Having worked in admissions for over two decades, I have read thousands of activity descriptions for medical school and related healthcare fields. Some candidates seem to view this element of their application as less important than their personal statement, writing only cursory descriptions of their tasks. Other applicants fill out only a few of their…
Med School Applications Kick Off: Ten Tips to Get You Through the Season
Getting ready to apply to medical school? This can be a hectic time as you try to stay on top of everything. Here are ten tips to help you hit the ground running: 1. Get cozy with AMCAS/AACOMAS. These two services – the American Medical College Application Service (AMCAS) and the American Association of Colleges…
Writing Your Essays for the TMDSAS (Texas Medical and Dental Schools Application Service)
The Texas Medical and Dental Schools Application Service (TMDSAS) has its own application process. You can begin filling out the organization’s electronic application on May 1, similar to the AMCAS application. On the TMDSAS application, there are two required essays and one optional essay. Ready to get to work on your TMDSAS application? Read on. …
Reapplying to Med School: Your Primary Application
The previous posts have focused on identifying problem areas in your application and offering ideas to help you address them. You might be feeling a bit fragile after such a critical review – if so, then you’re doing it right. This exercise demands that you be ruthless and identify every potential flaw. Your ego might…
What to Include in the Activities Section of the TMDSAS Application
Similar to the AMCAS application, the TMDSAS has an activities section for you to list all experiences since your high school graduation. They have nine sub-sections that include: Academic Recognition, Non-Academic Recognition, Leadership, Employment, Research Activities, Healthcare Activities, Community Service, Extracurricular and Leisure Activities, and Planned Activities. Unlike the AMCAS application, you are expected to…
5 Tips for Submitting Your TMDSAS Secondaries
When you apply to TMDSAS, you can select from thirteen medical schools in Texas to submit your application to. Twelve of these schools require secondaries. The secondary essays are due when you submit your primary application. You submit these essays directly to the schools, at the same time that you submit your primary application on…
Collecting Letters of Evaluation for the TMDSAS
There are two options when submitting letters of evaluation to TMDSAS. They request either a committee letter or three individual letters of recommendation. For the committee letter, they will accept three different formats: a committee letter that introduces and includes an unlimited number of letters, a committee letter that includes quotes and excerpts from the…
What NOT to Do on the Medical School Coursework Section
This part of the medical school application can be time consuming since you will have to enter in the title, units, and grade as well as classification for every college level class you’ve ever taken. It’s easy to make mistakes here since there are so many to list. Besides entering in the basic information about…
Calling All TMDSAS Applicants!
Stressed about navigating the murky waters of medical school applications? Worried you might not have what it takes in such a competitive environment? At Accepted, we get it, and are here to guide you through the different application processes and hopefully admission to your dream school. If you plan to apply to any of the…
TMDSAS Personal Characteristics Essay: What Do They Want?
The Accepted consultants recently had a productive discussion about the Personal Characteristics Essay from this year’s TMDSAS application. Here’s the prompt: 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…