aamc application essays

Section 8 of the AMCAS® Application: Essays

New section.

Here you will upload your Personal Comments essay.

• AMCAS® Sign In

Every applicant is required to submit a Personal Comments essay. The available space for this essay is 5,300 characters (spaces are counted as characters), or approximately one page. You will receive an error message if you exceed the available space. Click the "What information should I consider including in my personal comments?" link in the application or see Section 8 of the  AMCAS Applicant Guide  for suggestions of things to think about when writing this essay.

• If you're applying to an MD-PhD program, you must complete two additional essays: the MD-PhD Essay and the Significant Research Experience Essay.
• To avoid formatting issues, we recommend that you type your essay directly into the AMCAS ® application rather than copying and pasting your essay from other software.
• Alternately, you can draft your essay(s) in text-only word processing software, such as Microsoft Notepad or Mac TextEdit, then copy and paste your essay(s) into the application. Copying formatted text into the application may result in formatting issues that you will not be able to edit after your application is submitted.
• Proofread carefully! There is no “spellchecker” in the AMCAS application, and no changes will be permitted to this section after you have submitted your application.

Send us a message .

Monday-Friday, 9 a.m.-7 p.m. ET Closed Wednesday, 3-5 p.m. ET

The 2025 AMCAS application is now open . If you wish to start medical school in Fall 2025, please complete and submit the 2025 AMCAS application.

As of May 17  AMCAS is:

Marking transcripts as "Received" that were delivered on or before:

Paper (mailed) – May 16

Parchment – May 16

National Student Clearinghouse –  May 17

Outline of the current AMCAS application process, policies, and procedures.

This resource is designed to help you prepare your materials for the AMCAS ® application but does not replace the online application.

The application processing fee is $175 and includes one medical school designation. Additional school designations are $46 each. Tax, where applicable, will be calculated at checkout. 

If approved for the Fee Assistance Program, you will receive a waiver for all AMCAS fees for one (1) application submission with up to 20 medical school designations ($1,030 value). Benefits are not retroactive.

Which program are you applying to?

The amcas application  , get accepted speak with an admissions expert today.

Your AMCAS application represents who you are to the adcom, which is why it is critical that you write clear, vibrant, and compelling AMCAS essays and present your most impressive self throughout the application.

The following resources will help you highlight your strengths, convey your skills, and convince the admissions readers that you are a person worthy of a seat in the next top medical school class:

Do you need more in-depth, personalized advice for your medical school application essays? Choose from Accepted's  AMCAS application advising and editing packages  to work individually with an experienced consultant and admissions expert!

"I just wanted to let you know that I was accepted at the Indiana University School of Medicine this week. I plan on attending medical school there next fall. Thank you for helping me with my personal statement. Your advice was invaluable. Thank you again."

Get a 515+ on the MCAT. Guaranteed.

Before getting into the nuts and bolts— gather these required things:

• Transcripts from any post-high school, even if you didn’t earn credit. There is a specific AMCAS Transcript Request Form (available from the Main Menu in AMCAS)—get extra copies to help you complete the application.
• List of all work and extracurricular activities.  There is a maximum of 15, so pick wisely which to include. Choose which was the most memorable; you’ll have space to explain yourself.
• List of people who wrote your letters of recommendations
• List of Medical Schools you want to apply to
• Personal Statement (5,300 character max)
• MCAT Scores (typically must be within the last 3 years)
• GMAT/LSAT/GRE depending on what programs you are applying to
• $160 non-refundable application fee (includes 1 school submission)
• $34 for each additional school designation (after the first)

Check out our Medical School Applications Cost Estimator for more on the application expenses.

How to Complete the AMCAS: The Step by Step Guide

Log-in to AMCAS application using your AAMC username and password. Now we’ll go through all the sections of the application.

Section 1: Identifying Information

Enter your name. Enter your ID numbers from your transcripts. Enter your birthdate. Enter your gender.

Section 2: Schools

High School: Enter your High School. (See AMCAS Instruction Manual if you got a GED, were home-schooled, or attended high school in a country outside the USA.)

Colleges: List every institution you attended after high school, even if you only took 1 class there. Enter all schools even if your credits were transferred, no credits were earned, or you withdrew from the class/school.

Transcripts: You need a copy of your official transcript from each U.S., U.S. Territorial, or Canadian institution post-high school where you’ve attempted course work, regardless of whether you earned any credit.

You need to use the AMCAS Transcript Request From with each official transcript. If you don’t, AMCAS will have problems connecting your transcripts to your application. This is the number one cause of processing delays and missed deadlines!  Don’t let this be you! Also, make sure that you get copies of your transcripts, which you can use to complete the AMCAS application.

Institutional Action: Hopefully this does not apply to you, but if you have had any institutional action taken against you (resulting from poor academic performance or a conduct violation), you must document this here. This is required even if there was no interruption in your enrollment, even if you were not required to withdraw, and even if this action does not appear on your official transcripts.

Section 3: Demographic Information

Enter your contact information. Enter your citizenship. Enter your legal residence. Enter your languages spoken. Enter your ethnicity and race. Enter your parent or guardian, siblings. Enter any felonies and/or misdemeanors.

Contact Information: AMCAS uses email for everything, so make sure that your email is valid, easily accessible, and up to date. If your contact information changes at any point during the application process, you must update this information on the AMCAS application website. If you have already submitted the application, you must re-certify and resubmit the application.

Felonies and Misdemeanors: If this section applies to you, use it to explain any felonies or misdemeanors which appear on your record. Prior to starting medical school, if you are convicted of, plead guilty to, or plead no contest to a felony or misdemeanor crime, you must inform the admissions office for each medical school to which you have applied. This communication to each medical school must be in writing, and occur within 10 business days of the time of the criminal charge or conviction. Don’t be stupid .

Section 4: Entering your Course Work

Take your time completing this section. The AMCAS website actually suggests that you “proceed with caution” when completing it. Make sure that you input your grades directly from your transcript—don’t wing it and try to remember. This must be accurate to a T. If you leave anything out (grades, credits, etc.) or if you input incorrect data, your AMCAS GPA may be incorrect, and the processing of your entire application may be delayed.

You must include information and corresponding grades for every course in which you have ever enrolled at any school after high school. This includes withdrawals, repeats, failures, incompletes, and future coursework. If you suffered from academic bankruptcy, forgiveness, or similar institutional policies and had grades removed from your transcript because of this, you must also include these on your AMCAS application.

Course Classification: Each course must be assigned a course classification based on the course content. See the Course Classification Guide for assistance in classifying your coursework.

AMCAS GPA: AMCAS will convert most standard undergraduate transcript grades to AMCAS grades based on conversion information provided by the institutions. This conversion allows medical schools to compare all applicants on a more even playing field. The BCPM GPA includes Biology, Chemistry, Physics, and Mathematics. All other courses will be calculated in the AO (All Other) GPA.

Foreign Coursework/Study Abroad: Carefully consult the AMCAS Instruction Manual to determine how to enter courses taken in countries outside the USA and Canada.

Section 5: Work/Activities (Extracurriculars)

You can enter any work, extracurricular activities, awards, honors, or publications here with a maximum of 15 experiences. These will automatically appear chronologically on your application and cannot be rearranged. Remember, quality is more important than quantity .

Fifteen fluffy experiences which you really got nothing out of and which you only included to seem more accomplished will not impress anyone. Also, remember that you may be asked about any one of these experiences, so include important things which you can really talk about.

If you participated in a volunteer or research experience more than once, only enter it once. The same goes for making the Honor Roll/Dean’s List; just note in the explanation section that you had this same honor multiple times.

[Related episode: 5 Common Mistakes Premeds Make with Extracurriculars ]

You may select up to 3 experiences which you consider to be the most meaningful. If you have 2 or more entries, you will be required to identify at least 1 as the most meaningful. When you designate your most meaningful experience, you will have 1,325 characters to explain why. AMCAS recommends that you consider the following things when writing this response:

• “the transformative nature of the experience”
• “the impact you made while engaging in the activity”
• “the personal growth you experienced as a result of your participation”

If you want to work on this response in a word processing program, you should use plain text only (e.g. Microsoft Notepad). If you copy formatted text into the AMCAS website application, there may be formatting issues which cannot be edited once you submit your application.

Section 6: Letters of Evaluation

This section will let you indicate who your letter writers are, what types of letters will be sent to AMCAS, and which schools should receive each letter. You do not need to enter your letters in your AMCAS application prior to submission.

Note that applications and letters will be made available to medical schools after your application has been processed, regardless of whether or not all letters have been received. This process allows your letters to be received electronically by AMCAS and to be submitted to the corresponding medical schools where you are applying. Most medical schools participate in this service (you can check this by looking for the LOE icon when looking at medical schools on the AMCAS website).

Please note that most medical schools require that your letters be on official letterhead and include the letter writer’s signature.

Letter Types (Each letter type is equivalent to 1 letter entry):

Committee Letter: Many universities and colleges have a pre-health committee or pre-health advisor, and this committee/advisor will write a letter which represents your home institution’s evaluation of you, the applicant. A committee letter may or may not include additional letters written in support of your application.

Letter Packet: Some schools create a packet or set of letters; this is often compiled by the career center. This packet may include a cover sheet from your pre-health committee or advisor, but unlike a committee letter, the letter packet will not include an evaluative letter from the pre-health committee or advisor.

Individual Letter: A letter authored by 1 letter writer. If an individual letter has already been included within either a committee letter or a letter packet, a separate entry should not be created for individual letters.

Assigning Letters of Evaluation to Medical Schools:  Once you have added your medical schools and verified that they participate in AMCAS Letters (by checking for the LOE icon), you can designate specific letters to be received by individual medical schools.

There are several ways through which a letter writer can send a letter to AMCAS:

• VirtualEvals
• AMCAS Letter Writer Application.

[Related episode: How to Get the Best Letters of Recommendation as a Nontrad ]

Section 7: Choose your medical schools

Read our posts on How Many Medical Schools you Should Apply To  and How to Choose a Medical School and Put Together a School List for help in determining where to apply!

Things you should consider when selecting your schools:

• How competitive is the school?
• Medical School program types (MD, MD/PhD, MD/MPH, MD/MBA)

Medical School Program Types:

• Regular M.D.
• Combined Medical Degree/Graduate or Ph.D (Remember this likely requires another application as well—check with the school for further information).
• Combined Bachelors/Medical Degree: You must have permission from the medical school to select this option.
• Combined Medical Degree/Ph.D: (Remember this likely requires another application as well—check with the school for further information).
• Deferred/Delayed Matriculation: You will need prior permission from the medical school if you were admitted and also allowed to defer matriculation to a medical school in a previous application year.

Other Special Program (OSPs): Refer to the MSAR and individual school’s website for information about programs offered by individual medical schools.

Early Decision Program: These programs allow applicants to secure an acceptance from one participating medical school by October 1 while allowing time to apply to other schools if not accepted. The deadline for the Early Decision Program is August 1 (application and official transcripts must be submitted by this date).

[Related episode: Should I Apply Early Decision to Medical School? ]

Section 8: Personal Statement (Essay)

As part of your application, you are required to submit a personal statement. You have 5,300 characters (includes spaces) or approximately one page. You will get an error message if you go beyond 5,300 characters.

The personal statement should tell your story and explain why you want to be a doctor. If you need help working on your personal statement, refer to these resources:

• My book on the personal statement: The Premed Playbook: Guide to the Medical School Personal Statement .
• My Personal Statement Writing Course .
• My Personal Statement Editing services .
• 5 episodes of The Premed Years podcast all about writing the personal statement: Session 38 , Session 88 , Session 127 ,  Session 161 , and  Session 272 .

If you are applying to an M.D.-Ph.D. program, you must complete two additional essays: the M.D.-Ph.D. Essay and the Significant Research Experience Essay.

AMCAS highly recommends that you type your essay directly into the AMCAS application rather than cutting and pasting your essay from other software. If you still want to draft your essay in a word processing program, you should use a plain text program like Microsoft Notepad and then copy/paste your essay into the AMCAS website. If your text is formatted in any way, this may make your essay unreadable and remember that you cannot edit your essay once your application has been submitted.

Remember: Proofread your essay very carefully! There is no “spellchecker” in the AMCAS application, and you will not be allowed to make any changes to this section after you have submitted your application.

Section 9: Test Scores (MCAT, etc.)

MCAT Scores:  Only include MCAT exams which you have taken at the time that you submit your AMCAS application. Do not include exams that you voided . Remember that you only have to include scores which you have released to the AAMC.

Most medical schools require that your MCAT scores are no more than 3 years old. If you have any question about whether your scores are still valid, check with the individual schools to make sure your scores are valid.

(MCAT scores from 2003 and later will be automatically released to AMCAS if you do not void your scores at the time of the exam. You cannot unrelease your scores once you have released them to the AAMC, and they will show up on any subsequent AMCAS application, so be careful!)

If you want to release your MCAT scores from exams taken between 1991 and 2003, you can do this at the following site: www.aamc.org/students/MCAT/sendscores. If you want to release scores from exams taken before 1991, please complete the MCAT Testing History Report Request Form available at: www.aamc.org/students/MCAT/sendscores/thxapplication.pdf

Other Tests (may be required for combined programs): GMAT, LSAT, or GRE. To report these scores, click the “Yes” button on the “Other Tests” screen. You should enter separate tests for scores which you received in the individual sections of the tests.

Submitting your application:

Before you submit, be sure to proofread and edit ! You can use the “Print Application” feature and proofread a hard copy of the application.

After you submit, you can only make changes to the following information:

• Required and Alternate IDs
• Name (Full Legal Name, Preferred Name, and Alternate Names)
• Contact Information (Permanent and Preferred Mailing Addresses)
• Alternate Contact Information
• Date of Birth and Gender
• Letters of Evaluation (up to ten 10 letters). You can also notify AMCAS of a letter no longer being sent.
• Next MCAT testing date
• You can Add Medical Schools and change the existing Program type (deadlines and restrictions apply)
• Release application information to your pre-health advisor

In order to submit your application, you are required to certify several statements attesting that the information you are supplying is accurate to the best of your knowledge.

AMCAS Application Fees

When you submit your application, you must pay the $160 processing fee, which includes just 1 medical school designation. Additional medical school designations are $34 per school.

You can pay online by credit card (Visa or MasterCard) or check. AMCAS does not accept payments made by non-internet means (includes personal checks, money orders) and does not accept any credit card information sent via mail, fax, e-mail, or telephone.

After you submit your application, what’s next?

Once you have certified and submitted your application, and AMCAS has received your transcripts, your application will enter the processing queue. During this period, your application will be verified by AMCAS personnel; this includes ensuring that your courses and grades have been correctly entered in the system.

Once your application is verified, AMCAS will send the verified application back to you. You must then check the entire application for any errors that may have occurred during the verification process.

After reviewing your verified application, you must re-certify and resubmit your application. You must do this every time that you make a change after your initial submission. If you do not resubmit the application, your changes will not be saved.

Monitoring your Application

Processing Times: Processing your application can take up to 6 weeks during the “busy season” according to the AMCAS website. Remember that your application cannot begin the verification process until all materials (including all official transcripts) have been received.

Checking the Status of your Application:  Per AMCAS, you are responsible for regularly checking the status of your application throughout the application process.

Withdrawing your AMCAS application

To withdraw your AMCAS application, you must go online and select “Withdraw application” from the right side of the main menu. You can ONLY withdraw your application when it is in the following status:

• Submitted to AMCAS-Ready for Review
• Submitted to AMCAS–Waiting for Transcripts

You can not withdraw your application if it is in the following status:

• Submitted to AMCAS—Under Review
• AMCAS Processing Complete.

The initial $160 application fee is non-refundable, but you will receive back your payment for each school whose deadline has not passed if you withdraw your application. Please note: Once you withdraw your application, you can no longer apply for the current application year. Think carefully before you do this.

** If you need to withdraw your application from consideration after your AMCAS application has been processed, you must directly contact the medical schools to which you applied. If you withdraw at this point, you are not eligible for an AMCAS refund in this case.

Links and Other Resources:

• AMCAS Application Tips
• AMCAS Course Classification Guide
• Related episode: How Much Does it Cost to Apply to Medical School?
• Related episode: When Should I Expect an Interview or to Be Told I’m Rejected?
• Need MCAT Prep? Save on tutoring, classes, and full-length practice tests by using promo code “MSHQ” at Blueprint MCAT (formerly Next Step Test Prep) !

SEARCH SITE

RECENT POSTS

This EDM Loving, Rave Going Med Student Carved Her Own Path

The Importance of Authenticity in Medical School Applications

Pioneering Medicine as a First-Generation Latina Student

Finding Balance and Peace on the Medical Journey with Dr. Wendy Lau

© Medical School Headquarters - All Rights Reserved. | Affiliate Disclaimer | Privacy Policy | Website by MAP

How to Use AMCAS to Apply to Medical School

Experts say that an impressive AMCAS application highlights a student's individuality.

Getty Images

AMCAS is a centralized medical school application system that allows students to simultaneously apply to multiple medical schools.

Aspiring physicians who dream of attending a U.S. medical school should know that getting an acceptance letter from one of these institutions is not an easy feat . Among prospective med students who sought admission in fall 2019, the average acceptance rate at ranked institutions that submitted admissions data to U.S. News was 6.7%.

Medical school hopefuls who are filling out their American Medical College Application Service forms, commonly known as AMCAS applications , should be thoughtful about the information and anecdotes they choose to share in these documents, experts say.

What Is the AMCAS?

AMCAS is a centralized medical school application system designed by the Association of American Medical Colleges, a nonprofit coalition of U.S. medical schools and teaching hospitals. The system allows students to simultaneously apply to multiple medical schools. It is solely available to first-year medical school applicants, so transfer applicants need to reach out directly to the school they are interested in attending rather than applying through AMCAS .

Some U.S. medical schools do not accept AMCAS applications. Osteopathic medical schools typically ask prospective students to apply via the American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine Application Service, commonly known as the AACOMAS. In addition, public medical schools based in Texas typically require students to submit their admissions materials via the Texas Medical and Dental Schools Application Service.

Because the AMCAS is often a pivotal factor in medical school admissions decisions, here is a guide on what the AMCAS application includes and how to compile an effective AMCAS application.

Overview of the AMCAS Application

An AMCAS application has nine parts.

The first three sections of the AMCAS involve providing basic background information. In section one, the student is asked to provide his or her name, birth date and other identifying information. In section two, he or she must provide information about schools attended, including every single postsecondary institution. Finally, in section three, students must answer biographical questions, including questions about citizenship status, criminal history, languages spoken and military service.

The fourth section requires students to give a detailed account of postsecondary courses they have taken and the grades they have received in those courses, including any withdrawals or incompletes, which are used to calculate an official grade point average .

In the fifth section, a student describes his or her jobs and extracurricular activities and highlights the three most meaningful experiences. This is the portion of the application where a student can mention awards, honors or publications.

In the sixth section, students identify the people who will be writing their letters of recommendation. The seventh section is where students name the medical schools where they plan to send their application, specify whether they are applying for a standard M.D. program or a dual-degree program, indicate whether they want to participate in an early decision program and declare if they deferred an admission offer in a prior application year.

The eighth section is the essay portion of the application. The way someone fills out this section depends on whether he or she is applying to an M.D. program or an M.D.-Ph.D. program . All AMCAS applicants must write a personal essay, but M.D.-Ph.D. applicants are required to write two additional essays , one of which explains their rationale for choosing an M.D.-Ph.D. program as opposed to an M.D. program and another that describes their academic research.

The last AMCAS application section is where students must provide their MCAT scores . Any scores earned since 2003 must be included, unless those scores were voided at the time of the test. Students who are applying to a dual-degree program, which combines a traditional M.D. degree with another type of graduate degree such as a law degree or MBA degree , may be required to submit results from graduate school entrance exams like the GMAT, GRE, MAT or LSAT.

When to Submit Your AMCAS Application and How to Meet AMCAS Deadlines

AMCAS deadlines vary depending on the medical schools where a student applies. Among the 145 medical schools that accept AMCAS applications, deadlines generally range from Oct. 15 to Dec. 1, though some schools have deadlines earlier or later.

However, medical school admissions experts say prospective students who submit AMCAS applications in the summer have a significant edge over students who apply later, because there are more interview spots available for summer applicants.

Dr. Anam Tariq, an internist and future nephrologist who soon finishes her nephrology fellowship at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine , says medical school hopefuls should begin their AMCAS application as soon as possible and allow plenty of time to work on it.

Tariq warns that the application process can be very time-consuming, not only for the applicant but also for those writing recommendation letters and submitting other materials on the applicant's behalf, so it's best not to attempt to finish at the last minute.

"It's a giant portfolio, showing how incredible you are and why you are applying to these particular medical schools," says Tariq, who chairs the student and resident committee of the Islamic Medical Association of North America. "You don't want to sell yourself short."

Creating a Unique and Interesting AMCAS Application

Medical school admissions experts say there are three places in the AMCAS application where a student can convey his or her personality: the work and activities section, recommendation letters and the personal comments essay.

AMCAS Work and Activities Section

Admissions officers say they are more impressed with work and activities lists that describe a student's long-term commitments to his or her passions than lists that include numerous short-term projects, such as brief service trips. The quality of a student's activities matters more than the number of activities, admissions officers suggest.

"I think applicants get so worried about saying that they've done everything that they forget to say what they're really good with and what they really value," says Dr. Flavia Nobay, an associate dean for admissions and professor of emergency medicine at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry .

However, Nobay says students sometimes omit activities that ought to be on the activities list, such as jobs they have worked in order to put themselves through school.

"They won't put that down, and what a mistake that is, because it means so much," she says. "Medicine is hard work. Showing us that you work hard in your everyday life also matters, and that can be the value that you're showing us. It doesn’t all have to be remarkable research or remarkable community service."

Admissions experts say it is perfectly fine to list a project in the work and activities section that is unrelated to medicine or health care. In fact, experts say that including a nonprofessionally relevant endeavor in this section helps a student convey that he or she is well-rounded and has interests outside of science.

Keith Baker, assistant dean for admissions at Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine , says it is more impressive to him when a student has done community service work that is not related to the health care sector. When a premed student performs community service unrelated to health, it suggests the student is not doing good deeds simply out of a desire to improve his or her resume but rather because he or she genuinely cares about a community, he says.

Baker says hands-on volunteering experience, where students directly reach out to people in need, impresses him much more than charity work that does not require direct contact with needy individuals, such as fundraising.

"I like to say that the more hands-on, direct experiences you can have with people who you are serving looks much better than working in a sterile environment and in an indirect fashion," he says.

When students state in their AMCAS application that they intend to participate in an activity that is relevant to medical school, Baker adds, those future plans will not significantly improve their candidacy.

"Their profile essentially stops in time once they submit their application, meaning that we will consider experiences that have transpired but we do not really hold much weight on experiences that have yet to take place," Baker warns. He says telling admissions officers that you are about to begin a health care job, such as a job as a medical scribe, is unlikely to significantly boost your acceptance.

AMCAS Recommendation Letters

Less is sometimes more when it comes to recommendation letters, admissions officers say.

Baker says it is a mistake for students to request recommendation letters from people who do not know them well, and submitting more letters than is required is not necessarily better than submitting the minimum number of letters.

He urges students to focus on getting recommendation letters from the mentors who are their very strongest advocates, because lukewarm endorsements are worthless. "The more opportunities you give letter writers to say something awkward or not flattering about you, the more opportunity there is for you to not look good," he says.

AMCAS Personal Comments Essay

Admissions officers say the personal essay someone includes in an AMCAS application should have a compelling argument for admission.

"You don’t have to be a Nobel laureate or a Pulitzer Prize winner to put your personal statement together," Nobay says, "but it has to make sense and it has to answer the fundamental question of ‘Why medicine, and why me in medicine?’”

Nobay says her school receives about 6,000 applications annually, so it's unlikely that someone would be admitted to her institution unless his or her application makes a positive impression.

Dry writing that doesn't convey personality makes it difficult to assess a student's core character traits and motivations, Nobay says. "What it becomes is like a bullet-point list of a thousand pieces of data, and it becomes really hard to put a picture together," she says.

Medical school applicants should think about what makes them special and why they want to attend medical school before writing their AMCAS applications, she says.

She encourages applicants to reflect on how they are unique from other medical school applicants and ask themselves the following questions: "Am I somebody who is super geared to community service? Am I someone who is super curious? Am I somebody who is really focused on working in disparities in health care?"

AMCAS Application Mistakes to Avoid

One of the biggest mistakes medical school applicants make is trying so hard to appear perfect that they don't seem human.

Baker says it is typical for medical school applicants to present themselves as "someone who is bulletproof, who has basically overcome very little and looks very good all the time." But Baker says this is a serious error, because he wants to see evidence that a medical school applicant is a compassionate and thoughtful person.

"I want to know you're a real person," he says. "I want a genuine snapshot of who you are, and that requires demonstrating vulnerability. I want to know that your journey to medicine has been transformative."

Being clear and specific is a fundamental component of an impressive AMCAS application, Baker says. "Two applicants that have exactly the same profile can present themselves in such a manner to look good or to look bad based upon either their carelessness or their thoroughness."

"Applicants that have full transparency are the ones that end up getting the most traction," he says. "When there's red flags on applications, generally those red flags are associated with evasiveness and non-specificity."

Searching for a medical school? Get our complete rankings of Best Medical Schools.

Medical School Application Mistakes

Medical School

• How to Use AMCAS to Apply to Med School
• How to Apply to Osteopathic Med Schools
• How to Fulfill Med School Requirements
• How Long and Difficult Is Med School?
• Medical School Curriculum, Difficulty

Tags: medical school , education , students , graduate schools

You May Also Like

Get accepted to multiple top b-schools.

Anayat Durrani May 16, 2024

Premeds and Emerging Medical Research

Zach Grimmett May 14, 2024

How to Get a Perfect Score on the LSAT

Gabriel Kuris May 13, 2024

Premeds Take 5 Public Health Courses

Rachel Rizal May 7, 2024

Fortune 500 CEOs With a Law Degree

Cole Claybourn May 7, 2024

Why It's Hard to Get Into Med School

A.R. Cabral May 6, 2024

Pros, Cons of Unaccredited Law Schools

Gabriel Kuris May 6, 2024

An MBA and Management Consulting

Sammy Allen May 2, 2024

Med School Access for Minority Students

Cole Claybourn May 2, 2024

Different jobs with med degree

Jarek Rutz April 30, 2024

Personal Statement and Essay Prompts 2020: AMCAS, AACOMAS, and TMDSAS

Looking for a comprehensive index of all required essay prompts for the AMCAS, AACOMAS, and TMDSAS applications?

Look no further. Personal statements, short essays, experience descriptions - it’s all covered here.

All the prompts and character limits were gathered online from primary sources ( AAMC , AACOM , etc.) or from our past 2019 students. We’ve tried to ensure that this information is accurate and up-to-date, but please note that it’s subject to change.

We want to be a one-stop shop for all the medical school primary essay prompts, so please let us know if you notice any discrepancies. Don’t forget to brush up on the AMCAS, AACOMAS, and TMDSAS Deadlines .

Oh, and if you’re looking for tips and examples, you’ll find those here, too.

Just follow the links:

Table of Contents

2020 AMCAS Essay Prompts

Personal Statement Prompt

Institutional Action Prompt

Disadvantaged Information Prompt

Experience Descriptions Prompt

Most Meaningful Remarks Prompt

2020 AACOMAS Essay Prompts

2020 tmdsas essay prompts.

Personal Characteristics Prompt

Optional Essay Prompt

Most Meaningful Essays Prompt

BONUS: All Medical School Secondary Essays 2019-2020 (by state)

2020 AMCAS PERSONAL STATEMENT PROMPT

(5300 characters max)

Use the space provided to explain why you want to go to medical school. The available space for your response is 5300 characters, or approximately one full page. You will receive an error message if you exceed the available space. For additional assistance, click "help" on the tool bar at the top of the screen.

There are a few follow up questions to help you:

• Why have you selected the field of medicine?
• What motivates you to learn more about medicine?
• What do you want medical schools to know about you that hasn't been disclosed in other sections of the application?
• Unique hardships, challenges, or obstacles that may have influenced your educational pursuits.
• Commentary on significant fluctuations in your academic record that are not explained elsewhere in your application.

SAVVY PRE-MED TIPS:

Whew, where to start? Hmm… probably here:

Savvy Pre-med's Ultimate Guide to Writing Your Personal Statement

But seriously, the personal statement is a complex, multifaceted process, so you might want to target certain areas. Here are some elements we’ve covered:

Getting Started on Your Draft

Writing Attention-Grabbing Hooks

Average vs. Compelling Personal Statements

Crafting Your “Why Medicine” Answer

Cliches to Avoid

How to Know Your Personal Statement is Finished

Our full archive of articles on the personal statement

Jump back to the Table of Contents .

2020 AMCAS INSTITUTIONAL ACTION PROMPT

(1325 characters max)

MILITARY DISCHARGE

The question asks if you’ve ever been discharged by the Armed Forces. If you answer Yes, you’ll be asked if you received an honorable discharge or discharge under honorable circumstances. If you answer No, you must explain in 1,325 characters the circumstances of your discharge, including the circumstances leading to your discharge, your period of service, and your rank at the time of discharge.

FELONIES AND MISDEMEANORS

You must indicate if you have ever been convicted of, or pleaded guilty or no contest to, a felony crime or misdemeanor, excluding

(1) Any offense for which you were adjudicated as a juvenile

(2) Convictions that have been expunged or sealed by a court (in states where applicable).

You need not disclose any instance in which you:

• Were arrested but not charged

• Were arrested and charged, with the charges dropped

• Were arrested and charged, but found not guilty by a judge or jury

• Were arrested and found guilty by a judge or jury, with the conviction overturned on appeal

• Were arrested and found guilty but received an executive pardon

If you answer Yes, you’ll have 1,325 characters to explain the circumstances of your conviction, including the number of conviction(s), the nature of the offense(s) leading to conviction(s), the date(s) and location(s) of conviction(s), the sentence(s) imposed, and the type(s) of rehabilitation.

Academic Probation

You must answer "Yes" if you were ever the recipient of any institutional action resulting from unacceptable academic performance or a conduct violation, even if such action did not interrupt your enrollment or require you to withdraw. You must answer "Yes" even if the action does not appear on or has been deleted from your official transcripts due to institutional policy or personal petition. If you answer Yes, you’ll have 1,325 characters to explain the circumstances.

If you are not certain whether or not you have been the subject of an institutional action, contact the registrar, student affairs officer, or other appropriate party at the institution for confirmation of your record. Applicants who become the subject of an institutional action after certifying and submitting the AMCAS application must inform their designated medical schools that an action has occurred.

Don't feel obligated to fill all 1325 characters for this essay:

PARAGRAPH 1

1-2 sentences to explain the factors that led to the institutional action

It's wise to let the facts speak for themselves. If there were extenuating circumstances that led to this anomalous blip in your record, make sure to include those as evidence, BUT DON'T editorialize or try to make direct excuses for what happened. The goal in the beginning is to just acknowledge and own up to the IA.

PARAGRAPH 2

3-4 sentences to explain how you've rectified the situation

This will depend a lot on your situation, but typically, it will involve some kind of probation, mandatory classes, written letters, court appearances, etc. Beyond explaining the requirements you fulfilled and your current good standing, discuss the ways you've sought to improve overall as a person.

PARAGRAPH 3

1-2 sentences to explain the growth, personal qualities, and lessons you’ve gained

Again, this will depend a lot on your situation. Perhaps there's some activity or endeavor that you can use as "proof" of your growth as a person (i.e. tutoring other struggling students or serving on the student judiciary board). If not, just explain what you learned from the experience and how it's turned you into a better person moving forward.

2020 AMCAS DISADVANTAGED INFORMATION PROMPT

When you click the box on the AMCAS application to see if the status applies to you, here is what AMCAS provides:

Underserved: Do you believe, based on your own experiences or the experiences of family and friends, that the area in which you grew up was adequately served by the available health care professionals? Were there enough physicians, nurses, hospitals, clinics, and other health care service providers?

Immediate Family: The Federal Government broadly defines “immediate family” as “spouse, parent, child, sibling, mother or father-in-law, son or daughter-in-law, or sister or brother-in-law, including step and adoptive relationships.”

State and Federal Assistance Programs: These programs are specifically defined as “Means-Tested Programs” under which the individual, family, or household income and assets must be below specified thresholds. The sponsoring agencies then provide cash and non-cash assistance to eligible individuals, families, or households. Such programs include welfare benefit programs (federal, state, and local) Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC or ADC); unemployment compensation; General Assistance (GA); food stamps; Supplemental Security Income (SSI); Medicaid; housing assistance; or other federal, state, or local financial assistance programs.

If you think there are other circumstances that have contributed to your disadvantaged status that are not listed, don't feel constrained by the above.

In addition to requesting family financial data, AMCAS provides the opportunity for a 1,325 character statement explaining why you should be considered disadvantaged.

EXAMPLE PARAGRAPH 1

2-3 sentences to explain the factors that contribute to your disadvantaged status

I am blessed to have been adopted by my grandparents, who provided a stable life by removing me from a destructive environment with an absent father and drug-addicted mother. However, due to my grandparents’ age and physical limits, I missed out on many things people take for granted, like playing catch with one’s father or enjoying student-parent activities.

EXAMPLE PARAGRAPH 2

5-6 sentences to illustrate the day-to-day struggles as a result of your status

I am a first-generation college student who has been financially independent since age 18. My discipline stems from my teenage years when I worked manual labor on construction sites. This translated into dedication and focus, as I later sought a scholarship to subsidize my schooling and worked full-time alongside a rigorous course load. To fund my college experience, I attended a local university and gained merit-based aid, balancing school (20+ unit semesters) and three jobs (totaling 40+ hours/week). My lack of expendable income prevented me from accessing certain opportunities off-campus. Luckily, the Wilkinson Honors Scholarship provided a dorm stipend that covered most of my living expenses. However, to further cut costs, I went without a car and obtained an on-campus job and research opportunity.

EXAMPLE CONCLUSION

1-2 sentences to explain the growth, personal qualities, and lessons you’ve gained as a result of your status

Overall, my obstacles have given me more resolve to plan ahead, meet my goals, and help others do the same.

2020 AMCAS EXPERIENCE DESCRIPTIONS PROMPT

(15 activities or less, 700 characters max for each)

The Work/Activities section of the application is designed to give you the opportunity to highlight your work experience, extracurricular activities, awards, honors, or publications that you would like to bring to the attention of the medical schools to which you are applying.

You may enter a maximum of 15 experiences, and you may enter four separate date ranges for recurring experiences. This section cannot be edited or updated after the original submission of your application. Work and activities will appear on your application in chronological order and may not be rearranged. However, please be aware that medical schools sort your entries and view them in a variety of different orders to suit their specific review processes.

Medical schools receive your Work/Activities descriptions as plain text. Therefore, formatting options such as bulleted lists, indented paragraphs, and bold/italic fonts do not appear for reviewers and are not available.

You have the opportunity to describe or summarize each experience. The space allotted for each description is 700 characters.

We often get questions about whether it’s better to use bullet points or paragraphs for these descriptions. Either is fine! The key is being consistent in the way you choose to format your descriptions. Here’s an example of both methods:

BULLET POINT EXAMPLE

Outreach Coordinator                St. Augustine Orphanage, Tijuana, Mexico

- Planned, fundraised, and led a volunteer service trip to impoverished communities in Mexico

- Coordinated and managed a team of 20 volunteers and faculty

- Executed simple, precise interventions to spread change across a population

- Improved communication and bedside manner while engaging locals about their health problems and barriers to care

- Lived alongside children in multiple orphanages in Tijuana and poorer rural areas

- Brought clothes and supplies and provided hygiene demos for the children

- Gained insight into disparities and social determinants of health in underserved populations

- Wrote detailed protocol and reflection exercises for future leaders to use on their trips  

PARAGRAPH EXAMPLE

As outreach coordinator, I fundraised and led a service trip to impoverished communities in Mexico. In this role, I managed a team of 20 volunteers and faculty to execute interventions and spread change across a population. As part of this experience, we lived alongside children in multiple orphanages in Tijuana while donating supplies and providing hygiene demos. I improved my communication and bedside manner while engaging locals about their health problems and barriers. During this time, I gained insight into disparities and social determinants of health for the underserved. After the trip, I wrote a detailed protocol and reflection exercises for future leaders to use on their trips.

In your experience descriptions, try to show your “Trackable Progress”:

“Trackable progress” can be any number of things:

- Earned promotion within first three months of working for Lab XYZ

- Assigned new responsibilities of training recent hires and creating orientation manuals

- Ran promotional campaign that tripled our club’s active membership

- Garnered over half of the company’s referrals during the last two years

- Updated and improved the lab’s protocols to cut costs by more than half

If possible, support these bullets with quantitative evidence and stats (EX: raised membership by 50%, trained 50+ employees, etc). This data will show a lot about your contributions without taking up too much space.

020 AMCAS MOST MEANINGFUL REMARKS PROMPT

(choose 3 of your activities, 1325 characters max for each)

You may identify up to three experiences that you consider to be the most meaningful. This designation will allow you an additional 1,325 characters to explain why the experience(s) was particularly meaningful to you.

When writing your summary, you may want to consider the transformative nature of the experience, the impact you made while engaging in the activity, and the personal growth you experienced as a result of your participation. If you have two or more experience entries, you will be required to identify at least one as the more or most meaningful.

You may change which experience(s) you designate as Most Meaningful until the initial submission of your application. The text you entered in the Experience Summary section will be lost if you remove an experience from those you have designated as Most Meaningful. Your Most Meaningful selection(s) will be designated as such by a check-mark in the Work/Activities main screen.

If you’re in doubt about what to choose, many students will include one medically oriented activity, one leadership activity, and one extracurricular (research, service, etc). As long as you’ve invested significant time and energy into the activity (compared to your others), then it’s fair game for a most meaningful essay.  

Once you’ve narrowed down your possible choices based on time and commitment, you’ll want to ask yourself some brainstorming questions to determine the best activities and angles to explore in your most meaningful essays.

Remember that it’s okay to overlap the experiences of the personal statement and most meaningful essays, as long as you don’t repeat stories or lessons verbatim.

BRAINSTORMING QUESTIONS:

Which of the activities had the most setbacks or failures? Can you recall one or two specific moments that required your resilience?

Which of the activities presented the steepest learning curves? Why were they so challenging? Did you have to change something about yourself to succeed?

Did any of the activities expose you to people much different than yourself? Were their difficulties in communicating and collaborating with them?

Which of the activities most surprised you? Can you recall any moments within them when your perspective on medicine or life shifted?

Did you get more than expected out of a particular activity? Why? Vice versa, were there activities that disappointed you for some reason? How did you respond?

Which of the activities made you the most apprehensive? Why? Can you recall one or two moments that pushed you outside your comfort zone?

Which of the activities taught you a new skill that you otherwise wouldn’t have learned? Did you learn or realize how you could apply this skill moving forward?

How-to Guide and Most Meaningful Essay Example

5 Reasons You Should Apply to DO Schools - MUST READ!

2020 AACOMAS PERSONAL STATEMENT PROMPT

This section is where you can write a statement, which is shared with all your osteopathic medicine schools. Once you submit your application, you cannot edit this section.

• Keep your topic general : Keep the statement general as this essay is sent to all the programs you apply to. If you plan to only apply to one program, we still strongly recommend keeping your statement general in case you later apply to additional programs. Once you submit your application, the essay cannot be edited or changed.
• Do not exceed the maximum length : Refer to the number below the field in the application. This is the number of characters (not words) that you can use in your essay. As you type, you can see how many characters are still available. Characters include spaces, carriage returns, and punctuation. You cannot save your essay if it exceeds the character limit.
• Use your own words : Plagiarizing any part of your essay is a violation of the code of conduct and may subject you to sanctions.
• Use simple formatting : Formatting such as tabs, italics, multiple spaces, etc. will not be saved. To delineate paragraphs, type a double return between each paragraph.

Thankfully, the AACOMAS recently decided to give candidates more space, as compared to past years when you only had 4500 characters.

Still, most candidates face the challenge of converting an MD personal statement into a DO one. What to cut? What to add? What are the essentials to include?

We’ve distilled our years of wisdom from helping candidates down into:

5 Simple Steps to Turn Your AMCAS Essay into Your AACOMAS Essay

2020 AACOMAS DISADVANTAGED INFORMATION PROMPT

There is no essay on the AACOMAS to explain your disadvantaged status, but the application has a series of questions to categorize you:

(Yes/No) Your parent's family income falls within the table's guidelines and you are considered to have met the criteria for economically disadvantaged.

(Yes/No) I am from a family that lives in an area that is designated as a Health Professional Shortage Area or a Medically Underserved Area.

(Yes/No) I graduated from a high school at which many of the enrolled students are eligible for free or reduced price lunches.

(Yes/No) I am from a school district where 50% or less of graduates go to college or where college education is not encouraged.

(Yes/No) I am the first generation in my family to attend college (neither my mother nor my father attended college).

(Yes/No) English is not my primary language.

Savvy Pre-med Tips:

Use some space in the personal statement to elaborate on your disadvantaged background, especially if the circumstances require contextual explanation.

Also keep in mind that the DO secondary essays tend to be rather generous in the amount of space they provide (sometimes up to 500 words per essay). These essays will give you additional opportunities to discuss disadvantages.

Refer to our tips for the AMCAS Disadvantaged Information Prompt .

2020 AACOMAS INSTITUTIONAL ACTION PROMPT

(500 characters max)

Applicants will be asked to disclose information regarding prior criminal offenses. Failure to accurately and truthfully disclose such offenses on the AACOMAS application may result in an offer of admission being rescinded or, if the omission is discovered after enrollment in medical school, in dismissal.

Have you ever been disciplined for student conduct violations (e.g. academic probation, dismissal, suspension, disqualification, etc.) by any college or school?

Have you ever been disciplined for academic performance (e.g. academic probation, dismissal, suspension, disqualification, etc.) by any college or school?

Have you ever been convicted of a Felony?

Have you ever had any certification, registration, license or clinical privileges revoked, suspended or in any way restricted by an institution, state or locality?

Have you ever been convicted of a Misdemeanor?

If you answer Yes to any of these questions, you’ll have 500 characters to explain.

Refer to our tips for the AMCAS Institutional Action Prompt .

2020 AACOMAS EXPERIENCE DESCRIPTIONS PROMPT

(600 characters max for each entry)

Key differences between AACOMAS and AMCAS experience descriptions:

• AACOMAS does not have Most Meaningful Remarks
• AACOMAS gives you 100 fewer characters for your descriptions
• AACOMAS breaks its “Supporting Information” into Experiences and Achievements - no limit on the total number of entries for either
• AACOMAS has fewer category distinctions for Experiences (only volunteering, healthcare experience, or paid/non-healthcare experience)
• Achievements include honors/awards, presentations, or publications
• Distinguish your AACOMAS hobbies as “non-healthcare experience”

Refer to our tips for the AMCAS Experience Descriptions Prompt .

2020 TMDSAS PERSONAL STATEMENT PROMPT

(5000 characters max)

The personal statement essay is limited to 5000 characters, including spaces. Explain your motivation to seek a career in medicine. Be sure to include the value of your experiences that prepare you to be a physician.

Refer to our tips for the AMCAS Personal Statement Prompt .

2020 TMDSAS PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS PROMPT

(2500 characters max)

The personal characteristics essay is limited to 2500 characters, including spaces. Learning from others is enhanced in educational settings that include individuals from diverse backgrounds and experiences. Please describe your personal characteristics (background, talents, skills, etc.) or experiences that would add to the educational experience of others.

It’s wise to choose one of your Most Meaningful AMCAS essays and expand upon it (from 1325 to 2500 characters).

Is one of your three Most Meaningfuls more distinct than the other two? Does one focus on a more atypical pre-med activity? If so, that’s probably the one to choose, since this prompt is looking for “diverse backgrounds and experiences.”

If all three of your Meaningfuls feel equally distinct (or equally average), pick the one that would give you the most useful insights to share with your future classmates (i.e. “add to the educational experience of others”).

When adding content (~1000 characters) to your Most Meaningful, here’s where to focus your attention:

Add 1-2 sentences to the “hook” of the essay (paragraph 1) to make the experience even more vivid and concrete for the reader

Add 3-4 sentences to the “plot” of the essay (paragraph 1 or 2) to expound on your biggest responsibilities, contributions, and accomplishments

Add 3-4 sentences to the “reflection” of the essay (paragraph 2 or 3) to explain how this activity and its lessons make you a diverse and valuable candidate

Refer to our tips for the AMCAS Most Meaningful Essays Prompt .

2020 TMDSAS OPTIONAL ESSAY PROMPT

The optional essay is limited to 2500 characters, including spaces. The optional essay is an opportunity to provide the admissions committee(s) with a broader picture of who you are as an applicant. This essay is optional; however, you are strongly encouraged to take advantage of this opportunity. Briefly state any unique circumstances or life experiences that are relevant to your application. This is not an area to continue your essay or reiterate what you have previously stated - this area is provided to address any issues which have not previously been addressed.

If you’ve written or will be writing a Disadvantaged Essay for the MD application (discussed in the following module), then it makes sense to use that same essay here and expand upon it (from 1325 to 2500 characters).

When adding content (~1000 characters) to your Disadvantaged Essay, here’s where to focus your attention:

Add 1-2 sentences to the “hook” of the essay (paragraph 1) to make your backstory even more vivid and concrete for the reader

Add 3-4 sentences to the “plot” of the essay (paragraph 1 or 2) to expound on your biggest challenges, obstacles, limitations, etc.

Add 3-4 sentences to the “reflection” of the essay (paragraph 2 or 3) to explain how your hardships and their lessons make you a valuable candidate

Even if you’re not disadvantaged, you should still answer this TMDSAS Optional Essay by using another one of your Most Meaningfuls. With the two choices remaining, choose the one that has more autobiographical or personal relevance, or perhaps the one that better illustrates your exemplary qualities (leadership, creativity, problem solving, innovation, initiative, etc.).

Add 3-4 sentences to the “reflection” of the essay (paragraph 2 or 3) to explain how this activity and its lessons make you a valuable candidate

2020 TMDSAS DISADVANTAGED INFORMATION PROMPT

There is no essay on the TMDSAS to explain your disadvantaged status, but the application has a series of Yes/No questions to categorize your socioeconomic standing:

1st generation undergraduate:

1st generation graduate:

Parent/guardian of dependent children:

Primary language:

Bilingual or multilingual:

Fluent in languages other than English:

Household size:

Household income:

Residential property value:

Ever live in subsidized housing:

Ever receive benefits from the Federal Free and Reduced Meal program:

Responsibilities raising other children in household while attending elementary and/or high school:

Were you required to contribute to the overall family income (as opposed to working primarily for your own discretionary spending money) while attending high school:

Zip Code to age 18:

Lived outside US to age 18:

Percentage of college expenses provided by:

Academic scholarships:

Financial need-based scholarships:

Jobs/Employment:

Other Sources:

Received a Pell Grant during undergraduate education:

Still full-time student:

Use the TMDSAS Optional Essay to elaborate on your disadvantages.

Refer to our tips for the TMDSAS Optional Essay Prompt .

2020 TMDSAS INSTITUTIONAL ACTION PROMPT

(600 characters max)

If you answer Yes to any of the following questions, you’ll be given 600 characters to explain.

(Yes/No) Has your education ever been interrupted for any reason?

(Yes/No) Were you ever the recipient of any action by any college or professional school for unacceptable academic performance?

(Yes/No) Were you ever the recipient of any action by any college or professional school for conduct violations?

(Yes/No) Have you ever been sanctioned or received disciplinary action by a State Licensure Board of any kind (i.e., nursing, pharmacy, legal, etc.)?

(Yes/No) Are you currently under charge or have you ever been convicted of a felony or misdemeanor, or have you ever received a felony or misdemeanor deferred adjudication?

2020 TMDSAS EXPERIENCE DESCRIPTIONS PROMPT

(300 characters max for each entry, no limit on number of entries)

Healthcare and Employment Activities may be listed in each category if the experience was a paid position; otherwise, do not list experiences in more than one section. For example, a scribing job would be listed in both Healthcare Activities and Employment. The Employment and Activities categories are as follows:

• Academic Recognition
• Non-Academic Recognition
• Research Activities
• Healthcare Activities
• Community Service
• Extracurricular & Leisure Activities
• Planned Activities
• Identifying Top Meaningful Activities

REFER TO OUR TIPS FOR THE AMCAS EXPERIENCE DESCRIPTIONS PROMPT .

2020 tmdsas most meaningful essays prompt.

(choose 3 of your activities, 500 characters max for each)

This section was recently added last cycle. The TMDSAS now asks you to identify three top meaningful activities.

With only 500 characters, try to capture the activity through an emotionally-gripping or inspirational scene:

As our team approached the scene, we were greeted by the scorched remnants of Dave’s trailer - four deflated tires and a melted frame - the result of an arsonist attack. This was my first ride-along with the American Red Cross. The Disaster Action Team provided clothes, water, blankets, and a few hundred dollars, but it was clear Dave needed more than temporary supplies. A humble realization set in - I will not be able to save everyone, but I will always strive to be a buoy to keep them afloat.

499 characters

END OF CONTENTS

We hope you find this resource useful. Make sure to bookmark it as a reference throughout your application cycle!

If these essays feel overwhelming, you can BOOK A FREE MEETING with our expert medical school advisors for more guidance. We’ve helped hundreds of students write their personal statements and essays, and we’d love to help you on your writing journey!

Good luck!  

Upcoming Online Classes

SUBSCRIBE AND GET YOUR FREE ADMISSIONS TIMELINE

Learn to be Savvy! Get creative pre-med strategies delivered right to your inbox. FREE Medical School Application Timeline when you subscribe.

We follow the email Golden Rule: we will never send you anything without your permission.

All work on this site is our own. The content for the Savvy med school search was found on the webpages of the respective medical schools.

Which program are you applying to?

Accepted Admissions Blog

Everything you need to know to get Accepted

June 26, 2023

How to Answer the AMCAS Other Impactful Experiences Question (Formerly the Statement of Disadvantage)

If you have experienced any form of severe hardship – at any time in your life – medical schools want to know. Prior to the 2023-2024 cycle, AMCAS allowed candidates to self-identify as a disadvantaged applicant because of social, economic, or educational circumstances. Aiming to leave behind the negative connotations of the term “disadvantaged,” this year’s question has been replaced with “Other Impactful Experiences” and asks,

Have you overcome challenges or obstacles in your life that you would like to describe in more detail? This could include lived experiences related to your family background, financial background, community setting, educational experiences, and/or other life circumstances.

This essay allows applicants to contextualize the challenges they have faced. With additional prompts and examples of what to include, applicants will have more guidance and greater scope for what kinds of information to share here.

The purpose of the question remains basically the same, however: to promote a more holistic review of the candidate’s application. The benefit of applying as a disadvantaged applicant in the past was that most medical schools would not reject the candidate’s application until it had been reviewed by at least one admissions officer. In other words, the applicant wasn’t screened out automatically because of their GPA or test scores. The AAMC is providing additional guidance to medical schools on the appropriate use of this year’s question, as well as training to reduce unconscious bias and improve holistic review.

Should you answer the Other Impactful Experiences question?

Many applicants will not need to answer this question. If your answer is flippant or shallow, it could do you more harm than good. On the other hand, the obstacles in your life might not be something you want to share. If this is the case, don’t feel obligated to write anything.

If you do answer this question, you are asked to write a short, 1,325-character essay describing your experiences. This isn’t the place to repeat what you’ve written about in your personal statement and activities. Instead, think of this as a separate but related piece of the puzzle, one that will provide a fuller understanding of who you are.

What should you include in your Other Impactful Experiences essay?

To answer this question well, you will need to reflect on your experiences to determine how life circumstances beyond your control have affected and/or limited you and your opportunities. These can relate to your family situation or financial background, the community in which you were raised, the educational opportunities you had (or didn’t have), the impact of your religion on your life, or other life experiences. 

Unlike your personal statement, which should focus primarily on your mature experiences, this essay is an opportunity to discuss experiences from any point in your lifetime, including your very early life. Here are some examples:

• Growing up in a restrictive community that limited certain activities or potential careers
• Struggling with an undiagnosed learning disability
• Taking on a demanding caregiving role for an ailing family member
• Growing up with a single parent or in an impoverished and/or high crime community
• Being stigmatized because of factors beyond your control (e.g., language, sexual orientation, religion)
• Holding multiple jobs through high school (or college), which had an impact on academic performance

Some applicants will have experienced multiple challenges that could be included in this essay. Creating a timeline of the barriers that you encountered from the beginning of your life to the present can help you identify which ones are most relevant here and which might be better placed in other parts of your application.

How do you write the Other Impactful Experiences essay?

Having read hundreds of these kinds of essays in my over two decades of admissions experience , our admissions consultants have seen what makes a successful statement. The following approaches will help you tackle this new question. 

1. State the facts.

Did your family rely on food stamps? Did you live in Section 8 housing? Simply stating the objective facts can help you quickly and effectively approach this portion of the application. These details will provide the selection committee members with the information they need to understand just how hard you had to work to meet your educational goals.

2. Show how the different parts of your life connect.

You can include any details about your childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood that are relevant. Focusing only on college or not sharing information that could explain why you were not prepared to enter college – such as attending a low-performing public school that had inadequate materials for its students – could hurt your application. You might need to start with your parents, especially if they immigrated to the United States before you were born or when you were a child. Any events that had a direct impact on the resources available to you should be included, from before your birth to the present day.

3. Keep the focus on you.

Most people prefer to write about someone other than themself, but this essay isn’t about the struggles of your parents, your siblings, or even your community. Their experiences set the stage for who you are today.

4. Avoid blame or bitterness.

Reflecting on the challenges you’ve faced can be difficult and could bring up some unresolved feelings. These feelings might be valid, but this essay is not the proper space to work through them. Try journaling about them, going for a walk, or otherwise clearing your head before continuing to work on this essay.

5. Keep your tone positive.

The tone you establish in your essays – both here and elsewhere in your application – says a lot about your character. If the tone is one of gratitude, the selection committee might be impressed that you have found ways to thrive despite severe disadvantages. If you attempt to manipulate your reader or elicit pity by exaggerating or telling them how to feel about the events of your life, the response will not be positive. Make conscious decisions about how you approach the tone of this essay.

6. End on a high note.

The best essays celebrate what has gone right or what the applicant has been able to accomplish despite the difficulties they have faced. Did you work throughout high school to be able to pay for college? Did your patriarchal family want you to marry young, but you followed your dream of studying instead? Sharing how you’ve advocated for yourself and found ways to be successful despite obstacles reveals your resilience. 

It’s important to remember that your application will be treated with the utmost respect and that you are heroic for overcoming obstacles that would have prevented most people from applying to medical school. Congratulate yourself for making it to this point in your education!

Do you need help writing your Other Impactful Experiences essay or any other element of your medical school application? Explore our services and work one-on-one with an Accepted advisor who will help you create a strong, successful, admission-worthy application.

Since 2001, Cydney Foote has advised hundreds of successful applicants for medical and dental education, residency and fellowship training, and other health-related degrees. Admissions consulting combines her many years of creating marketing content with five years on fellowship and research selection committees at the University of Washington School of Medicine. She’s also shared her strategy for impressing interviewers in a popular webinar and written three books and numerous articles on the admissions process. Want Cydney to help you get Accepted? Click here to get in touch!

Related Resources:

• Ace the AMCAS Essay , a free guide
• 4 Tips for Applying as an Underrepresented Applicant in Medicine
• The AMCAS Primary “Deadline”

About Us Press Room Contact Us Podcast Accepted Blog Privacy Policy Website Terms of Use Disclaimer Client Terms of Service

Accepted 1171 S. Robertson Blvd. #140 Los Angeles CA 90035 +1 (310) 815-9553 © 2022 Accepted

Length of Personal Statement: Medical School Application Essay Limits Explained

• By Med School Insiders
• January 11, 2023
• Personal Statement

The medical school personal statement is one of the most important pieces of your application. It’s your opportunity to tell your personal story beyond your grades and accomplishments. Who are you? Why do you want to become a doctor? These questions aren’t necessarily difficult ones to answer. You know why you want to be a doctor. But the medical school personal statement can only be about a page and a half long. How do you engagingly cram your life’s story into that limited space?

In this post, we’ll break down the differing lengths and requirements of the AMCAS, AACOMAS, and TMDSAS personal statements. We’ll also cover other medical school application essay lengths and share tips on how to write clearly and concisely.

Length of Medical School Personal Statement

Amcas personal statement length.

An AMCAS personal statement has a 5300 character maximum, which is only about 1.5 pages of single-spaced 12-point Times New Roman font.

This is not a lot of space to tell admissions committees why you want to devote your life to the study and practice of medicine. That said, it’s all the space you have, so it’s essential that you make brevity your friend.

Choose a few key moments and personality traits that exemplify your strength of character, maturity, and dedication to the pursuit of medicine. Why do you want to become a doctor? What events and people in your life have informed this desire? What sets you apart from the other candidates? The key to success is explaining this in an engaging, informative, yet succinct way.

Learn How to Write a Medical School Personal Statement in 11 Steps , and save our 25 Personal Statement Prompts to Spark Ideas that can get you started.

AACOMAS Personal Statement Length

Osteopathic (DO) medical schools also have a 5300 character limit , but the personal statement must be about why you want to become an osteopath specifically. You must choose key moments from your life that have informed your desire to study osteopathic medicine, earn your DO, and become an osteopathic doctor.

Why have you chosen the osteopathic approach to medicine over the allopathic approach? Do you have an osteopathic mentor who inspired you? How do your past actions illustrate your alignment with osteopathic principles?

Learn how to write an effective osteopathic personal statement with our comprehensive AACOMAS Personal Statement Guide , which includes tips for success and mistakes to avoid.

TMDSAS Personal Statement Length

If you’re planning to apply to Texas medical schools, you’ll have even less space to write your personal statement. The TMDSAS personal statement has a 5000 character maximum. If you’re planning to apply to both AMCAS and TMDSAS schools, know that you will either have to write two personal statements or keep your AMCAS statement to 5000 characters instead of 5300.

Texas schools are looking for the same criteria from your personal statement. What fuels your desire to become a doctor, and which events or people from your life crystalized your ambition? What sets you apart and makes you a unique candidate?

Learn how to write an effective Texas medical school personal statement with our TMDSAS Personal Statement Guide .

Length of Other Medical School Application Essays

Amcas mini-essays.

On the AMCAS application, you may need to complete additional essays. Each of these essays is 1325 characters in length.

Complete these essays if you answer “Yes” to the following questions:

• Have you ever matriculated at, or attended, any medical school as a candidate for a medical degree?
• Were you ever the recipient of any institutional action by any college or medical school for unacceptable academic performance or conduct violation, even though such action may not have interrupted your enrollment or required you to withdraw?
• Were you dishonorably discharged from the military? Please explain the circumstances of your discharge, including the circumstances leading to your discharge, your period of service and your rank at the time of discharge.
• Have you ever been convicted of, or pleaded guilty or no contest to, a Felony crime, excluding 1) any offense for which you were adjudicated as a juvenile, or 2) convictions which have been expunged or sealed by a court (in states where applicable)?
• Have you ever been convicted of, or pleaded guilty or no contest to, a Misdemeanor crime, excluding 1) any offense for which you were adjudicated as a juvenile, 2) any convictions which have been expunged or sealed by a court, or 3) any misdemeanor convictions for which any probation has been completed and the case dismissed by the court (in states where applicable)?
• Do you wish to be considered a disadvantaged applicant by any of your designated medical schools that may consider such factors (social, economic or educational)?

AACOMAS Mini-Essays

AACOMAS applications offer a 500 character limit for mini-essays relating to each of the following questions:

• Dishonorary discharge from the military.
• Have you ever been convicted of a Misdemeanor?
• Have you ever been convicted of a Felony?
• Have you ever been disciplined for academic performance by any college or school?
• Have you ever been disciplined for student conduct violations by any college or school?
• Were you ever denied readmission to any academic program due to academic conduct or performance?
• Have you ever had any certification, registration, license or clinical privileges revoked, suspended or in any way restricted by an institution, state or locality?

TMDSAS Mini-Essays

On the TMDSAS application, the character length for additional mini-essays varies from 600-1000 characters.

• Describe how your military experience prepared you for a career as a healthcare provider. (1000 characters)
• Have you ever been arrested or charged with any violation of the law regardless of outcome? (600 characters to provide details.)
• If you indicate that you consider yourself a non-traditional applicant, the following essay prompt will appear: “Describe the factors that have defined you as a non-traditional candidate and how they impact your application.” (1000 characters)

TMDSAS offers students two additional essays, one of which is optional. Both essays have a maximum character limit of 2500 characters.

The first is called the Personal Characteristics essay, where you have the opportunity to describe how your background, talents, skills, experiences, etc., would add to the educational experience of others.

The second essay is optional and provides the admissions committee more information on anything you do not feel you were able to cover in the rest of your application. You are strongly encouraged to take advantage of this opportunity to share more about yourself.

Tips for Clear and Concise Essay Writing

5300 characters is not a lot of space, so it is vital that your personal statement be concise, engaging, and to the point.

• Choose clear words that get your point across concisely.
• Avoid flowery language that confuses rather than adds clarity. The thesaurus can help you find a clearer word, but using it to find a more complicated one will only make it sound like you used a thesaurus.
• Your personal statement is not your complete life story. It’s your answer to the question, “Why do you want to be a doctor?” Select a couple of specific moments from your life that exemplify the personal qualities you want an admissions committee to know you have.
• Don’t try to rehash your entire CV. In fact, your personal statement shouldn’t mimic your resume or list of experiences. Use the personal statement as an opportunity to add new information and insights to your application.
• Review and edit for clarity. As you refine your personal statement, ask others to review it for clarity. Are there any aspects that were confusing? Are there any parts that could be clearer?

Take Your Medical School Personal Statement to the Next Level

You don’t have to face your personal statement alone—and you shouldn’t! Med School Insiders offers a range of personal statement editing services and packages . We provide everything from general editing to in-depth, unlimited editing with a one-on-one physician advisor who will be there to guide you every step of the way.

Our doctors, MDs and DOs included, have years of experience serving on admissions committees. You’ll receive key insights from people who have intimate knowledge of both sides of the selection process.

Utilize our Comprehensive Medical School Admissions Packages to succeed in every step of the application process, regardless of which application service you apply through. Choose from AMCAS Application Editing , AACOMAS Application Editing , or TMDSAS Application Editing tailored to the schools you’re applying to.

For more on personal statements and all other aspects of the medical school application process, follow the Med School Insiders blog . It’s a vast library of resources for premeds, applicants, and medical students, with the latest how-to advice, study strategies, and industry trends.

Med School Insiders

2024-2025 Medical School Application Timeline and Monthly Schedule

This is the medical school application timeline you should follow, including key dates and an ideal month-by-month preparation schedule.

2024 TMDSAS Personal Statement Guide

The TMDSAS personal statement—learn how the TMDSAS personal statement differs from AMCAS and how to write a personal statement for Texas medical schools.

2024 AACOMAS Personal Statement Guide

The AACOMAS personal statement—learn how it fits within the application process and how to write a personal statement for DO schools.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Join the Insider Newsletter

Receive regular exclusive MSI content, news, and updates! No spam. One-click unsubscribe.

Customer Note Premed Preclinical Med Student Clinical Med Student

You have Successfully Subscribed!

• AMCAS Application

AMCAS Most Meaningful Experiences: The 15 Best Examples

Plus 5 tips to make your experiences stand out.

The AMCAS Work and Activities most meaningful experiences are essentially the most significant experiences that stand out among the other activities you add in your AMCAS application (required for all medical school applications in the US, except Texas). In your AMCAS Work and Activities, you are asked to provide up to 15 employment, research, volunteer, and extracurricular activities. You can identify a minimum of 1 and a maximum of 3 as “most meaningful experiences.” We discuss the fundamentals of the AMCAS Work and Activities section elsewhere, so in this article, we pay special attention to these “most meaningful experiences.” While all of the AMCAS Work and Activities entries are significant in the overall evaluation of your application, the most important aspect of the Work and Activities section are these “most meaningful experiences.”

>> Want us to help you get accepted? Schedule a free strategy call here . <<

Listen to the blog!

Article Contents 18 min read

What is a “most meaningful” experience.

You can add up to three AMCAS Work and Activities most meaningful experience entries in your medical school application . What differentiates these "most meaningful experiences" from the other AMCAS Work and Activities entries? These are experiences that had a particular impact on your growth, development, and professionalization, or that were particularly transformative or impactful.

While each entry is given 700 characters (including spaces), these “most meaningful experiences” are allotted an additional 1325 characters (again, including spaces). This area is not intended to be used to simply describe more details of the position or activity; rather, it is meant to be a more reflective, contemplative narrative that highlights the ways in which these experiences enriched your life, the lives of others, and your overall perspective on your journey to becoming a doctor. These experiences can range from paid hospital work experience and medical research hours to non-medical volunteer experience and  hobbies suitable for your AMCAS  application. Just remember, this isn’t the place for an expanded CV; it’s a place to demonstrate the key qualities you’ve developed and how they have contributed to your suitability for the profession.

Interested in seeing the BEST AMCAS work and activities description examples?

Many applicants struggle with deciding what experiences are the most meaningful. Either they have too many ideas and aren’t sure which will make the greatest impact, or they’re concerned that they don’t have any relevant experiences. It’s important to highlight that there’s really no such thing as a wrong most meaningful experience. There is, however, such thing as an optimal choice. Consider the following rubric to help make your selection easier:

The experiences that you list can be of all sorts – health care-related positions, scholarship activities, experiences abroad or overseas, volunteer efforts, leadership opportunities, extracurricular or artistic pursuits, etc. – and the experiences designated “most meaningful” can also be in any category. Consider the following to help you stand out from the crowd:

Remember, most applicants will have strong academic accomplishments, experience in a health care setting, volunteer experience, etc. \u2013 it is well known that these things are all necessary for a competitive application. So, you need to think about what is going to make you stand out in a vast sea of similarly or equally qualified applicants. What is key is that you develop a compelling narrative that demonstrates what you\u2019ve learned, how you\u2019ve grown, and what impact you made in each experience, and that you do so in a way that highlights the qualities sought in future medical professionals. ","label":"Focus on what makes you unique","title":"Focus on what makes you unique"}]" code="tab1" template="BlogArticle">

The experiences that you list can be of all sorts – healthcare related positions, scholarship activities, experiences abroad or overseas, volunteer efforts, leadership opportunities, extracurricular or artistic pursuits, etc. – and the experiences designated “most meaningful” can also be in any category. It’s not necessarily best, for example, to devote all three “most meaningful” experiences to paid employment in a healthcare setting, simply for the sake of demonstrating that you’ve worked in a medical environment in multiple contexts, because you think that will stand out to the admissions committee. While at least one or two of these experiences can be related to the field of medicine, it’s important to note that they do not all need to be healthcare-related. You can highlight non-medical activities if you want to show depth and breadth and to highlight your well-roundedness as a candidate. You should be able to articulate the meaning behind your experiences in a concise and compelling manner.

Remember, most applicants will have strong academic accomplishments, experience in a healthcare setting, volunteer experience, etc. – it is well-known that these things are all necessary for a competitive application. So, you need to think about what is going to make you stand out in a vast sea of similarly or equally qualified applicants. What is key is that you develop a compelling narrative that demonstrates what you’ve learned, how you’ve grown, and what impact you made in each experience, and that you do so in a way that highlights the qualities sought in future medical professionals.

One great way to demonstrate the meaningfulness of your experience is to create a vignette – a brief illustration or description that captures a particularly poignant, representative moment or experience. First, let’s look at a sample entry of 700 characters (with spaces), which we’ll explore as a “most meaningful experience” later:

Title : Volunteer Resident Attendant, XYZ Retirement Community

Description : XYZ Retirement Community aims to provide varying levels of care for residents in their retirement. With Assisted Living, Independent Living, and Intensive Care units, they offer a dynamic model that cares for residents throughout their senior years. For 3 years, I acted as a Resident Attendant, helping residents to daily meals, providing transport to events within the facility, running small errands, and providing companionship to residents. In this position, I was able to provide support to nurses’ aides during busy times of the day and encourage residents to stay active and social by attending communal meals, games of Bingo, afternoon movies, and other recreational activities. (687 characters, with spaces)

This is a pretty standard  AMCAS Work and Activities   entry. Now, let’s look at how we can expand this as a “most meaningful experience.”

1. Avoid being too literal

One of the biggest mistakes students make in composing their “most meaningful” entries is to approach the discussion of qualities in a very literal way. For example, many first drafts will be full of statements like this:

In my Volunteer Resident Attendant position at XYZ Retirement Community, I learned to be compassionate, mature, and professional. My communication skills were also highly valued by my peers and superiors. This experience truly transformed me in ways I couldn’t have previously imagined.

While it is clear that this individual developed (or, at least, believes they developed) compassion, maturity, professionalism, and communication skills in this transformative position, such a passage doesn’t actually  demonstrate  such qualities at all, let alone in a way that will make an impression on the reader. In essence, it is merely saying, “Trust me, I have these qualities,” and that is, quite simply, not good enough.

2. Craft a story

A much more effective (and engaging!) tactic is to craft a story about your experience. Most people love a good narrative and working this into your “most meaningful” experiences is possible, even with the small amount of space you’re given. Every good story needs a clear beginning, middle, and end. If you’re describing a clinical experience, discuss a patient whom you found memorable, or a clinical case you thought was interesting. A good story also needs stakes and emotional consequences. Meaningful experiences should show transformation and learning, and that you gained a perspective or skill relevant to your medical school journey and life in general.

3. Get feedback early

Start early and get expert feedback. Saying so much in so few words takes a lot of time (as Mark Twain once said, “I didn’t have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead”), and it requires a professional eye to ensure your meaning is effectively articulated. Using brief stories of real-life experiences through descriptive prose that  show  the readers how you developed the qualities you’re highlighting will both ensure that you are maximizing the potential of these entries and providing a pleasant reading experience for the application reviewers. Remember, they will review hundreds, if not thousands, of these; a genuinely engaging, well-written, and thoughtful reflection on meaningful experiences will help them appreciate your application on multiple levels.

Want more tips on writing your AMCAS Work and Activities section?

AMCAS “Most Meaningful Experiences” Tip #3: Show, Don’t Tell

Just as you must avoid simply listing qualities, you must also avoid assuming that the person reviewing your entries will automatically understand the significance of an experience, interaction, or event – let alone understand this significance in the same way as you. To demonstrate your strengths through your narrative, you’ll want to employ the “show, don’t tell” strategy. That is to say, don’t just “tell” the reviewer that you developed a particular quality, skill, or characteristic; rather, “show” them how that development took place. Let’s look again at the passage above:

Let’s review what makes this a BAD example:

• Nothing has been shown: you need evidence that you developed traits like compassion and maturity. Why should anyone believe you otherwise? Your goal should be to imply these traits through the description of explicit actions you took in each setting or scenario.
• No narrative structure: there’s no beginning, middle, or end to this entry. How did you begin this experience? What significant moments did it entail, and what did you learn from them?
• There are more questions than answers: when medical schools process the most meaningful experiences, they’re really looking for answers to the question, “what makes this experience meaningful and how is this relevant to your professional development?” Currently, there’s nothing in the above description that suggests an answer to this question.

Now, let’s consider a GOOD example with a “show, don’t tell” approach:

I still recall the cool morning of April 10. I arrived for my shift at XYZ Retirement Community 30 minutes early, so I could visit Agnes as I had every Friday for 2 years. Despite our age difference, we forged a deep friendship, which we nurtured with morning tea each week. She was a great storyteller and her age gave her wisdom and perspective; she always emphasized the importance of kindness, reminding me of the struggles all people face. Looking forward to another chat, I tapped on her door that April morning. As I entered, I saw Agnes still in bed and clearly unwell. I wanted to fall apart, but I knew I needed to pull through for her. I quickly called the nurses and aides and carefully detailed what I’d seen; with this information, they quickly assessed her and arranged her transport to the hospital. We never got to have our final tea that day, but there was love in her eyes as she was whisked away. I realized, in that moment, both the strength and fragility of those who will rely on my care. I also learned that in moments when I may want to panic or get swept up in emotion, I can stay even-headed and help other experts perform effectively. In the end, Agnes taught me so much about the world and my responsibilities to others, and I hope to share her kindness in my role as a future physician. (1324 characters, with spaces)

What makes this example good?

• It makes better use of space: note that the standard description of the position at XYZ Retirement Community has been provided in the initial 700 characters, so the extra 1325 characters provides space to really bring the evaluator into the applicant’s experience, to help them see how such key characteristics developed.
• Context is given: in this extended example, compassion, maturity, professionalism, and skillful communication are all highlighted effectively via a contextual narrative that is genuinely engaging to read.
• Actions speak for themselves: the entry takes one meaningful set of interactions and allows this to speak for a wealth of important qualities sought in medical school applicants. It is clear to the reader that this was a truly transformative experience, without directly reading the words, “This experience truly transformed me in ways I couldn’t have previously imagined.” Through a story of a meaningful friendship cut unexpectedly short, this narrative  shows  the applicant’s transformation, rather than just  telling  the reader that there was a transformation.

Crafting a compelling narrative takes time; there’s no easy way around that. The extended description provided above took a couple of hours, walking away at the end of one day and returning to it again the next -- and I do this for a living! In that time, it went through several edits and re-writes, with the language, tone, pace, and even terminology carefully considered for maximum impact.

Screen readers often have recording functionality, which can allow you listen to your text independently from the act of speaking. ","label":"Use technology tools","title":"Use technology tools"}]" code="tab2" template="BlogArticle">

AMCAS “Most Meaningful Experiences” Tip #5: Get Expert Feedback

Our fifth best writing tip is to get expert feedback, and to do so early, so that you have time to make any necessary corrections. Again, when reading your own words, it’s easy to skip over little grammatical inconsistencies, but an expert will spot them immediately  and  give you feedback on how to correct them.

Consider the benefits of having an expert provide feedback on your most meaningful experiences:

This is why we offer  application review packages  that include review of your AMCAS Work and Activities entries, and   medical school personal statement , as well as strategy sessions with our admissions experts to ensure your examples and experiences are as impactful as possible before you dedicate hours to composing them and editing them, with us providing feedback and reflection along the way!

Experience Type : Community Service/Volunteer – Not Medical/Clinical

Experience Name : Volunteer Tutor

Contact Name & Title : Mrs. Sally Mendoza

Contact Email :  [email protected]

Contact Phone : 478024849

Organization Name : New Hope Education

City/State/Country : San Francisco / California / United States

Most Meaningful Experience : Yes

Dates : 10/20XX – 02/20XX

Total Hours : 3000

Experience Description : The New Hope Education organization seeks to provide expert tutoring to at-risk children from underserved communities, with the aim of helping them earn their high school diplomas. I taught Math, English, and Biology to high school sophomores, juniors, and seniors. After a year of tutoring, I was also given the opportunity to customize my own curriculum and create individual lesson plans. (394 characters, with spaces)

Most Meaningful Experience Remarks : I joined New Hope Education because I am passionate about ensuring equal access to quality education for students from different backgrounds and communities. In all my classes, over 80% of students struggled with some form of learning disability or mental illness and had no idea how to deal with it. Initially, it was extremely challenging to work with young people with such different requirements, who were understandably resistant to learning based on their previous negative experiences. I experimented with different ways to get through to the students. One of my most effective techniques was to set aside some time after every class to talk through students’ personal struggles, so that they could feel safe and comfortable in the classroom. For me, this was an enlightening and humbling experience that helped me build my empathy, communication, and problem-solving skills. In 2018, I ran a corporate fundraising campaign that added 30,000 USD to the annual budget of New Hope Education. One of my proudest moments was when 100% of the students in my last class earned their high school diplomas, and a few even chose to return to New Hope Education as volunteer tutors. This experience cemented my desire to continue to build my talents, skills, and empathy to better help underserved communities. (1306 characters, with spaces)

Experience Type : Research/Lab

Experience Name : Research Assistant at Francis Labs

Contact Name & Title : Dr. Martin Francis, Principal Investigator

Contact Phone : 38299011

Organization Name : Biochemistry Department, SCTP

Dates : 09/20XX – 03/20XX

Total Hours : 2050

Experience Description : The aim of the project was to develop a new drug to treat viral infections by introducing chemical enzymes. I was involved in different stages of the project from in vitro experimentation to clinical trials. We tested the efficacy of the treatment on human tissue cells as well as mice tissue cells. I developed a solution that enabled the enzyme to dissolve and be carried to target receptor cells. Additionally, I was in charge of maintaining project results and protocols and training new staff members. (506 characters, with spaces)

Most Meaningful Experience Remarks : This project was crucial to helping me identify my career goal of pursuing an MD/PhD. Working on the initial in vitro experimentation stage, I had to analyze, synthesize, and communicate my findings. I was quickly recognized as the most skilled sub-investigator from the team; I also discovered that I derived great satisfaction from medical research. As the project progressed, more challenges came my way, and the pressure also increased. When put in charge of testing different enzyme carrier solutions, I eagerly took up the task, as I wanted to try out my new skills in a leadership role. What followed was a period of intense challenge and daily struggles as our team faced failure more often than success. Looking back, I consider this a formative period of my life because I gained a true understanding of the medical research process. Though faced with doubts and confusion, I eventually realized that in medical research, both positive and negative results are inevitable and equally important sources of information. I then decided to diversify my diagnostic methods and applied new glucose synthesis techniques I had read about in the New England Journal of Medicine. By the end of the 5th semester, we gained the meaningful results we sought. I consider this one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. (1321 characters, with spaces)

Want help with your AMCAS application? Check out this review from one of our students:

Experience Type : Extracurricular Activities

Experience Name : Debate Club at X University

Contact Name & Title : Dr. Jared Shiller

Contact Phone : 2231133445

Organization Name : Philosophy Department

City/State/Country : Waterloo / Ontario / Canada

Dates : 09/20XX-04/20XX

Total Hours : 300

Experience Description : Debate club was comprised of approximately 25 undergraduate students. Members of the club would meet twice a week when we weren’t preparing for a competition, and up to five times a week at one-hour intervals when we were competing. The National Tournament is a yearly event hosted by our university, in which the top schools from all over the country compete. Last year, when our team placed third overall, I was part of the nominated group of four to represent the team. (469 characters, with spaces)

Most Meaningful Experiences Remarks: When I joined the debate club, my goal was to improve my communication and public speaking skills, as I’ve always been incredibly nervous standing in front of my classmates for presentations. In one of my first sessions, the coach asked me to argue the affirmative case for moral realism. I took the stage and in a tremulous, hesitant voice, made my case. When I left the stage and the sound of chatter resumed, the coach took me aside and expressed how impressed he was with my performance. He asked if I would want to try out for the main team; not knowing how to say no, I agreed, even though I was worried I’d be too anxious to compete. I went to the student wellness centre the next day; the counsellor gave me a few strategies to help me overcome my presentation anxiety. The first was to transfer my nervous energy into enthusiasm, and the second was to prepare my material so I can be confident. During one of our first events, I was so nervous sitting in front of an audience, waiting my turn to make our team’s secondary argument. I had the final word on the negative of “does vandalism have a place in public protest?” When I felt the anxiety start to rise, I remembered what the counsellor said: “embrace the anxiety, and turn it into enthusiasm.” After my turn, they announced that “X university” had won. From this experience, I learned that it’s okay to rely on other people in times of need, and that strong preparation is the best way to be confident in uncertain situations. (1493 characters, with spaces)

Experience Type : Intercollegiate Athletics

Experience Name : Track & Field Team

Contact Name & Title : Coach Janice Davis

Contact Phone : 9092371109

Organization Name : X University Athletics

City/State/Country : Thunder Bay / Ontario / Canada

Dates : 03/20XX-08/20XX

Total Hours : 115

Experience Description : I’ve been an athlete for most of my life, but running was new for me. I used to compete as a speed skater throughout elementary and high school, but when I broke my ankle in training, I was forced to give up the sport indefinitely. Years after I recovered and desperate to scratch that competitive itch, my roommate suggested I try track and field sprinting. After practicing on my own for a few months, I decided to try out for the university team. (463 characters, with spaces)

Most Meaningful Experiences Remarks: Coming back from an injury was the most difficult part of returning to athletics. I was also a skater, not a runner, and the skills weren’t as transferrable as I thought they would be. I made the team that season, but I was one of the slowest runners in my heat. I was nervous about injuring myself again or pushing myself too hard when I had so much to lose. Being last in most of our team practices was initially humiliating, but I eventually learned to take the experience in stride. I started training more and working on my mechanics after everyone had left practice. I was the first to show up and the last to leave. I started completing my coursework more efficiently and scheduling classes to optimize my training. In my very first competition, in which I was competing in the 50, 100, and 200 m dash, I placed 5 th , 6 th , and 3 rd , respectively. Even though the results weren’t what I’d hoped, I was proud of my ability to persist and learn from my mistakes and failures. As a prospective medical doctor, there will be times of frustration and conflict. In these moments, it will be important to focus on improving and being resourceful to persevere. (1157 characters, with spaces)

Experience Type : Paid Employment – Not Medical/Clinical

Experience Name : Children’s Dance Instructor

Contact Name & Title : Ms. Stacy Spencer

Contact Phone : 3348766564

Organization Name : Reset Dance Academy

City/State/Country : Pittsburgh / Pennsylvania / United States

Dates : 1/20XX-05/20XX

Total Hours : 2500

Experience Description : I started dancing when I was nine, and I’ve been in love with it ever since. I was hired at Reset Dance Academy as a dance instructor for girls between the ages of 8–16 competing in ballet, musical theater, and contemporary dance. As an instructor, it was my job to coordinate large classes of up to 20 students of advanced and amateur levels and work with them on drills, stretches, mechanics, and choreography for competitions and academy performances. For the younger groups, I was also in charge of costume design and event planning. (537 characters, with spaces)

Most Meaningful Experiences Remarks: A challenging aspect of being a dance instructor was synchronizing my dancers, especially when I was working with younger, distractable children. For one non-competitive group, I recall a young dancer named Kyla who was struggling to get the moves right in a particular sequence for an upcoming show. After multiple sessions of trying to demonstrate how the move should be performed, she still wasn’t finding success. Despite my encouragement, she felt frustrated and wanted to drop out of the competition. Determined to motivate and show her that she was capable of performing, I had her stay after group classes to practice; but, instead of working on the sequence she was having trouble with, we “just had fun” and freestyled to her favorite songs. When we returned to the choreography we had to practice a few days later, she landed and finished the entire sequence with ease. What I realized was that not everyone learns the same way, and sometimes, a new perspective is all you need. This experience taught me to appreciate the diversity of thought and to always look for individualized learning models, as opposed to generalized ones. Seeing my future patients as individuals is an approach I want to refine and apply throughout my learning. (1,249 characters, with spaces)

Sample Entry #7

Sample entry #8, sample entry #9, sample entry #10, sample entry #11, sample entry #12, sample entry #13, sample entry #14, sample entry #15.

You have 700 characters to complete the Experience Description for each activity you add in the AMCAS Work and Activities section. For the “most meaningful” activities, you get an additional 1325 characters to write the Most Meaningful Experiences Remarks.

Yes, the AMCAS Work and Activities Most Meaningful Experiences section is a crucial part of your med school application. In fact, this section is placed ahead of your medical school personal statement essay, which means most admissions committees view your extracurricular activities and meaningful experiences before they see your essay. Your meaningful experiences should help the admissions committee members better understand your motivations to study medicine, and what makes you uniquely suited to it.

In your AMCAS Work and Activities section, you can add up to 15 entries to document all your extracurricular activities, experiences, and achievements. Out of these, up to 3 can be identified as Most Meaningful Experiences. To identify the “most meaningful” activities, you should take the time to reflect and identify which of the activities means the most to you, personally, and how they might have impacted your journey to med school. You should also consider the AAMC Core Competencies as well as the personal qualities and skills that future doctors should demonstrate, such as commitment to learning, cultural awareness, teamwork and collaboration, empathy, communication skills, and so on. Which of your experiences helped you learn one or more of these competencies? Which of your activities best demonstrates your commitment to medicine? Which of them makes you stand out from the crowd and show your unique suitability for medical school? Take the time to reflect and identify the most impactful experiences and select them accordingly. You can add both medical and non-medical activities in the AMCAS Most Meaningful Experiences section; but you should ensure that even when writing about non-medical experience, the connection to your medical school journey is clearly communicated.

Medical school admissions committees go through thousands of applications every year. To truly stand out, you need to not only have impressive extracurriculars, but you should also be able to describe them effectively in your application. Your AMCAS “most meaningful” experiences should tell a story that grabs the attention of the reader and builds a consistent narrative about your passion for medicine, responsibility, leadership, initiative, empathy, cooperation, and commitment to service. Don’t write your entries in a dry, factual style. This isn’t a resume. Instead, you should include your personal reflections and demonstrate your growth through each experience. Also, add examples of real incidents to explain what you mean, rather than just adding a list of skills or achievements you picked up. Make the connections between your experiences and your motivation to apply for med school. Most importantly, write authentically about experiences that significantly changed your life. Admissions committees can see through pretension, and they value honesty and integrity in applicants. You can check the Samples section of this blog to see some examples of well-written AMCAS Most Meaningful Experiences.

Your experiences are automatically arranged in chronological order. However, if required, admissions committees can rearrange them as per their own preference.

Yes, it’s acceptable to talk about the same experiences in both your personal statement essay and AMCAS Most Meaningful Experiences section. In fact, it might look odd if you’ve mentioned a specific experience as life-changing in your personal statement but its not covered at all in the Most Meaningful Experiences section. However, that does not mean you can simply add identical content in both these sections. You’ll have to be briefer and more to the point in the AMCAS Work and Activities section. Focus on highlighting the responsibilities, achievements, growth, and learning you experienced for each experience, and think of a different angle than the one you used in your personal statement. This demonstrates your adaptability and reflective thinking while also building a consistent narrative.

You can add a maximum of 15 experiences or activities in the AMCAS Work and Activities section, and for each of them you can add up to 4 occurrences. Out of these 15, you can identify up to 3 experiences as “most meaningful”. However, adding 15 experiences and identifying 3 as “most meaningful” isn’t mandatory. Quality is more important than quantity. If you have only 4-5 experiences, then don’t try to come up with filler entries just to meet the “15” mark. Rather, focus on the existing 5 experiences and talk about them meaningfully and in-depth. If you add more than one experience, you must rank at least 1 of them as “most meaningful”.

To answer this question, let’s consider an example of hospital volunteer work. If you have completed multiple stints of volunteer work either at the same hospital or in different hospitals, you should ideally combine them into one entry, listing the brief details of each experience along with what you learned. The only reason to add separate entries is if you had an individual volunteering experience that was significantly different in terms of what you learned, your feedback, your achievements etc. If there was one such experience that was special and more meaningful than others, you can add a separate entry and mark it as “most meaningful”. However, if you basically have the same talking points for each of your volunteer experiences, just combine them as one entry. Otherwise, separating them out will just make it look like you are trying to fill up space. 

You can mark any of your entries as most meaningful. It’s really up to you. Just make sure you explain clearly why that award or achievement is so meaningful to you. Don’t just add it like a line in your resume. For example, if you were awarded a merit-based research grant in recognition of your innovative research work, don’t just talk about the award criteria and your research. You also need to talk about why the award, specifically, meant so much to you, if you learned something from the entire journey, and how you grew from it. If there’s no significant story behind what the award meant to you, it’s better not to highlight it separately as a “meaningful experience”. 

Want more free tips? Subscribe to our channels for more free and useful content!

Apple Podcasts

Like our blog? Write for us ! >>

Have a question ask our admissions experts below and we'll answer your questions.

Samantha Greenblatt

Great article! This was very helpful.

BeMo Academic Consulting

Thank you so much! We are glad you found this helpful!

Samantha Greenblatt, you are the winner of our weekly draw. Please email us at content[at]bemoacademicconsulting.com from the same email address you used to leave your comment to claim your prize!

Would you say there is enough space in the regular activities section to use storytelling and "showing"/ interpretation of the event or should these be more summaries / descriptions?

Hello Sarah! Thank you for your question. Absolutely! It is always important to use solid examples for your AMCAS entries and these examples must be somewhat detailed. It is not easy to write impressive entries under 700 characters long, but it's important to articulate what you learned and what impact you had. Your entries should never be dry summaries of events. Please review examples of regular entries in our AMCAS Work and Activities blog (https://bemoacademicconsulting.com/blog/amcas-work-activities-definitive-guide)

Good afternoon, are weekly draws still occurring?

Hello Sarah! Absolutely! We announce a winner every week!

Amanda Lopez

Well written examples are hard to come by. Thanks for the detailed advice!

Hello Amanda! Thank you very much for your comment! We are glad you enjoyed these examples and found our tips useful.

Get Started Now

Talk to one of our admissions experts

Our site uses cookies. By using our website, you agree with our cookie policy .

FREE Training Webinar: How To Make Your Med School Application Stand Out

(and avoid the top 5 reasons that get 90% of applicants rejected).

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

• View all journals
• Explore content
• About the journal
• Publish with us
• Sign up for alerts
• RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT
• 17 May 2024

Reading between the lines: application essays predict university success

Analysis of more than 40,000 university application essays found that gradual transitions between chunks of text correlated with higher marks. Credit: Dusan Stankovic/Getty

Aspiring students who wrote content-rich university admission essays were more likely to end up with higher grades in their classes 1 .

Access options

Access Nature and 54 other Nature Portfolio journals

Get Nature+, our best-value online-access subscription

24,99 € / 30 days

cancel any time

Subscribe to this journal

Receive 51 print issues and online access

185,98 € per year

only 3,65 € per issue

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-024-01396-8

Berger, J. & Toubia, O. PNAS Nexus 3 , pgae163 (2024).

Article   Google Scholar  

Download references

How to stop students cramming for exams? Send them to sea

News & Views 30 APR 24

How young people benefit from Swiss apprenticeships

Spotlight 17 APR 24

Ready or not, AI is coming to science education — and students have opinions

Career Feature 08 APR 24

Postdoc in CRISPR Meta-Analytics and AI for Therapeutic Target Discovery and Priotisation (OT Grant)

APPLICATION CLOSING DATE: 14/06/2024 Human Technopole (HT) is a new interdisciplinary life science research institute created and supported by the...

Human Technopole

Research Associate - Metabolism

Houston, Texas (US)

Baylor College of Medicine (BCM)

Postdoc Fellowships

Train with world-renowned cancer researchers at NIH? Consider joining the Center for Cancer Research (CCR) at the National Cancer Institute

Bethesda, Maryland

NIH National Cancer Institute (NCI)

Faculty Recruitment, Westlake University School of Medicine

Faculty positions are open at four distinct ranks: Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, Full Professor, and Chair Professor.

Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China

Westlake University

PhD/master's Candidate

PhD/master's Candidate    Graduate School of Frontier Science Initiative, Kanazawa University is seeking candidates for PhD and master's students i...

Kanazawa University

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Quick links

• Explore articles by subject
• Guide to authors
• Editorial policies

Should students use AI for MBA admissions essays?

An ASU information systems expert discusses how W. P. Carey's new Master of Science in Artificial Intelligence in Business program will impact future leaders.

In this story published May 16, 2024, on BestColleges :

What we want to do is make sure that the management and the future leaders and the entrepreneurs of the future have the awareness of the transformational powers of artificial intelligence when used for good.

– Daniel Mazzola , clinical professor of information systems and MS-ISM faculty director and assistant chair

Latest news

An ASU information systems expert discusses how W. P.

An ASU research study investigates the Arizona airport system's economic impact.

• Share full article

Advertisement

Supported by

Guest Essay

The Best College Is One Where You Don’t Fit In

By Michael S. Roth

Mr. Roth is the president of Wesleyan University.

This time of year, college campuses like the one where I live fill up with high school seniors preparing to make what feels like a momentous choice. The first imperative is to find a school that they can afford, but beyond that, many students have been advised to find one where they can see themselves. Too often, they take this to mean finding a place with students like them, even students who look like them — a place where they will feel comfortable. I can’t tell you how many families have described driving many hours to a campus somewhere and having their daughter or son say something like: “We don’t need to get out. I can tell already this isn’t for me.”

“How about the info session?” the patient parent asks.

Choosing a college based on where you feel comfortable is a mistake. The most rewarding forms of education make you feel very uncomfortable, not least because they force you to recognize your own ignorance. Students should hope to encounter ideas and experience cultural forms that push them beyond their current opinions and tastes. Sure, revulsion is possible (and one can learn from that), but so is the discovery that your filtered ways of taking in the world had blocked out things in which you now delight. One learns from that, too.

Either way, a college education should enable you to discover capabilities you didn’t even know you had while deepening those that provide you with meaning and direction. To discover these capabilities is to practice freedom, the opposite of trying to figure out how to conform to the world as it is. Tomorrow the world will be different anyway. Education should help you find ways of shaping change, not just ways of coping with it.

These days, the first thing that campus visitors may notice are protests over the war in Gaza. These will be attractive to some who see in them an admirable commitment to principle and off-putting to those who see evidence of groupthink or intimidation. Any campus should be a “ safe enough space ,” one free of harassment and intimidation, but not one where identities and beliefs are just reinforced. That’s why it’s profoundly disturbing to hear of Jewish students afraid to move about because of the threat of verbal and physical abuse. And that’s why it’s inspiring to see Muslim and Jewish students camped out together to protest a war they think is unjust.

Refusing to conform can mean being rebellious, but it can also mean just going against the grain, like being unabashedly religious in a very secular institution or being the conservative or libertarian voice in classes filled with progressives. I recently asked one such student if he perceived any faculty bias. “Don’t worry about me,” he replied. “My professors find me fascinating.” Some of the military veterans who’ve attended my liberal arts university have disrupted the easy prejudices of their progressive peers while finding themselves working in areas they’d never expected to be interested in.

Over the years, I’ve found nonconformists to be the most interesting people to have in my classes; I’ve also found that they often turn out to be the people who add the greatest value to the organizations in which they work. I’m thinking of Kendall, a computer science major I had in a philosophy class whom I saw on campus recently because she was directing an ambitious musical. When I expressed my admiration at her unlikely combination of interests, she was almost insulted by my surprise and enthusiasm. Had I really stereotyped her as someone not interested in the arts just because she excels in science?

Or take the student activist (please!) who a couple of years after leading a demonstration to the president’s office made an appointment to meet with me. I was worried about new political demands, but she had something else in mind: getting a recommendation for law school. I could, she reminded me with a smile, write about her leadership abilities on campus. And I did.

Of course, even students who refuse to fall in with the herd should learn how to listen and speak to it and to various groups different from their own. That’s an increasingly valuable capacity, and it will help them make their way in the world, whatever school they attend, whatever their major.

Side by side, students should learn how to be full human beings, not mere appendages, and this means continually questioning what they are doing and learning from one another. “Truly speaking,” Ralph Waldo Emerson said about a century ago, “it is not instruction, but provocation, that I can receive from another soul.” That’s why the colleges — large public institutions or small faith-based colleges or anything in between — that nurture and respond to the energies of their students are the ones that feel most intellectually alive.

So, what makes a school the right one? It’s not the prestige of a name or the campus amenities. First and foremost, it’s the teachers. Great teachers help make a college great because they themselves are never done being students. Sure, there are plenty of schools filled with faculty members who think alike, who relish the bubble of fellowship in received opinion. A college can make being weird or radical into adolescent orthodoxy. These places should be avoided. By contrast, there are colleges with great teachers who practice freedom by activating wonder, a capacity for appreciation and a taste for inquiry — and who do so because they themselves seek out these broadening experiences. You can feel their own nonconformity as they try to provoke their students away from the various forms of received opinion.

Finding the right college will often mean finding these kinds of people — classmates and mentors, perpetual students who seek open-ended learning that brings joy and meaning. That’s what young people checking out schools should really be looking for: not a place merely to fit in but a place to practice freedom in good company.

Michael S. Roth is the president of Wesleyan University. His most recent books are “ The Student: A Short History” and “ Safe Enough Spaces: A Pragmatist’s Approach to Inclusion, Free Speech, and Political Correctness on College Campuses.”

The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips . And here’s our email: [email protected] .

Follow the New York Times Opinion section on Facebook , Instagram , TikTok , WhatsApp , X and Threads .