Frequently Asked Questions

3419 Via Lido, Suite 629, Newport Beach, CA 92663 U.S.A. Phone: 949-723-6318 Fax: 949
2014
3419 Via Lido, Suite 629, Newport Beach, CA 92663 U.S.A.
Phone: 949-723-6318 Fax: 949-723-4436
admissions@atlanticbridge.com
2014 2014
1. WHAT TIPS DO YOU HAVE TO OFFER BEFORE I SUBMIT MY APPLICATION?

A. READ YOUR APPLICATION INSTRUCTIONS THOROUGHLY: The application instructions you received have been
personally tailored for you according to the information you provided when you requested an application from our
website. Therefore, your friends instructions may not be the same as yours. Read them carefully.

B. FOLLOW THE APPLICATION INSTRUCTIONS EXACTLY.

C. TYPE YOUR APPLICATION. The admissions committees must read and consider hundreds of applications each year. To
submit an application which is difficult to read presents an unprofessional image.

D. CHOOSE PEOPLE WHO KNOW YOU WELL TO WRITE SUBSTANTIAL AND HELPFUL LETTERS OF REFERENCE. At
least two of your three letters must be from an academic. Remember that you are applying to medical school, so do
your best to secure at least one reference from a science teacher/professor.

Your academic referee(s) should try to comment on the following:
Your intellectual qualities
How you compare with other pre-medical students they have taught
Your performance in class and examinations
Whether he/she believes your academic performance reflects your true ability
Why he/she believes you will be able to manage the rigors of a medical curriculum

Your referees should try to include the following information in their letter:
Your first and last name
The capacity in which they know you
Remarks on exceptional accomplishments, contributions, attributes they have observed in you
Details about your communication skills (oral and written, if applicable)
Your interests, future plans and how they feel that best relates to your pursuit of a career in medicine.

We recommend that you give your referees plenty of advance notice before the application deadline. Each year,
application files remain incomplete because a letter of reference has not been submitted on a students behalf. It is your
responsibility to follow-up with your referees periodically to ensure that they have submitted their letters to us.

NOTE: FOR STUDENTS WITH A COMMITTEE LETTER, THE COMMITTEE LETTER WILL BE ACCEPTED IN LIEU OF THE THREE LETTER
REQUIREMENT.


3419 Via Lido, Suite 629, Newport Beach, CA 92663 U.S.A. Phone: 949-723-6318 Fax: 949

2. HOW DO I INDICATE ON THE APPLICATION TO WHICH PROGRAM(S) & SCHOOL(S) I AM APPLYING?

Please refer to the text of the email you received with this attachment. The email outlines each of the programs (e.g. 6 Year, 5
Year or 4 Year Graduate Entry) and the corresponding schools to which you are eligible to apply. You will be automatically
considered for those programs (assuming, of course, you choose to apply to the corresponding school). So, please read the
email carefully.

You can select the school(s) to which you are, or are not, applying in the box located on the bottom right-hand corner of the
last page of the application form. You may apply to as many or as few as you choose.

3. IS IT OK IF MY TRANSCRIPTS / LETTERS OF REFERENCE ARE SUBMITTED BEFORE MY APPLICATION?

Yes. Your documents will be kept in a secure queue until your application form arrives.

Due to the number of documents received at our offices daily, it is simply not possible for us to acknowledge receipt of each
document as it arrives. Please refer to number 4 below, which details the process after your application form has been
received.

4. WHAT WILL HAPPEN AFTER YOU RECEIVE MY APPLICATION?

We will acknowledge receipt of your application by sending an email to the address (or addresses) you provided on your
application form. If at that point, there are any documents that are still required in order to complete your application file, we
will indicate which items have yet to be received.

We will also notify you by email when all of the required documents have been received. At that time your application is
considered complete and will be forwarded to the universities admissions committees for review. The committees are solely
responsible for making the decisions as to which students are selected for admission.
Once the committees have made final decisions on your application, you will be notified by mail, or at times email, of their
decisions.

5. WHAT HAPPENS IF SOME OF MY DOCUMENTS ARE RECEIVED LATE?

If your application form and application fees are received after the application deadline, they will be accepted. However, the
non-refundable application fee is U.S. $100 per school for applications postmarked after November 15, 2013.

Supporting documents (transcripts, letters of recommendation, etc.) received after the deadline will be accepted. Please note
that the later they are received, the later your application will be complete and considered by the admissions committees.
The committees will not wait until your application is complete before making offers to applicants who have completed theirs
on time.

Application files that are not complete by April 1
st
, 2014 will be withdrawn with the exception of those awaiting late (March or
April) MCAT scores. April 2014 MCAT test dates are the latest MCAT scores that will be considered for 2014.

6. WHEN WILL I HEAR FROM THE ADMISSIONS COMMITTEES?

The admissions process is an ongoing one. There are no specific dates by which final decisions will be made. The first offers
are usually issued in late March/April each year, and the last can be issued as late as September. Some applicants will be
notified earlier than others. Some students who accept offers early in the admissions season may withdraw later in the year
and leave a vacancy which can be filled by another applicant who is awaiting a decision. It is not unknown for an applicant to
receive an offer of admission less than a month before classes begin as a result of a late withdrawal.

So, we ask that you please be patient during the admissions season. If you havent heard from the admissions committees, it is
not because they have forgotten you but because they are giving thorough consideration to the hundreds of applications they
must evaluate, including yours. It is a difficult, labor-intensive and time-consuming process.

Please direct your inquiries to The Atlantic Bridge Program office rather than the universities. Applying pressure to
university staff or to the admissions committees will not increase your chances of selection.


3419 Via Lido, Suite 629, Newport Beach, CA 92663 U.S.A. Phone: 949-723-6318 Fax: 949
7. WHAT KIND OF NOTIFICATION WILL I RECEIVE FROM THE SCHOOLS?

The schools issue two types of letters: Offers and Regrets. Official offer letters are dispatched by mail or, if you requested in
your application, by courier (see #10 below). Regrets are dispatched generally by mail but at times by email.

If you have not received an offer by the end of April, your application is considered to be on reserve. This means that the
admissions committees have decided that your application is not sufficiently competitive to warrant an offer being extended
to you but not sufficiently weak to reject at that stage in the admissions season. Therefore, they will hold it on reserve in
case an applicant withdraws and leaves a seat that can be offered to you later in the admissions season. The schools will not
notify you that your application is on reserve. So, until such time as you receive either an official offer or a regret letter, your
application is on reserve or active.

You will receive an official written notification from each of the schools to which you have applied regarding their final
decision on your application.

Note: It is not possible to advise an applicant what number they are on the reserve list.
8. WHO MAY INQUIRE ABOUT MY APPLICATION?

To ensure the confidentiality of your application, we will only correspond with you at the email and postal addresses you
provide on your application form.

If you wish for us to send copies of our correspondence with you to another person (e.g. a parent or guardian), you must
provide his/her email address on our application form.*

If you will be changing your email or postal address at any time during the admissions season, you must notify us from the
email address you provided on your application form of those changes.

*NOTE: FOR YOUR PRIVACY, WE WILL NOT DISCUSS YOUR APPLICATION WITH ANYONE WHO PURPORTS TO BE YOUR PARENT, GUARDIAN,
RELATIVE, ETC. UNLESS YOU HAVE BEEN MADE AN OFFICIAL OFFER OF ADMISSION AND NEED ASSISTANCE WITH THE ACCEPTANCE PROCESS OR HAVE
ADDED THEM ON YOUR APPLICATION.

9. HOW CAN I CHECK ON THE STATUS OF MY APPLICATION?

Because your privacy is important to us, we do not provide application status over the telephone. Please submit all such
inquiries by email to admissions@atlanticbridge.com. This is more secure and more efficient. Firstly, it allows us to double-
check the information you require before we provide you with it and secondly, to ensure that we are providing your personal
information to you alone (we will only send information on your application to the email address(es) we have on file for you).

As noted in # 6 above, please direct your inquiries to The Atlantic Bridge Program office rather than the universities.
Applying pressure to university staff or to the admissions committees will not increase your chances of selection.

10. DO YOU RECOMMEND THAT I AVAIL OF THE COURIER OPTION (FEDERAL EXPRESS) IN THE EVENT THAT I RECEIVE AN OFFER
OF ADMISSION?

Yes. Unfortunately, we cannot guarantee that the Post Office will deliver your acceptance letter to you. If they dont, we wont
know about it and neither will you (for admission purposes, we will assume that they did). In such a situation you will, of
course, be unable to respond to your offer. Additionally, the US Postal Service has placed restrictions on shipments of
packages weighing more than 16 oz., and Customs in Canada frequently holds packages entering by surface mail. This means
you may not receive your offer in a timely manner and as a result may miss your deadline for acceptance.

Federal Express will expedite delivery of your package and keep us informed of its delivery status. Via Federal Express most
packages will be dispatched from our office and be delivered within 24 hours.

Approximately 95% of our applicants choose the Federal Express option, with good reason. During the prior three admissions
seasons, zero acceptance packets that were dispatched by courier went unaccounted for.

If you do choose to select the courier option, please ensure that you use a credit card that does not carry an expiration date
during 2013/2014. Please do not use ATM, gift cards or cards that require a PIN. Credit card information is kept in a secure
queue.
Please bear in mind that Federal Express does not deliver to P.O. Boxes in North America.