Jayme Bograd

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AMCAS Letters and Advisors Feedback

• Jayme Bograd
• Applicant and Advisor Relations

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Letters Overview 2009

• Twenty One participating medical schools
• Medical schools receive letters through
  Admissions Processing (AP) software, School Tools
  Documents Tab, or Secure File Transfer Protocol
  (SFTP)
• AMCAS receives letters via
• AMCAS Letter Writer Application (LWA)
• Interfolio (IF)
• Mail
• VirtualEvals (VE)

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Letters Overview
Advisor / Author / Career Center Options
Applicant
Medical School
VirtualEvals

• Medical Schools can
• View/download letters via AP applicant record
• Batch download via new School Tools tab
• Receive letters via SFTP

USPS - MAIL
AMCAS
AMCAS Letter Writer Application
Interfolio
The flow chart is designed to show you that
AMCAS accepts letters through these mediums for
participating schools so not to disrupt your
current processes (too much) but not to say that
all letters sent to these vendors comes to AMCAS
first.   Medical schools not participating in
letters via AMCAS go directly to the medical
schools after they leave the vendors.
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Letter Receipt Statisticsas of January 12th

• 71 of all letters that came in via mail came
  in with the Letter Request Forms (LRF) which
  facilitates for fast matching
• 75 of AMCAS applicants have applied to at
  least one participating medical schools
• 76,005 letters received thus far

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Letters Receipt Overview
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LETTER ID

• Q Why is the Letter ID needed in addition to the
  AAMC ID?
• A Each AAMC ID can have up to 10 letters -
  creating 10 individual records. This allows
  AMCAS to match the letters to the specific
  entries in the AMCAS Application without causing
  delays
• Applicants average 2-3 letter entries per
  application

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Multiple Letter Request Forms

• Q What if I have multiple Letter Request Forms
  for the same letter with different Letter IDs?
  Which one should I use?
• A Use either as they will both arrive securely
  to AMCAS and the applicant will be notified that
  we have received the Letter.

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AMCAS Letters Pilot Issues

• Input
• Individual vs. Committee Letter/Letter Packet
• The No Letter Letter
• Delayed deployment of Letter Writer Application
  (LWA)
• Duplicate (redundant) letter receipt
• Communication
• Most letter writers would like to receive an
  email with the AMCAS Letter Request form
• Letter ID versus AAMC ID

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2009 Mid Cycle Changes

• If applicants add letters after initial
  submission they now receive warning before
  logging out which avoids multiple letter request
  forms for the same letter

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2009 Mid Cycle Changes
Added Letter IDs to printed application
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2009 Mid Cycle Changes
Added Letter IDs in addition to primary contact
name and letter title when applicant is targeting
letters to medical schools within application
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2009 Mid Cycle Changes

• Subject
• AMCAS Letters Reminder
• Name Fname Lname
• AAMC ID 12345678
• AMCAS Application Year 2009
• AMCAS Letters Notification
• You have designated medical schools that do not
  have any letters assigned to them
• - Baylor College of Medicine
• - Creighton University School of Medicine
• - Harvard Medical School
• - University of Michigan Medical School
• - Weill Medical College of Cornell University
• AMCAS will not send any of your letters to these
  schools unless you make the assignments and
  submit your application again. You may return at
  any time to complete the letters section, add
  letters, or make assignments.
• Please note Re-submitting your application to
  make letters changes will not delay the
  processing of your application.

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Letters 2010?

• Final decision February
• 94 Medical Schools will participate
• 8 will NOT participate
• 26 undecided
• 2 no response yet
• AMCAS will accept letters via
• AMCAS Letter Writer Application
• Interfolio
• Mail
• VirtualEvals

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Advisor Feedback Letter Types
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2010 Changes Three Letter Types

• Committee Letter  A committee is a letter
  authored by a pre-health committee or pre-health
  advisor and intended to represent your
  institution's evaluation of you. A committee
  letter may or may not include additional letters
  written in support of your application. 
• Letter Packet A packet or set of letters
  assembled and distributed by your institution,
  often by the institutions career center.   
• Individual Letter An individual letter refers
  only to a letter authored by, and representing, a
  single letter writer. If you have already
  included an individual letter within either a
  committee letter or letter packet, you do not
  need to add a separate entry for the individual
  letter.  

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2010 Changes - additional

• Letter IDs will be available via Advisor
  Information System
• Modified Instructional Text within AMCAS
  application
• Applicants will be able to indicate within the
  AMCAS application if a letter is no longer going
  to be sent

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Advisor Feedback Sample of Responses

• I didn't find the process to be cumbersome at
  all.
• Eliminate it! VE worked great.
• Many of my students did not understand the
  difference between the pilot school letters and
  their regular letters.Frankly, the pilot letter
  program was a nightmare for us this year.
• I find it very convenient and hope it becomes
  global
• I hope that you guys are able to get universal
  buy-in from all medical schools so that we can
  have one letter sent to the AMCAS service.
• The biggest problem we had was that the students
  were confused because our directions didn't match
  the directions they received from AMCAS.
• AAMC has always done a good job improving their
  pilot programs with each passing year.

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DEMO of Letter Writer Application

• https//services.aamc.org/letterwriter/
• Log in using AIS username and password or create
  new username and password
• User should have applicants AAMC ID, Letter ID,
  and PDFd letter handy
• Once the PDF is uploaded, it is immediately
  delivered to AMCAS and applicant will receive
  email notifying them that the AMCAS has received
  letter (real time).

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