*~*~*~*Official AMCAS Work/Activities Tips Thread 2016-2017*~*~*~*

[mdog2015]

It depends on the experience. Give me some examples with hours.

40 hours of volunteering?
20 hours of TA?
30 hours of tutoring college-level course?

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[Judson]

If these places are contacted, they will only be asked to confirm your dates of employment and work hours, not to give a reference. Still , information might be offered voluntarily that would not reflect well, so if you were fired for some egregious reason, you might want to leave it off the list. Applebees main corporate headquarters should have an Employee Resource Office that would have your employment records (if the local one doesn't) and so would your campus Office of Student Employment (or whatever they might be called, so you can still provide Contact info for them.

You can group the four that will not be listed elsewhere under an Employment slot you name, perhaps, Short-Term (or Seasonal) Employment in the College Years. Use the most recent (or longest term) for the info in the header. Give similar information for the others in the narrative space, plus a subtotal of hours. Little description is needed if the employee role is intuitive. Since Campus Security Guard is a position of trust, you might want to go into that one more. Rather than a narrative, you may use bullets, if you prefer. For the Total Hours box, add up all the subtotals. If you have further quetsions, let me know.

Thank you so much! This is exactly the information I was looking for!

 

[Catalystik]

40 hours of volunteering?
20 hours of TA?
30 hours of tutoring college-level course?

-For the 40 hours, what type of volunteering, clinical or nonclinical, and do you have anything else in the same category?

-20 hours as TA is on the low side. Is this ongoing?

-The 30 hours of tutoring is fine. Will this and TA be under Teaching, Volunteer, or Employment?

 

[mdog2015]

-For the 40 hours, what type of volunteering, clinical or nonclinical, and do you have anything else in the same category?

-20 hours as TA is on the low side. Is this ongoing?

-The 30 hours of tutoring is fine. Will this and TA be under Teaching, Volunteer, or Employment?

The 40 hours is at a dog shelter I did sophomore year (I also have 80 hours clinical volunteer at a cancer center). I wanted to add this because I really love dogs and would have continued if not for more important extracurriculars taking up my time.

The 20 hours was for a freshman biology class during one quarter (2 hrs a week). I also received TA credit on my transcript for this.

I have the 30 hours tutoring under teaching right now (I have 2 volunteer experiences and 2 employment already).

 

[Catalystik]

1) The 40 hours is at a dog shelter I did sophomore year I wanted to add this because I really love dogs and would have continued if not for more important extracurriculars taking up my time.

2) (I also have 80 hours clinical volunteer at a cancer center).

3) The 20 hours was for a freshman biology class during one quarter (2 hrs a week). I also received TA credit on my transcript for this.

4) I have the 30 hours tutoring under teaching right now (I have 2 volunteer experiences and 2 employment already).

1) is fine, but 2) is on the low side if it's your only active clinical experience. Do you have more through Employment, Other, and/or Shadowing?

Normally, I'd suggest listing the two Teaching gigs 3) & 4) in one space, to make the total hours stronger, but as you have lots of slots left, leave them separate.

 

[mdog2015]

1) is fine, but 2) is on the low side if it's your only active clinical experience. Do you have more through Employment, Other, and/or Shadowing?

Normally, I'd suggest listing the two Teaching gigs 3) & 4) in one space, to make the total hours stronger, but as you have lots of slots left, leave them separate.

I have also scribed in the ER for 1.5 years, ~950 hours so far.

I am currently using only 9 slots, so I'll leave them separate. Thanks for the advice so far

 

[pre-med444]

deleted

 

[DingDongD]

If i created a mobile app to help patients, can I consider it no n clinical volunteering? When I was shadowing, I noticed a problem and created an app. I even won awards for it. I don't have many volunteering hours.

 

[Catalystik]

I have also scribed in the ER for 1.5 years, ~950 hours so far.

Excellent.

 

[Catalystik]

I'm getting started with my work and activities section. I thought I would throw in what i have so far and I would love your guys feedback.

The type of feedback you want is outside the scope of this thread, and while others are welcome to comment, I highly recommend you remove most of your post before someone quotes it and makes it potentially available for copying for the next ten years. Some folks are just too busy to create their own unique entries.

 

[Catalystik]

If i created a mobile app to help patients, can I consider it no n clinical volunteering? When I was shadowing, I noticed a problem and created an app. I even won awards for it. I don't have many volunteering hours.

I suggest listing it under Honors/Awards, making it clear that you gave your time to help others via the title and narrative.

And yes, if you prefer it could be a Volunteer - Not Medical/Clinical entry instead.

 

[allofthegood]

Hi! I'm hoping to get some advice on listing a clinical activity. I volunteered in a hospital during high school and recently started volunteering there again this year. I want to list this experience as clinical volunteering and include my hours from high school mainly just to show continuity but I'm a bit uncertain if my high school hours count as clinical. Now I mainly bring patients books/other entertainment options and play music for them but during high school I mostly worked in the hospital pharmacy. The part of my pharmacy experience that I think makes it clinical is that I was also responsible for greeting patients that came to pick up their medications, letting the pharmacists know who was here, and generally making small talk and making the patients feel more comfortable while waiting for their medications. I feel like this is similar to what volunteers often do at hospital front desks, etc so would this also count as clinical? I know adcoms don't really care about high school stuff, but again I mostly just want to include it to show continuity.

 

[HotGlueGun1]

1. What is the protocol for entering pending publications? I know the finalized name and list of authors but the other parts of the citation are not known yet. Can this still be entered as a publication or should I mention it in the research lab entry? My PI said it should be published sometime in June, but I cannot enter June 2016 yet for the date in AMCAS entries.

2. In the experience description for publications and posters/presentations we should include a short blurb about the work rather than just the citation correct? I briefly described the projects in my "research lab" entries but it would be better to describe it great detail yes? Some other people have told just to enter the citation so I am a little confused as that seems very bare bones.

 

[Catalystik]

Hi! I'm hoping to get some advice on listing a clinical activity. I volunteered in a hospital during high school and recently started volunteering there again this year. I want to list this experience as clinical volunteering and include my hours from high school mainly just to show continuity but I'm a bit uncertain if my high school hours count as clinical. Now I mainly bring patients books/other entertainment options and play music for them but during high school I mostly worked in the hospital pharmacy. The part of my pharmacy experience that I think makes it clinical is that I was also responsible for greeting patients that came to pick up their medications, letting the pharmacists know who was here, and generally making small talk and making the patients feel more comfortable while waiting for their medications. I feel like this is similar to what volunteers often do at hospital front desks, etc so would this also count as clinical? I know adcoms don't really care about high school stuff, but again I mostly just want to include it to show continuity.

I think you can legitimately count the HS hospital pharmacy greeting experience as "clinical" though adcomms will generally think of it as relatively weak compared to what they are looking for (regardless of whether that is a correct perception in an individual case). Since you have continued at the same location during the college years, including the HS dates is fine. I suggest using the Repeated function to show the two date spans and related number of Total Hours. Be sure to highlight the patient interactions while at the pharmacy location.

 

[Catalystik]

1. What is the protocol for entering pending publications? I know the finalized name and list of authors but the other parts of the citation are not known yet. Can this still be entered as a publication or should I mention it in the research lab entry? My PI said it should be published sometime in June, but I cannot enter June 2016 yet for the date in AMCAS entries.

2. In the experience description for publications and posters/presentations we should include a short blurb about the work rather than just the citation correct? I briefly described the projects in my "research lab" entries but it would be better to describe it great detail yes? Some other people have told just to enter the citation so I am a little confused as that seems very bare bones.

Thank you for numbering your questions:

1) Please clarify: Is this a manuscript pending acceptance or an accepted article with a known publication date, but you don't know the exact details? Usually one knows more detail when one's article will appear in print in less than one month. I can better answer your question with more detail.

2) Just the citation is adequate in a Publications or a Posters/Presentations space. All the detail about the related research generally goes in the related Research entry. If you need more space (maybe for insights gained or impact) you could write more after the citation, but be sure the Research description can stand alone, as the two entries won't probably be side-by-side in the adcomm's view of your application. If I want to refer back to an applicant's research narrative, I won't be looking at every entry to find pieces of the story. I will be looking only for a Research space.

 

[deleted388502]

As a teach for america corps member, I am employed by a school but I want to make sure that I have visibility on the fact that It is also a significant volunteer experience as it is an AmeriCorps program. Should I list Teach for America as the activity and describe it as a community service position or should I got the "paid employment route" and list my employer/my teaching position and describe TFA as the mechanism through which I received the job?

 

[Catalystik]

As a teach for america corps member, I am employed by a school but I want to make sure that I have visibility on the fact that It is also a significant volunteer experience as it is an AmeriCorps program. Should I list Teach for America as the activity and describe it as a community service position or should I got the "paid employment route" and list my employer/my teaching position and describe TFA as the mechanism through which I received the job?

Teach for America is widely understood to be a Community Service activity, even though a salary is provided. Americorps is looked at similarly, though it's my understanding that it is stipended (no taxes paid), rather than salaried. So you could categorize it either way, and it shouldn't matter, but if you want to be sure that a new, not-yet-in-the-know adcomm member gets it straight, then use Community Service. Explaining the TFA mechanism is a good idea for the same reason.

 

[raca1111]

@Catalystik Thank you! Also, wait so if we have done 3 projects with the same PI, do we list them as 3 different activities? I just don't know how I can fit them all under one umbrella. I think this was asked before but wasn't explicitly answered?

 

[Catalystik]

@Catalystikso if we have done 3 projects with the same PI, do we list them as 3 different activities? I just don't know how I can fit them all under one umbrella. I think this was asked before but wasn't explicitly answered?

It isn't a yes or no answer. You may list them in three spaces. Or you could make it MM, to have more space. Or you could put the two oldest/briefest/least productive ones in one space and the most interesting/most recent/most productive/longest in its own spot. Any of these decisions is fine.

 

[mdog2015]

1. What is the protocol for entering pending publications? I know the finalized name and list of authors but the other parts of the citation are not known yet. Can this still be entered as a publication or should I mention it in the research lab entry? My PI said it should be published sometime in June, but I cannot enter June 2016 yet for the date in AMCAS entries.

I am in the same situation...my pub won't be accepted until late June/early July. I asked my PI to mention it in his letter of rec which I think is better than just listing it in the research section!

 

[raca1111]

@Catalystik I don't think I want to use it as my most meaningful to be honest. I think it would probably be better to have them separated into two entries since I can group them into 2 projects each of around 500 hours

 

[ChrisMack390]

@Catalystik I know there are some options, but I'm wondering if you have a preferred way of dealing with # of hours for activities that can't be reasonably estimated. Specifically I'm wondering about playing the guitar and cooking, both of which I have done for countless hours over a span of 10+ years.

 

[Catalystik]

@Catalystik I know there are some options, but I'm wondering if you have a preferred way of dealing with # of hours for activities that can't be reasonably estimated. Specifically I'm wondering about playing the guitar and cooking, both of which I have done for countless hours over a span of 10+ years.

Enter a 99, 999, or 9999 for number of hours and say somewhere in the narrative that the true hours are unknowable. For Hobbies, no one is going to second guess you, since the number of hours doesn't matter. What matters is that it's important to you and that you have stress-relieving leisure-time activities.

 

[HouseofStrawberry]

Thank you for answering questions on this thread. I went through all the previous posts on here and the information provided have been immensely helpful to me as I worked on this section of the application. There were a few remaining questions and I would greatly appreciate any time you could give to answer these.

1. I am thinking of making two categories of awards that I’ve received and would greatly appreciate any feedback on how I listed these:
   1. Academic Recognition - Honors/Awards/Recognitions
      1. 10K Scholarship/yr (awarded as a current student)
      2. Barry Goldwater Honorable Mention
      3. Tuition Award and Supplemental Grant ($16,000) to cover all expenses for study abroad program)
      4. Dean’s List
   2. Research-Related Recognitions - Honors/Awards/Recognitions
      1. Travel Grant ($500)
      2. Recognized as Top 15 Undergrad Poster Presenter at a national conference
      3. Research Award ($3,500) - gives me money and housing to do research at my university
      4. Full Scholarship to attend a 1 wk research training course
2. I was thinking that maybe I should put Barry Goldwater Honorable Mention in its own slot, but I am also short on slots so I thought that I should group it with other academic recognitions; I would greatly appreciate your thoughts on this!
   
   
3. Should I list the research award if I declined it? I declined the $3,500 research award as I was also awarded the scholarship to attend a study abroad program; both opportunities were amazing but I wanted an opportunity to study abroad
   
   
4. I have an award that I received that doesn’t seem to fall into either of the two slots I made for awards; my team and I won 10K in prizes for creating an app in a competition-I’m not sure whether to sneak it into one of the 2 slots or maybe just mention that I got this award in my Hobbies section where I will talk about my activities as a designer

Thank you so much for your time! I greatly appreciate your guidance.

 

[Catalystik]

I would greatly appreciate any time you could give to answer these.

1. I am thinking of making two categories of awards that I’ve received and would greatly appreciate any feedback on how I listed these:
   1. Academic Recognition - Honors/Awards/Recognitions
      1. 10K Scholarship/yr (awarded as a current student)
      2. Barry Goldwater Honorable Mention
      3. Tuition Award and Supplemental Grant ($16,000) to cover all expenses for study abroad program)
      4. Dean’s List
   2. Research-Related Recognitions - Honors/Awards/Recognitions
      1. Travel Grant ($500)
      2. Recognized as Top 15 Undergrad Poster Presenter at a national conference
      3. Research Award ($3,500) - gives me money and housing to do research at my university
      4. Full Scholarship to attend a 1 wk research training course
2. I was thinking that maybe I should put Barry Goldwater Honorable Mention in its own slot, but I am also short on slots so I thought that I should group it with other academic recognitions; I would greatly appreciate your thoughts on this!
   
   
3. Should I list the research award if I declined it? I declined the $3,500 research award as I was also awarded the scholarship to attend a study abroad program; both opportunities were amazing but I wanted an opportunity to study abroad

4. I have an award that I received that doesn’t seem to fall into either of the two slots I made for awards; my team and I won 10K in prizes for creating an app in a competition-I’m not sure whether to sneak it into one of the 2 slots or maybe just mention that I got this award in my Hobbies section where I will talk about my activities as a designer

Thank you for numbering your questions.

1) Organizing your recognitions that way is fine. Be sure to add the criteria the monetary awards in #1 and how competitive they were. If either were based solely on HS work or on need, they don't belong there (there is another area of the application where you'll be asked how you paid for college). This should represent recognition of merit and they should be based on college work or service requirements, etc.

2) I think it's fine where it is, since you don't have space to spare. Maybe you'd want to put it first on the list? Deans list should stay last and can easily be removed if you need more space, since your GPAs speak for themselves.

3) As you declined it, I would not list it, but opinions may vary. If you decide to keep it, mention you did not use it.

4) Keeping mention of the $10K prize in the same space as the Hobby gives it context. Leave it there.

 

[illuminate7]

I was wondering if it would be appropriate to include in the work and activities section a portion of what I did abroad this most recent semester. I was in a core course which was taught by Danish physicians in a city hospital where we were exposed to a variety of clinical procedures including taking (real) patient history's and creating case reports, while also receiving exposure to the Danish Healthcare system as a whole. Additionally, I received direct exposure to various entities within both the Austrian and Hungarian health care systems (public/private hospitals, research centers, specialty/general practices etc.)

It was great clinical experience and exposure to both practice, and policy in systems that are quite different than our own. The only thing is that it doesn't really fit in any category besides "other".

Any thoughts? Thank you

 

[Catalystik]

I was wondering if it would be appropriate to include in the work and activities section a portion of what I did abroad this most recent semester. I was in a core course which was taught by Danish physicians in a city hospital where we were exposed to a variety of clinical procedures including taking (real) patient history's and creating case reports, while also receiving exposure to the Danish Healthcare system as a whole. Additionally, I received direct exposure to various entities within both the Austrian and Hungarian health care systems (public/private hospitals, research centers, specialty/general practices etc.)

It was great clinical experience and exposure to both practice, and policy in systems that are quite different than our own. The only thing is that it doesn't really fit in any category besides "other".

Yes, this activity is appropriate to include in the Activities section. "Other" is a fine category to use for a multifaceted experience, like Study Abroad Programs, curricular patient involvement, and Internships, all of which elements seem to be blended into this activity.

Use the Name you give the activity to clue in readers as to which elements you feel are most important.

Feel free to carve out any special elements that have sufficient hours to stand on their own, if you want more space for discussion.

 

[illuminate7]

Perfect, thank you so much for the response Catalystik- it helps immensely!

I also have one more question, forgive me for not including it in my previous post. I'm having a little trouble piecing out my research involvement within the sections/ how to split up the hours. I have been doing research for a couple of semesters, and will continue with my PI up until graduation . Additionally, I received a competitive research grant with salary to continue this research for 8 weeks this summer, where I will have a poster and presentation.

Under the research section (one of my most meaningful), would it be correct to also include the hours I'm required to complete this summer, and the hours I am expected to complete the next two semesters in the research section? (I understand future hours are in a little bit of a grey area) Subsequently, listing the grant itself under the Honors/Awards heading with the distinction of a poster/presentation.

Thank you again for your help!

 

[Astra]

For tutoring and TA activity titles, do u suggest I put the courses and subjects as well or just talk about the content in the description?

Ex. Unpaid tutoring

or

Unpaid Tutoring in Algebra, precalculus, trigonometry

 

[Catalystik]

I'm having a little trouble piecing out my research involvement within the sections/ how to split up the hours. I have been doing research for a couple of semesters, and will continue with my PI up until graduation . Additionally, I received a competitive research grant with salary to continue this research for 8 weeks this summer, where I will have a poster and presentation.

Under the research section (one of my most meaningful), would it be correct to also include the hours I'm required to complete this summer, and the hours I am expected to complete the next two semesters in the research section? (I understand future hours are in a little bit of a grey area) Subsequently, listing the grant itself under the Honors/Awards heading with the distinction of a poster/presentation.

Yes, you may include the future hours, so long as you distinguish between those already completed, and those yet to come. You can see a choice of options for doing so on page 3, post #137.

It's also fine to list the research grant, even though it's not in your pocket yet, so long as you have received an award letter and plan to engage in the program.

I'm not clear if you have already had an abstract accepted for a future poster presentation related to past research efforts or if presenting one is an expectation of summer program involvement. If the latter, the poster/presentation might be expected, but it hasn't yet happened, so refrain from mentioning it and save it for Secondary applications and future update letters.

 

[Catalystik]

For tutoring and TA activity titles, do u suggest I put the courses and subjects as well or just talk about the content in the description?

Ex. Unpaid tutoring

or

Unpaid Tutoring in Algebra, precalculus, trigonometry

Tutoring of (educational level) in Algebra, Trigonometry, and PreCalculus - Unpaid or
High School Tutoring of Algebra, Trigonometry, and PreCalculus - [Unpaid].

You have 63 characters to use, so give as much information as necessary to pique interest.

 

[Poetry]

Could someone give me some advice on how I should categorize my activity of working for my university's student-run newspaper as a reporter (20 months), copy editor (15 months), and section editor (6 months)?

I initially thought "paid employment" would be appropriate since I was in fact paid. However, I don't have any activities that I explicitly categorized as "leadership," so I wonder if I should put that down instead because of former section editor position. A friend suggested I list it under "Publications," but I thought that category is more geared toward science journal publications.

Edit: I plan on listing this activity as one entry, instead of dividing it up by position.

 

[Catalystik]

Could someone give me some advice on how I should categorize my activity of working for my university's student-run newspaper as a reporter (20 months), copy editor (15 months), and section editor (6 months)?

I initially thought "paid employment" would be appropriate since I was in fact paid. However, I don't have any activities that I explicitly categorized as "leadership," so I wonder if I should put that down instead because of former section editor position. A friend suggested I list it under "Publications," but I thought that category is more geared toward science journal publications.

If you want to have a "Leadership - Not Listed Elsewhere" activity, split out the dates and hours related to the time when you coordinated the efforts of others and took responsibility for the results, and list the rest ( which doesn't fall into that category) under either Employment, Teaching (if the education of readers was the general focus of your writing), or Artistic Endeavor (which writing for a wider audience represents).

You are correct that the Publications tag is not meant for most newspaper writing, unless you did investigative reporting (formed a theory, researched it, came to conclusions, and wrote them up for the paper).

 

[Poetry]

If you want to have a "Leadership - Not Listed Elsewhere" activity, split out the dates and hours related to the time when you coordinated the efforts of others and took responsibility for the results, and list the rest ( which doesn't fall into that category) under either Employment, Teaching (if the education of readers was the general focus of your writing), or Artistic Endeavor (which writing for a wider audience represents).

You are correct that the Publications tag is not meant for newspaper writing, unless you did investigative reporting (formed a theory, researched it, came to conclusions, and wrote them up for the paper).

Thank you so much for your helpful response!

 

[HotGlueGun1]

Thank you for numbering your questions:

1) Please clarify: Is this a manuscript pending acceptance or an accepted article with a known publication date, but you don't know the exact details? Usually one knows more detail when one's article will appear in print in less than one month. I can better answer your question with more detail.

2) Just the citation is adequate in a Publications or a Posters/Presentations space. All the detail about the related research generally goes in the related Research entry. If you need more space (maybe for insights gained or impact) you could write more after the citation, but be sure the Research description can stand alone, as the two entries won't probably be side-by-side in the adcomm's view of your application. If I want to refer back to an applicant's research narrative, I won't be looking at every entry to find pieces of the story. I will be looking only for a Research space.

Thanks for the information. Regarding point 1 I have clarified with my PI and the manuscript has been submitted for publication and we are waiting for the reviewers to submit their comments, so it has not been accepted yet. Do you think I would be better served discussing this in my research lab entry rather than entering it as a publication?

 

[CaffeineJunkie]

Hi again! I have grouped all four of my hospital volunteering gigs into a Most Significant activity. From what I understand, the Description box should be about my tasks and the Summary box should be about why this is most significant. Unfortunately, the logistics (contact info, hours, hospital name) of three of the hospitals takes up so much space in Description that I don't have room to describe tasks in more than one sentence. As such, I have a few questions about the best course of action:

1) Would it be appropriate to not describe one of the hospital gig's tasks if it's really self-explanatory (Info Desk) to save room? Or
2) Should I put only the logistics info in the Experience Description box and use the Experience Summary box to both describe tasks and talk about why it's meaningful?

3) If I go with option 2 (seems the most logical), should I format the Experience Summary by listing each hospital gig's tasks, follow by what I took away from each experience, and then end with big takeaways? Or is there another format that might work better?

Thanks!

 

[Catalystik]

Thanks for the information. Regarding point 1 I have clarified with my PI and the manuscript has been submitted for publication and we are waiting for the reviewers to submit their comments, so it has not been accepted yet. Do you think I would be better served discussing this in my research lab entry rather than entering it as a publication?

Yes, if you want to include it, mention the submitted manuscript in the Research entry. Do not enter it as a Publication unless an acceptance letter arrives before you submit your Primary AMCAS application.

 

[Catalystik]

Hi again! I have grouped all four of my hospital volunteering gigs into a Most Significant activity. From what I understand, the Description box should be about my tasks and the Summary box should be about why this is most significant. Unfortunately, the logistics (contact info, hours, hospital name) of three of the hospitals takes up so much space in Description that I don't have room to describe tasks in more than one sentence. As such, I have a few questions about the best course of action:

1) Would it be appropriate to not describe one of the hospital gig's tasks if it's really self-explanatory (Info Desk) to save room? Or
2) Should I put only the logistics info in the Experience Description box and use the Experience Summary box to both describe tasks and talk about why it's meaningful?

3) If I go with option 2 (seems the most logical), should I format the Experience Summary by listing each hospital gig's tasks, follow by what I took away from each experience, and then end with big takeaways? Or is there another format that might work better?

Thanks!

Your suggestion in choice 1 works fine.

You won't be the first to use the extra MM space creatively. It's fine for descriptive items to creep down into the expanded narrative box. Just be careful to come to the end of a paragraph before resuming in the second area. When it's printed out, it will just show a space, like a new paragraph, and a notation in the margin. So look at the PDF print view from the main menu to be sure nothing got cut off after the first 700 characters. The organization you describe in 2 &3 works fine, as does ending with big take aways.

 

[kiwifriend]

I'm past the character count for my shadowing section, and would love some help figuring out what I can cut. I'm trying to fit in an additional shadowing experience I had this week in a new specialty (8 hours). For each physician, I include their name, department, hospital, email address, dates, number of completed hours, and number of project hours (if applicable). I have about 60 hours of shadowing completed, but I have a few physicians that I have ongoing weekly shadowing planned for the next few months. Should I cut the project hours? Can I cut the hospital that they work at? Thanks!

 

[gonnif]

I'm past the character count for my shadowing section, and would love some help figuring out what I can cut. I'm trying to fit in an additional shadowing experience I had this week in a new specialty (8 hours). For each physician, I include their name, department, hospital, email address, dates, number of completed hours, and number of project hours (if applicable). I have about 60 hours of shadowing completed, but I have a few physicians that I have ongoing weekly shadowing planned for the next few months. Should I cut the project hours? Can I cut the hospital that they work at? Thanks!

May I suggest that a laundry list of that detailed info is not necessary but a brief discussion of the overall hours you shadowed, the variety of specialties, and what you learned from it may be more useful to a committee in evaluating your application

 

[CaffeineJunkie]

Your suggestion in choice 1 works fine.

You won't be the first to use the extra MM space creatively. It's fine for descriptive items to creep down into the expanded narrative box. Just be careful to come to the end of a paragraph before resuming in the second area. When it's printed out, it will just show a space, like a new paragraph, and a notation in the margin. So look at the PDF print view from the main menu to be sure nothing got cut off after the first 700 characters. The organization you describe in 2 &3 works fine, as does ending with big take aways.

Thanks for the reply. To clarify, do you mean that, as long as I make sure I end the first 700 characters with a complete sentence, I can begin describing the volunteering in the Description section and continue it into the Summary section prior to delving into why it's most meaningful?


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile app

 

[Catalystik]

Thanks for the reply. To clarify, do you mean that, as long as I make sure I end the first 700 characters with a complete sentence, I can begin describing the volunteering in the Description section and continue it into the Summary section prior to delving into why it's most meaningful?


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile app

Yes. But it should also be the end of a paragraph, since a line break is going to appear in the print form.

 

[CaffeineJunkie]

Yes. But it should also be the end of a paragraph, since a line break is going to appear in the print form.

Ah I see. So maybe after describing 3 of the experiences and right before the fourth?

Thanks so much!


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile app

 

[kiwifriend]

May I suggest that a laundry list of that detailed info is not necessary but a brief discussion of the overall hours you shadowed, the variety of specialties, and what you learned from it may be more useful to a committee in evaluating your application

Thanks for the feedback! Is it not important then for me to include the specific dates I shadowed each physician? And do I not need to include all their contact info? I was under the impression that it was generally understood what shadowing entails and that we didn't need to provide much of a description. I would rather include what I learned than all of that information about each physician if it is not important, but I just wanted to make sure it wasn't necessary to include in case schools wanted to verify my hours. Should I just include the contact for the doc I shadowed the most and then just include names/specialties for the rest? Would you recommend including the projected hours (~30-40) using the repeated activity function?

 

[Catalystik]

Ah I see. So maybe after describing 3 of the experiences and right before the fourth?

That works as you'd probably have made two hard returns (hit the Enter key twice) to create a space between the first and second experiences already. After writing the third, you don't need to create a space as it will be done for you by the AMCAS program.

 

[jsf0120]

Question---- I have one spot left in work activities.
Volunteering -
x1 clinical (800)
x1 non clinical (50)
Research- x 1 (will be improving during growth year)
Lead- x1 (three different positions)
Shadowing x 4
Paid jobs , non clinical x3
Teaching x 1
Athletics x1 ( one year on university lacrosse team)
Academic recognition x1

I am thinking of using the last spot for "hobbies" and listing out my hobbies/interests.
Should I combine the Athletics experience into Hobbies (which includes other sports) and make another entry for something else?

 

[Catalystik]

Question---- I have one spot left in work activities.
Volunteering -
x1 clinical (800)
x1 non clinical (50)
Research- x 1 (will be improving during growth year)
Lead- x1 (three different positions)
Shadowing x 4
Paid jobs , non clinical x3
Teaching x 1
Athletics x1 ( one year on university lacrosse team)
Academic recognition x1

I am thinking of using the last spot for "hobbies" and listing out my hobbies/interests.
Should I combine the Athletics experience into Hobbies (which includes other sports) and make another entry for something else?

Is lacrosse a club sport at your school? In which case you might list all your sport interests under Extracurricular and still have a space for non-sport Hobbies (so as to look well-rounded).

 

[FootballFoot]

For ongoing activities, should I include projected hours in the "Total hours" box?

I already separated the two in the decription text box on the bottom.

 

[To be MD]

Does anyone know if it is okay to write abbreviations for hours?

Example: "Worked full time at ABC Hospital as a CNA for 40h/w" ... or 40 h/week... or 40 w.s. (the actual/proper abbreviation) .... or does it have to be "40 hours per week"?

------

Basically, do adcoms read these with a red pen and look for any "improper" instances of the English language, or is it just fine to save space with abbreviations?

 

[Catalystik]

I'm past the character count for my shadowing section, and would love some help figuring out what I can cut. I'm trying to fit in an additional shadowing experience I had this week in a new specialty (8 hours). For each physician, I include their name, department, hospital, email address, dates, number of completed hours, and number of project hours (if applicable). I have about 60 hours of shadowing completed, but I have a few physicians that I have ongoing weekly shadowing planned for the next few months. Should I cut the project hours? Can I cut the hospital that they work at? Thanks!

May I suggest that a laundry list of that detailed info is not necessary but a brief discussion of the overall hours you shadowed, the variety of specialties, and what you learned from it may be more useful to a committee in evaluating your application

Thanks for the feedback! Is it not important then for me to include the specific dates I shadowed each physician? And do I not need to include all their contact info? I was under the impression that it was generally understood what shadowing entails and that we didn't need to provide much of a description. I would rather include what I learned than all of that information about each physician if it is not important, but I just wanted to make sure it wasn't necessary to include in case schools wanted to verify my hours. Should I just include the contact for the doc I shadowed the most and then just include names/specialties for the rest? Would you recommend including the projected hours (~30-40) using the repeated activity function?

I posted previously on a compromise solution, halfway between the example in the FAQ and gonnif's solution. See page 2, post #58.

Since you already have plenty of shadowing hours, I would not include the future hours, so you have something fresh to mention on Secondaries and update letters.