TMDSAS Activities FAQ:
Available categories (
http://www.tmdsas.com/medical/section_Overview.html)
ACADEMIC RECOGNITION
NON-ACADEMIC RECOGNITION
LEADERSHIP
EMPLOYMENT
RESEARCH ACTIVITIES
HEALTHCARE ACTIVITIES
COMMUNITY SERVICE
EXTRACURRICULAR & LEISURE ACTIVITIES
PLANNED ACTIVITIES
1) Should I write descriptions in narrative or bullet form? They say either list or paragraph is fine. But as far as formatting goes in TMDSAS activity section, you will see that when you hit save, the listed items are strung together one after another (instead of each in separate lines). Many write in paragraphs because of this formatting issue to make it more readable. Be cautious if you want to use bullets (or hyphens in their place).
2) If there's a significant non-medical volunteer experience I did back in High School for 4 years, can I include it on my application? Some don't think your application should include activities that occurred before your college freshman year. Maybe bring it up in a "why do you want to be a doctor," Secondary, or interview.
3) Should I list all my shadowing together? Yes, but if it doesn’t fit gracefully into the 300 space limit, list the experiences separately.
4) If I had multiple leadership positions within an organization, do I list them separately on the TMDSAS? (ex: entry 1- VP of Org X, then separate entry 2 for Pres of Org X) Yes, as long as each leadership role required uniquely different components.
5) For an award that I have received multiple times (Dean's List) should I list it every time I earned it since it shows up on my transcript as well multiple times? Put it once and say earned x number of times, or list separately.
6) Where do you put publications, under Research Experiences? Do you just paste the citation into the description? You could just put the citation but if you can fit in a short description about what you did, include that.
7) What if I have multiple publications? If possible, put multiple publications under one entry for research with a 1 for the hours. As 300 chars aren’t enough for full citations one can abbreviate which author spot, the journal, and the year published (TMDSAS was called and the lady mentioned this would be fine).
8) My research lab is working on a publication for the next school year. I have the citation, so should I put this in the "planned activities" section? The perfect place to put this.
9) If I have a recurring volunteer experience that happens every winter break for the past 4 winter breaks, should I separate them into four entries or just clump them into one entry? If I clump them into one entry, do I just put down the dates for one and the total hours for one? Or do I put down total hours over 4 winters for cumulative? You could do either, one would probably put it in one, combine the hours, and mention how this was done every winter break as well as information about it (if you can fit it).
10) I already put under my medical volunteering section that I plan to continue a volunteer activity indefinitely, but should I also put it in again under future activities? Treat each section as a stand-alone section. An interviewer should be able to look at the Planned Activities section and know everything you are going participate in during the foreseeable future. One person calling TMDSAS reported they said, "For the planned activity you should enter the start date as today and it should be up to the date of med school matriculation."
11) I understand that for the PLANNED ACTIVITIES section, it's okay to list all of your continued activities even if you previously indicated in another section that they would run until May 2015 or whatever. Because each activity may fit the criteria for different categories (ex. community service AND leadership), which category would I select for that activity in the planned activities section? Do I make two nearly identical planned activities (one labeled community service and the other labeled leadership), or do I simply choose the most appropriate category? List it under the most appropriate category, but write the description in such a way that the reader would infer it falls under both. It shouldn’t be a problem if you list it twice though.
12) For the optional essays, is it better to fill out one versus not filling any of them out? I have a unique experience of being chosen to go to Washington DC for a conference as the only student from Texas attending. However, I read that essay is only for hardships and things of that nature. Is that true, or is my idea fine for that essay? Definitely write the essay as you're thinking. It's always a good idea to write the essays in the first place, especially considering that several TX schools have no Secondaries. Take every chance you're given to sell yourself. As for your specific idea, this is an opinion: don't read any subtext into the prompt. It asks for "unique circumstances or life experiences" that would provide the schools with a "broader picture of who you are". Your idea sounds like it fits the bill.
13) If the date range for a particular activity spans into the future, do they want us to list completed hours + projected hours under Total Cumulative Hours or do we just list the hours we have completed thus far? For example:
Date Range: September 2013-June 2015
September 2013-Present: 100 hours completed
Present-June 2015: 100 hours projected
Total Cumulative Hours = 200 or 100
TMDSAS, when called, said if the date range spans into the future, one should include projected hours in the Total Cumulative Hours.
14) After I typed up all my activities, I created the chronology of activities. It is all correct, but the description was cut off due to 50 characters limit. Do we need to fix this in the chronology of activities itself or is this ok? TMDSAS was called and they said to leave it truncated.
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Answers extracted from the last two years of ~Official TMDSAS Questions Thread~ and credited to SDN posters who've helped previous Texas applicants and to the TMDSAS Help Line at 512-499-4785.
[This post is a work in progress.][/QUOTE
Hey guys. On TMDSAS, I'm having a hard time figuring out how to organize my shadowing experiences. I've shadowed in different states, so should I add two separate healthcare activities sections? One for the shadowing in GA and the other for the shadowing in TX? Also for the description box, do we clump up all of the procedures we've seen and the doctors we've shadowed? Or do we add a new healthcare activity section for each shadowing activity with different dentists? Please help!
