*~*~*~*Official AMCAS "Work/Activities" Tips Thread 2012-2013*~*~*~*

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Catalystik said:
1) Why not list the volunteer portion of the Experience under Volunteer/Community Service, then in the narrative say after xx/xx/xxxx I transitioned into being an employee, after taking a life saving course, with the responsibities of ... which I've continued to engage in for xx hours per week until xx/xx/xxxx.

Alternatively, you could list the whole thing under Teaching, giving it a title like, "Swim Instructor through Volunteering and Employment."

2) They become Artistic Endeavors when you share your Art publically through publication, performance, competition, selling your work, etc. You can lump or split them out depending on what seems to fit together, how much space you need, and how important they are to demonstrating the Whole You. It sounds to me like each could easily take up a space on its own. You'll have to decide on your priorities given the issues I've mentioned.

3) Yes.
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Great! Thanks so much!! :)
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Does attending a conference count as shadowing? I didn't present anything but I sat around a bunch of doctors for four days and listened to their talks. Didn't smell any patients but I figure I got a good feel of what sort of continuing education is done, plus a wealth of perspectives on residency training. Should I lump it in with my shadowing or leave it off?
 
I work as a Pharmacy Technician in a hospital. I work in both the basement adult pharmacy, and the surgery pharmacy. In the surgery pharmacy, I have a decent amount of exposure to patients. I also respond to Code Blue situations with a pharmacist. I also go up on floors quite a bit, talk with surgeons and anesthesiologists, read physician orders, talk with nurses, etc.

I work probably 27 hrs / week in the basement, 5 hrs / week in surgery, and about 3 hours / month on Codes. How much of that (if any) can I list in healthcare activities?
 
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dmf2682 said:
Does attending a conference count as shadowing? I didn't present anything but I sat around a bunch of doctors for four days and listened to their talks. Didn't smell any patients but I figure I got a good feel of what sort of continuing education is done, plus a wealth of perspectives on residency training. Should I lump it in with my shadowing or leave it off?
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I'd lump it in with the shadowing, but I suggest you differentiate it by saying what it entailed. And I would be sure to have a good amount of more typical shadowing activity.

Alternatively, list it under Conferences Attended and let it stand alone.
 
rbnova11 said:
I work as a Pharmacy Technician in a hospital. I work in both the basement adult pharmacy, and the surgery pharmacy. In the surgery pharmacy, I have a decent amount of exposure to patients. I also respond to Code Blue situations with a pharmacist. I also go up on floors quite a bit, talk with surgeons and anesthesiologists, read physician orders, talk with nurses, etc.

I work probably 27 hrs / week in the basement, 5 hrs / week in surgery, and about 3 hours / month on Codes. How much of that (if any) can I list in healthcare activities?
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I'd list it all under Employment (which I assume it was, since you used the word "work"). You'd want to highlight the patient contact and education at the window (estimating the % time that entails), surgical patient interaction, and Code Blues. Mention the physician interaction, as it adds to your more formal shadowing experience (or even split that part out and list it with the other shadowing with estimated time).
 
This may be a stupid question, but could you list just going to school as an activity? Furthermore, could you list it as a most meaningful one? I'm just curious because we live, eat and breathe school as premeds. Not just studying, but also intramurals/sports, clubs, hanging out with friends etc. In my opinion this is a major activity. The school you go to shapes who you are as a person (for some more than others) and I think college in general would be ranked as a top 3 most meaningful experience in anyone's book, whether they were premed or not. Unless you can list it as an activity there is no real spot on the application where you can talk about your college experience. I mean I guess you could in the PS, but I don't want to rehash that (also already have a better idea for what I'm going to write), and I guess you could write about individual aspects of it in the activities section, but it still would not be addressing the college experience as a whole. Thoughts?
 
If I worked in four labs, all non-paid, should I save space and list them all at once with descriptions, or separate everything with descriptions?

Also, I worked at a convienence store (high school), hardware store (college), then community pharmacy (2009-present) and a hospital pharmacy (quit in 2011). How could I group all this together?

Lastly, I volunteered at a hospital from high school until I got hired. However, the hours come out to 180 hours over 260 weeks...so do I put 0.7 hours/week?

I tutored subjects Immunology, Organic Chem, Biochem to PA students as well as pharmacy students outside the official tutoring session. Should I list their contact numbers within the description?

Okay finally: how are we supposed to list what we did in the activity? Is it line-by-line like in the first post, or is it paragraph? For community pharmacy, it gave me good experience interacting with patients, hospital pharmacy showed me how hospitals are run.
 
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I take that its a good idea to use all three "Most Meaningful" experiences?
 
pfaction said:
If I worked in four labs, all non-paid, should I save space and list them all at once with descriptions, or separate everything with descriptions?

Also, I worked at a convienence store (high school), hardware store (college), then community pharmacy (2009-present) and a hospital pharmacy (quit in 2011). How could I group all this together?

Lastly, I volunteered at a hospital from high school until I got hired. However, the hours come out to 180 hours over 260 weeks...so do I put 0.7 hours/week?
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No, because you must have missed weeks. Remove the number of weeks that you did not volunteer. If you did 1/shift per week on weeks that you did volunteer, put down the number of hours in a shift. If it was one shift every 2 weeks, divide by 2, but if you took the summers off, remove those weeks.

If you're not sure the number of weeks you volunteered, then estimate.
 
I definitely did. I was there only during the summer times when college started.
 
When putting down contact information for ECs/activities, is it kosher to put yourself as the contact for the ECs?

Sorry if this has been addressed already.
 
Revolver1045 said:
This may be a stupid question, but could you list just going to school as an activity? Furthermore, could you list it as a most meaningful one? I'm just curious because we live, eat and breathe school as premeds. Not just studying, but also intramurals/sports, clubs, hanging out with friends etc. In my opinion this is a major activity. The school you go to shapes who you are as a person (for some more than others) and I think college in general would be ranked as a top 3 most meaningful experience in anyone's book, whether they were premed or not. Unless you can list it as an activity there is no real spot on the application where you can talk about your college experience. I mean I guess you could in the PS, but I don't want to rehash that (also already have a better idea for what I'm going to write), and I guess you could write about individual aspects of it in the activities section, but it still would not be addressing the college experience as a whole. Thoughts?
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It's common to see something like this done for study abroad experiences, so I don't see any reason you couldn't do it for the US college experience as a whole. I've never seen it done, but if handled right, it could help you stand out.
 
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notbobtrustme said:
When putting down contact information for ECs/activities, is it kosher to put yourself as the contact for the ECs?

Sorry if this has been addressed already.
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For activities like hobbies and artistic endeavors, it's not uncommon to see this. Does the activity you have in mind fall outside those categories?
 
Catalystik said:
For activities like hobbies and artistic endeavors, it's not uncommon to see this. Does the activity you have in mind fall outside those categories?
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I'm a landlord and I managed the family business after my dad died. I could put my brother down for either of those, but he's kind of sketchy as ****.
 
pfaction said:
1) If I worked in four labs, all non-paid, should I save space and list them all at once with descriptions, or separate everything with descriptions?

2) Also, I worked at a convienence store (high school), hardware store (college), then community pharmacy (2009-present) and a hospital pharmacy (quit in 2011). How could I group all this together?

3) Lastly, I volunteered at a hospital from high school until I got hired. However, the hours come out to 180 hours over 260 weeks...so do I put 0.7 hours/week?
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EnergyDrink said:
3) No, because you must have missed weeks. Remove the number of weeks that you did not volunteer. If you did 1/shift per week on weeks that you did volunteer, put down the number of hours in a shift. If it was one shift every 2 weeks, divide by 2, but if you took the summers off, remove those weeks.

If you're not sure the number of weeks you volunteered, then estimate.
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pfaction said:
3) I definitely did. I was there only during the summer times when college started.
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1) If you plan to apply to research-oriented schools, it would be preferred that you list each research experience separately. If you were forced to group them due to space limitations, you'd want to put separate info for each situation in the narrative. That would be hard to fit.

2) Don't include the HS job. Put the hardware store on its own or with other short-term jobs. I'd group the pharmacy stuff since t's more relevant to med school, with the more substantive one in the header and similar info about the second in the narrative, highlighting the patient interaction/education components in the description.

3) Put in the date span, but don't fill in the hours per week. Put the total hours in the narrative and explain thast it was intermittent, or call it Summer Hospital Transporter, or somesuch to make that evident.
 
notbobtrustme said:
When putting down contact information for ECs/activities, is it kosher to put yourself as the contact for the ECs?
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notbobtrustme said:
I'm a landlord and I managed the family business after my dad died. I could put my brother down for either of those, but he's kind of sketchy as ****.
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What about using mom or a reliable tenant to vouch for you? If those don't work, then yes, use yourself.
 
Thanks catalystic! I'll leave the conv store out, leaving just the hardware. How should I group the pharmacy stuff though? I worked at community from 02/09 - present, and hospital from 08/10 - 04/11.

I just have two more questions for right now:


I tutored subjects Immunology, Organic Chem, Biochem to PA students as well as pharmacy students outside the official tutoring session. Should I list their contact numbers within the description?

Okay finally: how are we supposed to list what we did in the activity? Is it line-by-line like in the first post, or is it paragraph-ish format?

Example: .1) .Walgreens: Pharmacy Intern – 02/09 – Present. Hours/week: 8.
Responsibilities: Counseling patients, transcribing doctor calls, making compounds, filling prescriptions, handling insurance issues. Working in a community pharmacy is integral to both my education in pharmacy and experience interacting with patients. It has also given me perspective into the business side of medicine.
 
pfaction said:
1) Thanks catalystic! I'll leave the conv store out, leaving just the hardware. How should I group the pharmacy stuff though? I worked at community from 02/09 - present, and hospital from 08/10 - 04/11.

2) I tutored subjects Immunology, Organic Chem, Biochem to PA students as well as pharmacy students outside the official tutoring session. Should I list their contact numbers within the description?

3) Okay finally: how are we supposed to list what we did in the activity? Is it line-by-line like in the first post, or is it paragraph-ish format?

Example: .1) .Walgreens: Pharmacy Intern – 02/09 – Present. Hours/week: 8.
Responsibilities: Counseling patients, transcribing doctor calls, making compounds, filling prescriptions, handling insurance issues. Working in a community pharmacy is integral to both my education in pharmacy and experience interacting with patients. It has also given me perspective into the business side of medicine.
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1) Since it's two different locations and contacts: List the longer-to present pharmacy gig in the header with all its information, using only those hours per week. Describe it in the narrative. Then saying, "Other pharmacy experience" give all the same info for the second job: date span, average hours per week, location, contact into, job description . . . They would be better listed apart, but ya gotta do, what ya gotta do.

2) Just pick one tutee for each subject.

3) Use bullets or narrative style, as seems to best present the information so it's easily readable.
 
can you copy and paste from something like word for this section without getting weirdly reformatted?

if not, can you copy and paste from a plain text program without getting weird formats?
 
Thanks a lot catalystic!

Just want to verify I'm doing it right:

Experience type: Paid employment, non-military.
Experience name: Pharmacy Intern.
Start date/end date: 02/2009 - Present.
Average hours / week: 8

[this is true for the hospital; however I started out working 24 hrs/week in community but as of last year it's been 8, so I guess I'll just leave it 8 - but what do you think? I think that working 24 hours a week initially was really hard and my grades did suffer]

Contact: Community Pharmacy supervisor
Experience:
Walgreens: Pharmacy Intern – 02/09 – Present. Hours/week: 8. Responsibilities: Counseling patients, handling doctor calls, making compounds, filling prescriptions, handling insurance issues. Working in a community pharmacy is integral to both my education in pharmacy and experience directly interacting with patients. Building trust and communicating effectively is important in the healthcare provider-patient relationship, both of which I have gained experience in while working. It has has also given me perspective into the business side of medicine by dealing with insurance companies and delegating medications based on diagnosis codes.

[Hospital]: Pharmacy Intern – 08/10 – 04/11. Hours/week: 8. Location: [place], Contact: Hospital director. Responsibilities: Filling prescriptions, labeling IV's, delivering medications to the floors. When delivering medication to the floors, I would often speak with doctors about the patients and review medications ordered.Working at [hospital] allowed me to handle medications not commonly seen in outpatient settings, encounter patients from their point of admittance rather than an endpoint of care, and gain an insight into how the hospital system effectively works.
 
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medhopeful12 said:
can you copy and paste from something like word for this section without getting weirdly reformatted?

if not, can you copy and paste from a plain text program without getting weird formats?
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The AMCAS instructions warn against using something like Word:


Applicants who plan to cut and paste their essays into the application should draft their essays in a plain text format, preferably in text-only word processing software, such as Microsoft Notepad. Copying formatted text into the application may result in formatting issues that cannot be edited after your application is submitted. AMCAS is not responsible for any errors caused by copying and pasting your essay.
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p69: https://www.aamc.org/students/download/182162/data/amcas_instruction_manual.pdf
 
Hey guys if a publication has been accepted by the journal but not yet printed, what does one put for the publication date? I assume most people use the name of their paper for the experience title?

Also what do you put in for hours? I thought that that would just go in the corresponding research experience.
 
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ohioguy said:
1) Hey guys if a publication has been accepted by the journal but not yet printed, what does one put for the publication date?

2) I assume most people use the name of their paper for the experience title?

3) Also what do you put in for hours? I thought that that would just go in the corresponding research experience.
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1) It's OK to enter the acceptance date (said an AMCAS rep on the phone).

2) The experience title could be something like "Third Authorship on Nature Article" or "Journal Article Acceptance in Journal of XXXX," or "Publication" (though repetitive) or whatever. [Only 60 characters fit in the Experience Name blank, so a lot of paper's titles won't fit there anyway]. In the narrative, cite the paper properly, saying "in press." You want to be sure it can be found in PubMed if it's looked for.

3) Don't fill in the hours as they are already in the affiliated Research entry.
 
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My current employment is certainly something I want to put on my application since it's a mid-level engineering job, but my med school ambitions need to stay confidential for now. Any advice on what to do about contact name & phone number/e-mail?
 
Bobby23 said:
My current employment is certainly something I want to put on my application since it's a mid-level engineering job, but my med school ambitions need to stay confidential for now. Any advice on what to do about contact name & phone number/e-mail?
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What about using a coworker who's a friend? Or a friend who is not a coworker but can attest to your dates of employment? The contact is not meant to be used for other than confirmation of the activity.
 
Catalystik said:
What about using a coworker who's a friend? Or a friend who is not a coworker but can attest to your dates of employment? The contact is not meant to be used for other than confirmation of the activity.
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Thanks Cat! I assumed it was similar to employment applications where they want your manager/boss so they can verify that you're a hard worker. I'm not quite to that level of trust with coworkers yet and most of my friends are coworkers. Can I use my wife as the contact or is that taboo? There is one lady at work I could trust if a coworker would be viewed as a much better contact, but if it doesn't really matter I'd prefer not to go that route...

Thanks again, Cat!
 
Hey guys, I just had a quick question. If I want to use one entry to list all of my academic achievements (Grants, Dean's List, Awards, ext) Who should I put in as my contact person?

Also, if I am writing about a research experience, should I spend time writing about the experience or should I use that space for any publications I might have from it, or would you recommend publications to be a separate entry?

Thanks!
 
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Bobby23 said:
Can I use my wife as the contact or is that taboo? There is one lady at work I could trust if a coworker would be viewed as a much better contact, but if it doesn't really matter I'd prefer not to go that route...
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I understand the need for confidentiality, so use your wife, but maybe put a note at the bottom of the narrative about the confidentiality issue as the reason.
 
Catalystik said:
I understand the need for confidentiality, so use your wife, but maybe put a note at the bottom of the narrative about the confidentiality issue as the reason.
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Thanks so much for the help, Cat!
 
Hey guys!

Quick question about the work that is going in my work experience activity. Throughout undergrad I worked.....alot. There was a time I held down 4 part time jobs while going to school full time. However, there were also times when I was only working two part time jobs while going to school. Because listing each of these activites would take up alot of slots, I'm going to lump them all into one activity slot. How do you guys recommend doing the "average hours per week" box for all of the work experience? Should I do a range (example 5-45 hours) or something else? Thanks!
 
Hi, I have a few questions as well... they are about LORs but as this is an active forum about filling out applications, I figured I shouldn't make a new thread.

1) Is there a difference in the way that a LOR is presented? I had a significant experience not related to my university that has an LOR to go with it and my pre-med committee suggested that I put the LOR into the letter packet through my college. When AdComs are reading LORs, does it matter if an LOR is in a letter packet through the college or an individual letter? Does it hold more weight if it is in either category?

2) I tutored a high schooler in biology (private work, paid) for six months during my senior year. I know that I could get a great LOR from the kid's father because he really liked my work with her and I helped bring her grades from a C- to an A. Would this kind of LOR (with descriptions of my personality, work ethic, teaching abilities, etc.) help, even though it is from a really informal place? He could use letterhead--but it would be irrelevant to the work that I did, which was at his home. Does this make sense? (It would likely go to my Pre-medical committee as well.

Thanks for any feedback!

Best,
C
 
my biggest problem is i have a lot of posters/abstracts at conferences. The 700 character limit really screws me because I have to waste a lot of "experiences" on these things. I wanted to put them in the description of research, but I dont have enough space to list all of the conferences/posters/abstracts in the description part of the research.

What would you guys recommend?
 
Catalystik, I just want to thank you for your help over the last few years. Although I haven't posted often, I follow your advice and have had many things answered through other's questions. You are so kind to help all of us and it is truly appreciated. I still have some questions though!

How do I handle the experience name vs. organization. For a free clinic, what do I put for each? It seems the same. What about for shadowing, for hobbies, for research? Seems odd and I'm uncertain. Thank-you again!
 
hopefulMD9 said:
Quick question about the work that is going in my work experience activity. Throughout undergrad I worked.....alot. There was a time I held down 4 part time jobs while going to school full time. However, there were also times when I was only working two part time jobs while going to school. Because listing each of these activites would take up alot of slots, I'm going to lump them all into one activity slot. How do you guys recommend doing the "average hours per week" box for all of the work experience? Should I do a range (example 5-45 hours) or something else? Thanks!
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You aren't allowed to enter a range in the hours per week slot. You might average it all out to what you did over an entire year and put that in, or enter nothing and explain in the narrative (where you can put ranges). See sector9's example for grouped employment in post #2 under item 4.
 
Sasha3 said:
my biggest problem is i have a lot of posters/abstracts at conferences. The 700 character limit really screws me because I have to waste a lot of "experiences" on these things. I wanted to put them in the description of research, but I dont have enough space to list all of the conferences/posters/abstracts in the description part of the research.

What would you guys recommend?
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It might help to know that you should only give one full entry for each time the same data was presented. If you presented a similar poster at three conferences, you'd only list the most prestigious (though you would say afterward that the same data was presented at X, Y, and Z while giving dates and conference names). And if you published the data, that would represent the most prestigious presentation of the data, so you would mention the posters in that same slot, not listing them separately. If you presented at a student or campus-run symposium, you could leave that out completely.

If all else fails, you'll have to pick the most impressive and leave the others out.
 
no beans said:
1) How do I handle the experience name vs. organization. For a free clinic, what do I put for each? It seems the same.
2) What about for shadowing, for hobbies, for research? Seems odd and I'm uncertain.
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1) Organization would be the name of the clinic or the sponsoring organization. The title you give it might be "Medical Assistant" or "General Medical Aide at XXX Clinic," as that is your role.

2)a. For shadowing, you'd probably name it "Physician Shadowing." and list the organization as the office/hospital where the physician you shadowed longest works. For other physicians listed, it's sufficient to have name specialty, date span, total hours, contact info in the narrative.
b. For Hobbies, name it Leisuretime Activities, and list the organization where you work out, or the place you took a lesson, or any one place that is official, then put all the others in the same space without mentioning an organization.
c. For research, your school can be the organization, or you can say Dr Smith Lab. Or the title could reflect that, instead: "Research Assistant (or Researcher, or Aide, or Asociates) in the Dr Smith Lab."
 
catzzz88 said:
Hi, I have a few questions as well... they are about LORs but as this is an active forum about filling out applications, I figured I shouldn't make a new thread.

1) Is there a difference in the way that a LOR is presented? I had a significant experience not related to my university that has an LOR to go with it and my pre-med committee suggested that I put the LOR into the letter packet through my college. When AdComs are reading LORs, does it matter if an LOR is in a letter packet through the college or an individual letter? Does it hold more weight if it is in either category?

2) I tutored a high schooler in biology (private work, paid) for six months during my senior year. I know that I could get a great LOR from the kid's father because he really liked my work with her and I helped bring her grades from a C- to an A. Would this kind of LOR (with descriptions of my personality, work ethic, teaching abilities, etc.) help, even though it is from a really informal place? He could use letterhead--but it would be irrelevant to the work that I did, which was at his home. Does this make sense? (It would likely go to my Pre-medical committee as well.
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There is a dedicated thread for LOR questions. I can't give you a universal perspective and am offering personal opinion. With that disclaimer:
1) When a letter packet comes with a cover letter from a committee, adcomms may not read the individual included letters, trusting the cover letter to summarize the important points. A separate letter or a letter in a bundle without a cover letter would carry equal weight.

2) It sounds like this would be an Employment letter and would be of value if addressing what you suggest it would. If you want it to have more weight because it will be an incredibly terrific letter, then submit it separately, rather than to the committee. But if you do this, you might not be able to have it sent to a school where you've already exceeded their maximum allowed letters.
 
Catalystik said:
1) Organization would be the name of the clinic or the sponsoring organization. The title you give it might be "Medical Assistant" or "General Medical Aide at XXX Clinic," as that is your role.

2)a. For shadowing, you'd probably name it "Physician Shadowing." and list the organization as the office/hospital where the physician you shadowed longest works. For other physicians listed, it's sufficient to have name specialty, date span, total hours, contact info in the narrative.
b. For Hobbies, name it Leisuretime Activities, and list the organization where you work out, or the place you took a lesson, or any one place that is official, then put all the others in the same space without mentioning an organization.
c. For research, your school can be the organization, or you can say Dr Smith Lab. Or the title could reflect that, instead: "Research Assistant (or Researcher, or Aide, or Asociates) in the Dr Smith Lab."
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Thanks so much for clearing that up, Catalystik!:love:
 
1. The two jobs I had in college were a paid bio tutor (~1 year) and intramural sports ref (~4months). I originally put the ref under "employment" and the tutor under "teaching/tutoring" to balance out my app. I've also been a paid research assistant but I'm making that it's own activity (and making it most meaningful). But now I'm thinking that having reffing as its own slot is going to look like i'm just trying to fluff out my application (since I only did for 4 months). Should I keep it as is, or group the reffing and tutoring as "employment" and make the title be "employment/tutoring", explaining that part of that activity includes teaching?

2. what is the general consensus on the 15 slots? If I keep it as is I will have all 15 slots filled so I technically could do it, but is having all 15 slots filled usually looked at as filler unless they are all really legitimate activities that deserve their own slots?

3. When grouping activities what is the best to do for contacts and time-periods. List one contact even though they can't attest to the other activities in that group? And for time periods?
 
stoutt said:
1. The two jobs I had in college were a paid bio tutor (~1 year) and intramural sports ref (~4months). I originally put the ref under "employment" and the tutor under "teaching/tutoring" to balance out my app. I've also been a paid research assistant but I'm making that it's own activity (and making it most meaningful). But now I'm thinking that having reffing as its own slot is going to look like i'm just trying to fluff out my application (since I only did for 4 months). Should I keep it as is, or group the reffing and tutoring as "employment" and make the title be "employment/tutoring", explaining that part of that activity includes teaching?

2. what is the general consensus on the 15 slots? If I keep it as is I will have all 15 slots filled so I technically could do it, but is having all 15 slots filled usually looked at as filler unless they are all really legitimate activities that deserve their own slots?

3. When grouping activities what is the best to do for contacts and time-periods. List one contact even though they can't attest to the other activities in that group? And for time periods?
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1. The tutoring and the refereeing should be listed separately.

For the refereeing, list it as employment and use the text box to explain the nature of the job.

2. Doesn't particularly matter if all are filled or not.

3. Just list one contact, and don't worry if they can't attest for you for every time period in existence. Alternatively, you can list yourself as the contact if that would be easier - LizzyM has reported previously that she has not seen anyone penalized for this.
 
Hey Tantacles, can you help me out while Catalystic's away.


  1. Am I doing it right: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showpost.php?p=12462955&postcount=222
    I'm just really confused as to how we're supposed to list and describe things. This is going to be a "most meaningful" event for me so I want to make sure it's really good.
  2. For shadowing, should we list both primary care and hospital shadowing together if they were done in similar times, listing the one with more hours first, then separate the other one under the first with contact information and such. I have descriptions I'm typing of both, but they only come out to a few lines each. Not sure how to embellish on this but I'll try, do you have an recommendations.
  3. One month prior to, and continued while shadowing a doctor in outpatient, I helped the nurse triage patients into their rooms. Not sure if this counts as community service or not. How would I list these hours? I did both when shadowing with the doctor. First I would accompany them to their room, with the nurse, the nurse would do the CC, then I would go to the doctor with the file, we would review it and go to the patient.
  4. Thanks for helping me out in the other topic.
 
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Is it okay to leve hours/week blank on certain activities? One of my activities is "academic recognition" which includes awards honors etc., obviously there were no hours associated w/ this activity so is it okay to leave it blank? Also I'm titling an activity "extracurriculars/artistic endeavors" and including hiking, backpacking, guitar etc. I've been doing these activities most of my life so should I make the start date~ 2001, and just leave the hours/week blank? Or should I really try to think about how many hours/week are participate in these activities?
 
stoutt said:
1) Is it okay to leve hours/week blank on certain activities? One of my activities is "academic recognition" which includes awards honors etc., obviously there were no hours associated w/ this activity so is it okay to leave it blank?

2) Also I'm titling an activity "extracurriculars/artistic endeavors" and including hiking, backpacking, guitar etc. I've been doing these activities most of my life so should I make the start date~ 2001, and just leave the hours/week blank? Or should I really try to think about how many hours/week are participate in these activities?
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1) Yes, and yes.

2) It would be better if the designation covers all the things included in a slot. Maybe picking Hobbies or Other would be better if you want to make those three activities fit together. Leave hours of the week blank and give an idea of degree of involvement for each activity in the narrative.
 
Thanks. I have so many red flags on my application, I just want one damn part to be "right". Thanks again.
 
pfaction said:
Hey Tantacles, can you help me out while Catalystic's away.


  1. Am I doing it right: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showpost.php?p=12462955&postcount=222
    I'm just really confused as to how we're supposed to list and describe things. This is going to be a "most meaningful" event for me so I want to make sure it's really good.
  2. For shadowing, should we list both primary care and hospital shadowing together if they were done in similar times, listing the one with more hours first, then separate the other one under the first with contact information and such. I have descriptions I'm typing of both, but they only come out to a few lines each. Not sure how to embellish on this but I'll try, do you have an recommendations.
  3. One month prior to, and continued while shadowing a doctor in outpatient, I helped the nurse triage patients into their rooms. Not sure if this counts as community service or not. How would I list these hours? I did both when shadowing with the doctor. First I would accompany them to their room, with the nurse, the nurse would do the CC, then I would go to the doctor with the file, we would review it and go to the patient.
Click to expand...
1) If you want a proofreader, I'll leave it to Tantacles, as that would be outside the scope of this thread.
2) See previous response in post #248.
3) Maybe list it under nurse shadowing as an addendum to the physician shadowing, with the hours separated out.
 
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