Put spearfishing on my application?

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Hey Everyone, I go spearfishing as a hobby and I am wondering if I should mention it on my application. It can be split up into snorkeling and fishing for my application but I would rather just write spearfishing and freediving. Do you think ad-coms would frown on a quasi extreme sport like that? (I have the same question for rockclimbing). Also, what is the deal with putting contacts for all of your activities now? Do I just put down my spearfishing buddies?

Thanks!
J

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Originally Posted by JSU

Hey Everyone, I go spearfishing as a hobby and I am wondering if I should mention it on my application. It can be split up into snorkeling and fishing for my application but I would rather just write spearfishing and freediving. Do you think ad-coms would frown on a quasi extreme sport like that? (I have the same question for rockclimbing). Also, what is the deal with putting contacts for all of your activities now? Do I just put down my spearfishing buddies?

Thanks!
J

Oh, god. Yes, please! I'd love to interview someone who does spearfishing!. I would downplay the extreme sport bit, though.

Do it bro.

So you catch fish with spears? I wanna do that.

No question, anything that catchs someones attention and keeps your application in their mind is a big advantage. Just be warned all your interviewers will probably know you as the "spearfishing dude" and will ask you in every interview.

Originally Posted by Frazier

Agreed, it certainly sounds cool.

Brownie points if you heal the fish after stabbing them - even those fish without insurance.

Thanks! Guess spearfishing is going on there. I love talking about my hobbies so that's an added bonus. If I down play the dangers of rock climbing think I should put that on there as well?

I'd definitely put both of them on there....now I'm thinking that my hobbies aren't so terribly interesting...

Originally Posted by BuffNerd

I'd definitely put both of them on there....now I'm thinking that my hobbies aren't so terribly interesting...

Haha, powerlifting is going on mine as well. It just doesn't get much of the spotlight.

Originally Posted by JSU

Haha, powerlifting is going on mine as well. It just doesn't get much of the spotlight.

haha lifting was one one my big ones... I may be getting a personal trainer certification this summer (for fun), but I guess I won't have it by the time I submit my app...oh well!

hahah Spear fishing is awesome. Please tell me you go noodling as the icing on the cake.

Originally Posted by BJJ

hahah Spear fishing is awesome. Please tell me you go noodling as the icing on the cake.

Nah, I like to see what I am catching. I would give it a go but it isnt very popular in Cali.

Unless you are really out there with climbing (like doing stupid **** like solo climbing, etc) its really not that extreme. Yeah, maybe you will break something, etc, but really its pretty low on the extreme category. I talked about both climbing and skiing and mountaineering. Made my interviews great. All my interviewers loved talking about it. At one school, my interviewer often skied at a place I ski a lot, and we talked about different great cliffs to send. Another interviewer and I talked a lot about climbing, and I was in the process of moving to the place she did her residency and the only notes I took during the interview were notes on great routes.... So yea, definitely. If you are doing stupid stuff (I divide the line of stupid and non-stupid, as death definitely possible when things go awry and death unlikely.... not saying I don't cross it...) then just don't talk about the stupid side of things.

Originally Posted by dragonbush

Unless you are really out there with climbing (like doing stupid **** like solo climbing, etc) its really not that extreme. Yeah, maybe you will break something, etc, but really its pretty low on the extreme category. I talked about both climbing and skiing and mountaineering. Made my interviews great. All my interviewers loved talking about it. At one school, my interviewer often skied at a place I ski a lot, and we talked about different great cliffs to send. Another interviewer and I talked a lot about climbing, and I was in the process of moving to the place she did her residency and the only notes I took during the interview were notes on great routes.... So yea, definitely. If you are doing stupid stuff (I divide the line of stupid and non-stupid, as death definitely possible when things go awry and death unlikely.... not saying I don't cross it...) then just don't talk about the stupid side of things.

Thanks. I talked about how I usually do climbing gyms and don't do any multi-pitch climbs outdoors.

What is everyone putting for the contact information on your hobbies?

No multi-pitch? That is where the fun is! Man, you a missing out.

Originally Posted by dragonbush

No multi-pitch? That is where the fun is! Man, you a missing out.

Haha, my arms are insanely pumped after 50ft climbs (I need to get back into shape). I also have a problem taking a dump while hanging off a cliff face (and a worse problem carrying it up with me).

Originally Posted by JSU

Haha, my arms are insanely pumped after 50ft climbs (I need to get back into shape). I also have a problem taking a dump while hanging off a cliff face (and a worse problem carrying it up with me).

Does this mean what I think it means?

Originally Posted by phnerd1105

Does this mean what I think it means?

Yup. What do you think people do on climbs that take multiple days? Hence my problem with longer climbs...

Originally Posted by JSU

Hey Everyone, I go spearfishing as a hobby and I am wondering if I should mention it on my application. It can be split up into snorkeling and fishing for my application but I would rather just write spearfishing and freediving. Do you think ad-coms would frown on a quasi extreme sport like that? (I have the same question for rockclimbing). Also, what is the deal with putting contacts for all of your activities now? Do I just put down my spearfishing buddies?

Thanks!
J

Just don't do what my buddy did. He spearfishes a lot and wrote an INTENSE personal statement in which he likened spearfishing to eradicating the world of disease, with some extreme analogies and appalling visuals. Needless to say, this was a red flag. He was not accepted anywhere, toned things down, and was accepted next cycle MD/PHD.

Originally Posted by gatorman23

Just don't do what my buddy did. He spearfishes a lot and wrote an INTENSE personal statement in which he likened spearfishing to eradicating the world of disease, with some extreme analogies and appalling visuals. Needless to say, this was a red flag. He was not accepted anywhere, toned things down, and was accepted next cycle MD/PHD.

Lol that is awesome. Thanks for the input. It is a great sport but wont make it to my PS.

Rock climbing definitely mention even if just indoors. There is no one who will think of you as too reckless to be a doctor just because you climb at indoor gyms. I spoke of ski mountaineering and big wall climbing and one of my interviewers dabbled in it a bit when he was young and we had an amazing conversation about it. I also worked in things about seeing accidents and working with S&R which helped a lot as the reasoning which brought me to medicine.

Spearfishing is going to be hit or miss. What happens when you get a militant vegan or someone with an anti-fishing agenda due to loss of fish species/biodiversity in the ocean due to overfishing on the ad com who thinks you are a barbarian? It really only takes one person to ruin your app at a school and I think this topic is dangerous personally. Maybe stick with talking about exploring the ocean through snorkeling on your main app and feel the person out at an interview to see if you want to mention spearfishing? I mean think about it, doctors help people. Stabbing living things with a spear for sport/fun and not survival is kind of the polar opposite vibe you want to show EVERYONE who reads your application. That's just my $0.02.



Oh and multi pitch doesnt have to mean multi day nor does it have to be super hard; there are plenty of easy multi pitch climbs that I'd take my girlfriend on. I can do 15 pitch climbs in an afternoon. Just get outside and start climbing; you'll love it.

Originally Posted by JJMountainMan

Rock climbing definitely mention even if just indoors. There is no one who will think of you as too reckless to be a doctor just because you climb at indoor gyms. I spoke of ski mountaineering and big wall climbing and one of my interviewers dabbled in it a bit when he was young and we had an amazing conversation about it. I also worked in things about seeing accidents and working with S&R which helped a lot as the reasoning which brought me to medicine.

Spearfishing is going to be hit or miss. What happens when you get a militant vegan or someone with an anti-fishing agenda due to loss of fish species/biodiversity in the ocean due to overfishing on the ad com who thinks you are a barbarian? It really only takes one person to ruin your app at a school and I think this topic is dangerous personally. Maybe stick with talking about exploring the ocean through snorkeling on your main app and feel the person out at an interview to see if you want to mention spearfishing? I mean think about it, doctors help people. Stabbing living things with a spear for sport/fun and not survival is kind of the polar opposite vibe you want to show EVERYONE who reads your application. That's just my $0.02.



Oh and multi pitch doesnt have to mean multi day nor does it have to be super hard; there are plenty of easy multi pitch climbs that I'd take my girlfriend on. I can do 15 pitch climbs in an afternoon. Just get outside and start climbing; you'll love it.

Thanks for that. I plan on speaking about how spearfishing is the most selective type of fishing with the lowest by-catch. I also mentioned that I am perfectly content coming home after a day of spearfishing without any fish as I enjoy exploring the ocean. I'll post a final copy but do you think those two things will moderate it enough to put on?

P.S. I'll have to take a look at some multipitch sport routes. I should have all the gear.

I plan on including some media in my experience description for spearfishing. What do you guys think of these:

1# This link shows a picture of a fish that I caught:

http://img197.yfrog.com/img197/2859/p1291.jpg

2# This is a link to an underwater/spearfishing video. I am in the footage (it gets really interesting about 50 seconds in):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvyIPc_LkG0

Originally Posted by JSU

I plan on including some media in my experience description for spearfishing. What do you guys think of these:

1# This link shows a picture of a fish that I caught:

http://img197.yfrog.com/img197/2859/p1291.jpg

2# This is a link to an underwater/spearfishing video. I am in the footage (it gets really interesting about 50 seconds in):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvyIPc_LkG0

great idea, but only if you also include videos of you and your friends TP'ing houses and blowing up mailboxes with m-80's. also, here's a picture of my latest catch: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_CDTtntnI_t...d%2Bsharks.jpg

Originally Posted by WeAreNotRobots

great idea, but only if you also include videos of you and your friends TP'ing houses and blowing up mailboxes with m-80's. also, here's a picture of my latest catch: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_CDTtntnI_t...d%2Bsharks.jpg

That's really impressive! Though, I usually just catch enough to feed myself and family. Whatever floats your boat I guess

What if some adcoms think you are barbaric? If you are unlucky you might run into somebody who has a pet fish or against hunting. I have no problem with your hobby but you never know. Get somebody uptight enough he might think you enjoy killing defenseless animals.

Originally Posted by FattySlug

What if some adcoms think you are barbaric? If you are unlucky you might run into somebody who has a pet fish or against hunting. I have no problem with your hobby but you never know. Get somebody uptight enough he might think you enjoy killing defenseless animals.

Thanks for your feedback. I came to grips with posting spearfishing as a hobby but the media may be a bit much (which is why I posted it here first).

UPDATE: Putting this on my application was definitely a good idea. During a few interviews, I was asked about my spearfishing experiences a few times and segued into my community service oriented spearfishing trip to Nicaragua (I did this after submitting AMCAS).

Tip 1: Talk about your interesting activities no matter how obscure. They'll set you apart from everyone else.

Tip 2: I don't know if anyone else has done this, but I put photo links into my app. I had one interviewer tell me that they didn't know what to do with them at first, but loved the pics once they figured it out. Here's an example: "Photos of systems I built can be seen at:
http://ow.ly/4YMza"

Tip 3: Have someone who knows you really well (like a parent) help you brainstorm for experiences to put on your app. Sometimes, we do exceptional things but think of them as ordinary until someone else points them out.

Tip 4: If at first you don't succeed, revamp your app and try, try again. I didn't apply to enough schools my first time around and a lot of those were MD/PhD programs. I also had a lack of research and commitment to medicine (I hadn't even finished the premed classes when I applied).

Tip 5: During practice interviews, get someone to watch your body language and speech carefully. Have them make sure that you're keeping eye contact, you don't have any weird twitches and that you aren't saying annoying filler words such as "like" and "um."

Tip 6: Have fun with the interviews. It may be hard to get into a chipper mood when you realize that your future depends on your performance, but you should try. Interviewers don't want to meet with a solemn, scared premed. They want to meet someone who is dynamic and interesting. So keep your energy up and your mood happy (not too intense though). Interviews ARE fun.

US teen survives [fishing] spear through brain

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-18509408

I said this in another thread recently, but during my residency interviewed, I talked a lot about building rockets as a kid, playing an an amateur paintball team and my current rock climbing obsession. If you put it in your application, you will get asked about it.

This is encouraging! I just recently took off all the mma I do because I thought it was lame, but also because it was also a bit sporadic. I've done 2 years of tae kwon do and switched to kickboxing 3months ago. I don't have any cool belts because my family moved too often for me to be able to test for the next belt -__- but I can definitely kick butt if they ask (;
Should I put this back in...?

Originally Posted by Bro Dude

US teen survives [fishing] spear through brain

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-18509408

Great timing.

Originally Posted by Bro Dude

US teen survives [fishing] spear through brain

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-18509408

Rats! Beat me to it.

Originally Posted by Bro Dude

US teen survives [fishing] spear through brain

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-18509408

Yeah, I can't seem to escape this article

Originally Posted by Camy99

This is encouraging! I just recently took off all the mma I do because I thought it was lame, but also because it was also a bit sporadic. I've done 2 years of tae kwon do and switched to kickboxing 3months ago. I don't have any cool belts because my family moved too often for me to be able to test for the next belt -__- but I can definitely kick butt if they ask (;
Should I put this back in...?

I'd put it in. Though, I wouldn't mention that you can kick butt if they ask