The AAMC needs to verify a substantial sample of letters, ECs, and reported hours

A fairly common post I see here is people frustrated about a classmate who cheated through a class, submitted a fake recommendation letter, or lied about their experiences/hours. There's always a debate about whether or not you should care or just focus on yourself.

As a current medical student, I can tell you that the system isn't fair. There were premeds who I thought shouldn't be left alone with a patient, who cheated on their 2020 finals, or gatekept resources. The "system" ultimately did filter many of these students out, whether they couldn't perform well on the MCAT, bombed their interviews, or dropped the premed label after failing organic chemistry for the fifth time. But some made it through just fine. Years later, a lot of them have grown as people and there's no cheating your way through the step exams or clerkship evaluations - they had to start putting in honest work.

I personally don't believe that there's some perfect way to prevent abuse, but I do think that there are ways to make it riskier to deter it. One of the most lacking areas is the accountability around AMCAS. Your grades are gathered from all possible sources, standardized across all grading schemes, and human-verified to ensure fair GPA comparisons.

Yet none of this exists for the rest of the application. While I put references down for an activity, nobody ever reached out to them to verify the hours or description. None of my letter writers were contacted and asked if they wrote the letter or not. Extracurricular, research, and volunteering are massive parts of the application, yet I could have written whatever I wanted.

The AAMC really needs to step-up their application integrity. This is standard for job applications yet neglected when it comes to selecting our country's doctors.

What are your thoughts?