As I have been filling out my colleges attended and coursework, I noticed something that may cause me problems with the powers that be at AMCAS.
I took classes this past year at a branch campus of a state school. The branch is listed as a choice for colleges, so I used the branch. However, all transcripts are issued from the main campus, with no designation that the courses were taken at the branch. I’m afriad that AMCAS, in its infinite wisdom, will say its missing my transcript because it doesn’t say that it is from the branch.
Should I just go ahead and list that I attended main campus last year?
Thanks -
Amy
My advice would be to list the main campus. Of course it would be MUCH better to get an informed opinion from someone who works at AMCAS, but in general you should make sure that the words on your application look similar to the transcript AMCAS is going to receive, even if it means fudging certain facts. I made the mistake of properly specifying for AMCAS that I attended different sections within the “main branch” (whatever that is) and it held me up a month, and that was with persistant attention on my part. During all this time I had only been following instructions people at AMCAS gave me.
The other thing is that even if you call them, it doesn’t help much. I got directly contradictory responses from different people there. I’m sorry to say but I think your only hope is to go one way or the other, keep a close eye on things, be prepared for AMCAS to make a mistake, call them another 50 times, repeatedly explain the mistake, and never stop watching. You could even draft a cover letter now that you could send to them in the event they mess up. Along with the cover letter include photocopies of your transcripts where you annotate what you’re trying to tell them. In fact it wouldn’t be a bad idea if you ask me to send it to them right now. I’m serious, the branch campus thing is really really hard for AMCAS to deal with.
Eventually whatever happens will get worked out. I am only saying all this because my experience with AMCAS has been that they put out shamelessly inadequate instructions and don’t train their staff to properly read transcripts. That’s the boat we’re all in.
MAYBE things will go through smoothly though, who knows? I hope so but I just wanted to warn you!