AMCAS® FAQs

The Verification Process

Once you submit your application to the AMCAS program, you will receive an acknowledgment of its receipt via email (provided you have included a valid email address). Such acknowledgment does not indicate that your materials (i.e., official transcripts) are complete or that deadline requirements have been satisfied.

The AMCAS Verification Process starts when your application has been submitted and your official transcripts have arrived at the AMCAS program. Once all your materials have been received, your application joins the verification queue. Processing can take 6 to 8 weeks from the time that your application and all required official transcripts are received.

During the Verification process, the AMCAS program verifies your coursework against your official transcripts, ensuring that the course information entered in your application matches that on your official transcripts.

The AMCAS program may return your application to you—which could result in missed deadlines—if major errors or omissions in course listings are found during verification. The AMCAS program will stop verifying your materials and send an email notification if any missing or incomplete transcripts are discovered during verification.

The AMCAS program will verify your application using the following symbols:

AMCAS GPAs

Following the calculation of your AMCAS GPA, you will receive an email informing you that your application has completed processing. Your AMCAS application will then be made available to your designated medical schools.During the verification process, the AMCAS application converts most standard undergraduate transcript grades to AMCAS grades based on conversion information provided by colleges and universities. The AMCAS GPA provides medical schools with a standard way to compare each applicant’s academic record. AMCAS GPAs may differ from the GPA shown on your records at the institutions you attended.

The AMCAS program may return your application to you, and you may miss deadlines, if:

• 10 or more course listings are omitted.
• The original instance of a repeat grade is not included.
• Coursework is not listed in chronological order.
• Credits and grades are not listed as they appear on your official transcript.

An X to the right of a verified course indicates that the AMCAS program made a change to your course entry in order to accurately reflect the official transcript on which that course appears. The AMCAS program may also make changes if you neglect to include certain pertinent information in the Coursework section of your application. For example, if you do not enter the AMCAS grade for a particular course, the AMCAS program will add the appropriate AMCAS grade, and an X will appear to the right of that course entry.

No. Information entered into the previous year's application will roll over to the current application if previously submitted and not withdrawn.

Each course must be assigned a course classification based strictly on the primary content of the course. You are responsible for selecting the correct course classification. Use the AMCAS Course Classification Guide for assistance. The AMCAS program reserves the right to change classifications if the assigned classification clearly does not apply. In the event that you are unable to comfortably classify a course, refer to the description of the course description on your school’s website.

As with other types of coursework, the first step in determining how to list military credit is to establish whether a transcript is available.

Transcript Available

If a transcript is available directly from the military school listing individual courses with letter grades (e.g., A, B, C, etc.) and credit hours convertible to semester hours:

• Include the military school in Schools Attended.
• Enter course data as it appears on the transcript.
• The AMCAS program will include this coursework in AMCAS GPAs.

If the transcript does not list individual courses with corresponding grades and semester hours (or course units convertible to semester hours), but the program attaches ACE credit recommendations to the transcript: You must:

• Include the military school in your list of schools attended.
• Prepare a Transcript Request Form to be sent to the military school. Handwrite on this request that the transcript should include ACE recommendations so that AMCAS will expect this information and the school will know to send it.
• Enter course data as it appears on the ACE recommendations.

JST Transcript Available

If a transcript is not available from a military school directly, but a Joint Services Transcript (JST) is available:

• Include "JST" in Schools Attended (Include Florida as the state, then select JST).
• Enter course information as it appears on your JST transcript. Enter coursework as it appears under Military Course Completions.
• Military Occupational Specialties (MOS) experiences should not be listed unless a U.S. or Canadian institution has accepted the experience as transfer credit.
• Experiences from "Occupations Held" should not be listed unless a U.S. or Canadian institution has accepted the experience as transfer credit.
• Indicate Military Credit as the Special Course Type. You do not need to also select the Pass/Fail Special Course Type.

The AMCAS application will not include this coursework in AMCAS GPAs; however, the AMCAS application will include this coursework in cumulative Pass/Fail - Pass credit hour totals.

For more details on entering military coursework, see the AMCAS Applicant Guide.

If your foreign coursework fits the AMCAS program's definition of "study abroad," you will typically enter the course details, grades, and credits under the foreign institution, exactly as they appear on the official transcript from the domestic institution that sponsored your program. The AMCAS program does not accept foreign transcripts. Each situation is different, though, so we encourage you to watch the AMCAS Study Abroad Coursework Tutorial and review the AMCAS Applicant Guide for full details.

If you are learning about the arts (music, theater, visual arts, dance, etc.), then select Lecture. If you are performing or creating art (playing music, acting, visual arts creation, dancing, etc.), then select Lab. If the course involves both, then select Both.

Yes, you would choose the Special Course Type AP for the AP course and then designate the college course(s) as Repeat.

No, courses are only considered a repeat if the course was taken multiple times at the same institution.

No, AP course(s) can only be listed if a college/university awarded credit for the AP course(s).

No, you do not need to submit high school transcripts.

Yes, you can write out the full name of the course if it is not written out on your transcript.

There is no place to designate an online class in the AMCAS application.

AP Courses should be listed under the freshmen academic status and listed under the first semester you began college.

If you are listing foreign transfer credit, the courses should be listed on the school that accepted the transfer credit. For transfer credit accepted from another U.S. or Canadian school, it should be listed under the school where the courses were taken.