Technical Glitches Complicate Med School Application Process

BY ALISON YANG

LEO SHKLOVSKII/YH Good idea, broken results

"Abysmal," was the word Edward Miller, the Senior Associate Director at Undergraduate Career Services (UCS) used to describe the American Medical College Application's (AMCAS) process in its initial year. "It caused nothing less than total frustration for most students."

Since its delayed launch on April 1st, AMCAS, the Web-based, centralized medical school application system, has been plagued by erratic technical glitches and repeated server overloads. An ambitious effort to streamline the cumbersome application process has yielded added anxiety for frazzled candidates and over-worked administrators.

The sponsor of AMCAS, the DC-based Association of American Medical Colleges, intended to lessen the staggering workload for candidates and admissions officers. According to plan, students would file their applications by using AMCAS-supplied diskettes. AMCAS would then electronically verify student information, including MCAT scores and GPA data, and distribute the validated applications to schools nationwide. Yet after three years of development, this multi-million, high-tech innovation, has not come close to its potential.

Miller believes the system has "backfired." His critical view resonates with many administrators across the nation. Dr. Edward Curtiss, dean of admissions at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, described the slow trickle of delayed applications and the flurry of anxious inquiries from candidates as causing "a real mess." Richard Silverman, the admissions director at Yale School of Medicine (YSM), told CNN that he worries a month or more may have been lost in the selection process.

"AMCAS took an application process that was operating smoothly and broke it," Miller said. "Instead of a simple four-page application, students become frustrated over 30 pages of computer print-outs and 300 error-message windows."

Technical bugs associated with the system ranged from the trivial to the vexing. Many candidates spent as much as 35 hours completing their applications. "One Yale student was charged a ridiculous $4,500 application fee due to a transmission error," said Miller. "The system has even had problems doing simple tasks such as calculating GPAs."

When Antonia Chen, SM '03, filed her AMCAS application in mid-August, her troubles began with repeated "server busy" signals due to the enormous increase in the online traffic as deadlines approached. Even for the small proportion of students whose applications were successfully transmitted to the designated schools, complications persisted. One Yale student whose application was returned by mail from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine admissions said, "I panicked when I saw my application. Apparently, the program sent a garbled version my personal statement to the school - several paragraphs in the essay were missing altogether."

Despite technical glitches, the most exasperating problem for applicants was the lack of feedback and assistance. For a week, Chen's email inquiries to AMCAS fell on deaf ears. Students who attempt to use the telephone helpline were equally unsuccessful. "It's especially frustrating during the summer," said one applicant. "You panic because you assumed all the problems were only happening to you, and there was no one to turn to since you were away from school."

AMCAS' limited communication capability, according to Richard Silverman, is rooted in a failure to anticipate the scale of potential complications. "Sponsors assumed things would operate smoothly, but as with any large-scale, elaborate computer innovations, bugs are unavoidable."

As the problem of communication intensified, AMCAS implemented damage control measures by setting up extra e-mail addresses and helplines. Miller helped students voice their concerns by providing the direct number and contact information of Nancy Tillinghast, an AMCAS director.

Silverman described the damage control efforts as "effective" but "slow." As of Tues, Sept. 4, only one-fifth of some 3000 AMCAS applications for YSM have been successfully transmitted to and confirmed at the admissions office. This low success rate is the norm -- admissions at the University of Pittsburgh Med School have received a meager 400 applications, with some 2,100 applications still unverified.

The most pressing consequence is the potential delay of the entire admissions process. In past years, preliminary interviews begin in October. This year, few Yale students who updated their application status with UCS have even received invitations for interviews. Miller estimated that AMCAS might have caused a ten week delay for some schools. Though the deadline for the Yale secondary applications is not officially postponed, Silverman commented that administrators have informed AMCAS they are willing to push back the Thur, Nov. 15 deadline if technical problems persist.

Erratic technical errors and frequent delays have prompted YSM to adopt a special "transition-year" procedure, which allows candidates to partially bypass AMCAS and direct mail paper-based applications. In recent weeks, some 50 out of the 125 AMCAS-associated medical schools have followed suit, each adopting a slightly different alternative application procedure. "With all the varying transition procedures -- some asking for one set of documents, others another set," Miller said. "Students end up with even more confusion and an overwhelming amount of paperwork."

In hindsight, many believe that the technical glitches could have been avoided with more comprehensive testing. "While AMCAS is definitely well-intentioned," Chen said, "I do think they should have tested the software more extensively with trial runs at a few schools before launching it nationwide."

Administrators at AMCAS, however, claim the system was tested at multiple medical schools, including YSM. "The real problem," Miller said, "is that they never bothered to implement back-up procedures. There was no alternative other than the electronic application when the system began falling apart in April."

In March, just prior to the launch of the system, representatives at the Northwest Division of the Conference of Pre-Medical Studies Advisers rigorously encouraged AAMC administrators to allow for the alternative of paper-based applications, yet the suggestion was ignored over the assumption that the service would run efficiently and the extent of complications would be minor.

Despite the technical problems, Silverman indicated that YSM has no intention of pulling out of AMCAS for the enrollment cycle of 2003. "Tremendous resources have been dedicated for repairing this elaborate system," Silverman said. "I doubt major problems would linger until the April of next year."

Many students, however, do not share Silverman's optimism. "Given AMCAS's track record," one student commented, "I have no reason to trust this broken system. There is no way I'm going jeopardize three years of hard work because of computer bugs."

Miller offered applicants of the 2003 enrollment cycle intuitive yet essential advice: "First, always start early. Begin filling out the application on April 1st so there is sufficient time to fix errors. Second, stay calm. No one is singled out, and if the software gives you 99 blank screens, it's probably giving other students similar problems."

Finally, the most important step for any applicant to take is registering at UCS through its e-mail list. "Keeping yourself constantly updated with messages from our advisers is the biggest favor any student could do for himself," Miller said. "You need to be informed of changes and problems as soon as possible."
 

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