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AMCAS Tips and Admissions FAQ’s

AMCAS Tips

  • If you are currently enrolled or a recent graduate of a college on a quarter system and you did not list your spring quarter grades before you submitted your AMCAS application.
    • Recommendation: For faster processing, we recommend you include your spring quarter grades on your AMCAS application or upload a copy of your spring quarter grade report via the Document Upload feature in the Admissions Portal.
  • If you are currently enrolled in college and will be enrolled in course work for the fall semester, we recommend that you list your fall semester courses as “Current/Future” courses on your AMCAS application. Upload a copy of your grade report via the Document Upload feature in the Admissions Portal.
  • You thought you were going to take another MCAT exam in August, but you changed your mind.
    • Recommendation: Log back in the AMCAS application, go to the Standardized Test section, and change your response to “no” or to your "new date". You will need to save your change and resubmit your application so the change will be available to us.
  • How you complete the Experience List is very important. Make certain you complete the start and end dates, and the average hours/week. If your experience was for less than one week, state the number of day(s) in the Experience Description section. The Admissions Committee is interested in experiences that are “community service that is non-medical/clinical” as well as “community service – medical clinical.”
  • It is important how you list your courses. Make certain you list your course title in addition to the department and course number.

Frequently Asked Questions

Send an email to medadmissions@downstate.edu and you will receive a reply from a staff member.

We communicate using our email address listed in your AMCAS application.  You may also monitor your application status via your Admissions Portal.  If the Admissions Committee has requested aditional information, it will be listed in you Application Checklist in your Admissions Portal.

We recommend that all applicants complete their AMCAS application completely, and very carefully. During the fall semester, you should only submit additional information if you are asked to do so by the Admissions Committee. During the spring semester, applicants who have been interviewed are encouraged to submit a copy of their fall semester grade report and any updates since they submitted their AMCAS application by  uploading a copy of the requested information via the Document Upload feature in the Admissions Portal. Any grade reports should be submitted in PDF format, not as a scanned copy.

Yes

See the section titled, New York State Residency for Tuition and accompanying forms.

Applications for international students are reviewed after USA citizens and permanent residents. The entering class has been filled before the review of any international students for the last twenty three years.

Our MCAT’s and GPA’s have been at or above the national average of applicants entering medical school in the USA. See the website of the Association of American Medical Colleges’ for more detailed information.

Submit additional information only at the request of the Admissions Committee or if you have already been interviewed. All information should be  uploaded via the Document Upload feature in the Admissions Portal.

In general, the Admissions Committee will email you an update on your status 4–6 weeks following your interview. During the holiday season, the response time might be longer.

Applications are not reviewed in the order in which they are received. Some applications might not be reviewed until January. We thank you for your patience.

We do not have sufficient staff to provide individual advisement appointments. Applicants who are not accepted for admission may send an email request during June – August for reapplication advisement.

If the Admissions Committee has requested your fall grades, your application will be re-reviewed after we have received your fall grade report (it is not necessary to send an official transcript at this time). Once your grades become available, you should upload a copy of your grade report via the Document Upload feature in the Admissions Portal.

Hold for spring consideration before interview means the Admissions Committee will re-review your application after January 2.

No.  The Alternate list placement is decided in April. Generally, an applicant is first placed on the Hold list to be eligible for consideration for the Alternate list.

You may send an email to medadmissions@downstate.edu

While we do not have a time limit on course requirements, the Admissions Committee will consider the overall academic record of the applicant in their review. Applicants who have completed their science prerequisites a long time ago are advised to take recent and advanced science courses to update their knowledge.

Once we received your verified AMCAS application, an email invitation granting you access to our Supplemental Application (secondary) will be sent to the email address on file with AMCAS.

You will be directed to the payment page for the processing fee when you complete the Supplemental Application (secondary).

You may list this on your Supplemental Application and the Admissions Committee will review your listed chemistry course work and make a determination. You are advised to upload a copy of the course descripion for any atypical science course sequences or individual sequence information via the Document Upload feature in the Admissions Portal.

You are able to list your separate laboratory courses in addition to your lecture courses in the Prerequisite section in our Supplemental Application.

We accept transfer applications only from second year medical students who are currently enrolled in an LCME accredited medical school. Transfer Applications are made available only in January of each year. At that time, we project what we anticipate will be the number of available openings in the summer. However, the final determination of available openings (if any) is not made until February. The website is updated to reflect current information, so this is your source for the most current information.