do you write essays in medical school

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.

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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 November 21  AMCAS is:

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

Paper (mailed) – November 20

Parchment – November 20

National Student Clearinghouse –  November 21

Certree –  November 21

Processing applications that reached "Ready for Review" on  November 20.

Processing Academic Change Requests submitted on  November 21.

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 ($1,049 value). Benefits are not retroactive.