. You will also do a lot of writing for secondary applications. This is YOUR
chance to communicate directly to the admissions personnel at medical schools.
 By NOW you should be well on your way to gathering your reflections, if not already
beginning to draft your thoughts. Use the “Writing the Application” podcast for general
rules of thumb and to go over WHAT the personal statement is addressing. Barron’s
“Essays That Will Get You Into Medical School” book can be helpful as well.
 Be thoughtful about WHICH activities you wish to share, the wording you use to give it a
title, and how you describe each one in the 750 characters you get for each. Consider
which of these three have been especially meaningful and reflect on how describe that
being so with another 1325 characters.
 As you choose which Activities to write about, it will help you make clearer decisions
about what to share in the ESSAY, as you may have already had a chance to speak to
something you thought you were going to need to use the essay for.
 You may ask either Dr. W or Sarah Berger to review your Essay Draft.
6. CHOOSING MEDICAL SCHOOLS:
PLEASE USE our Med School List WORKSHEET (ENCLOSED AND ON NSS SITE0. It will be useful
to you AND help US help YOU. It has some guidance for how to make choices, and a template
that helps us, help you.
 The list for US MD schools isn’t infinite—143 US schools, plus the Texas schools. You can
use the Medical School Admissions Requirements (MSAR) site on the AAMC, for a small
cost: it conveniently lists all the schools, w/data, direct links to their websites etc.
However, on the NSS site, we also have an excel document that pulls out a lot of the
data from the MSAR. (Navigate from ‘Medical School’>>’Medical School Fact Summary”)
7. WORKSHOPS:
 Senior Night: Wednesday May 27th , 6 PM, Paganucci Lounge. Graduating seniors who
have been applying over last year share their application stories.
 Choosing Medical Schools PODCAST, on NSS Site (Navigate from ‘Medical
School”>>>”Medical School Application 2015-16” (podcast is of last year’s session))
 Interviewing For Medical School Monday June 1st 5:30-6:30
8. CHECK IN with Dr. Witters or Sarah Berger if you have questions about applying this year; or
Annette Hamilton for questions about Interfolio or AMCAS (603-646-3377). We are cheering
you on from the sidelines!