ON AMCAS, how are you guys filling the post-secondary experiences

[Chankovsky]

concerns..
1) are you filling all 15 slots?
2) are you guys using up the whole 500 characters to illustrate your each experience or do you think couple of words would do.
3) does post-secondary mean after high school?

I'd appreciate your responses.

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[Spitting Camel]

concerns..
1) are you filling all 15 slots?
2) are you guys using up the whole 500 characters to illustrate your each experience or do you think couple of words would do.
3) does post-secondary mean after high school?

I'd appreciate your responses.

1) if you have 15 meaningful experiences, then yes
2) if it takes all 500 characters to do it, then yes. How can a couple of words sum up a meaningful experience? I'll pm you examples...
3) yes

 

[Medikit]

concerns..
1) are you filling all 15 slots?
2) are you guys using up the whole 500 characters to illustrate your each experience or do you think couple of words would do.
3) does post-secondary mean after high school?

I'd appreciate your responses.

1) if I can

2) I'm not worrying too much about it

3) yes

 

[Spitting Camel]

1) if I can

2) I'm not worrying too much about it

3) yes

Ooh, beat you to it. hehe... j/k


edit: I forgot to mention I only had 9 slots filled. I left off a couple things - like attendance to conferences/choir involvement/dean's honor list etc because I didn't want to seem desperate to fill up EVERY possible slot, you know? If they mean something to you, and you can articulate why they are important to you in an interview, then fill away...

 

[UseUrHeadFred]

IMHO, struggling to fill all 15 slots is an exercise in futility. More is not better. They want quality, not quantity. Personally, I'd be annoyed if I had to read through trivial crap trying to figure out what makes a given applicant "tick".

 

[scooter31]

concerns..
1) are you filling all 15 slots?
2) are you guys using up the whole 500 characters to illustrate your each experience or do you think couple of words would do.
3) does post-secondary mean after high school?

I'd appreciate your responses.

1. I have more than 15, but only cuz I'm an old ****. I gave the 15 most influential and enriching experiences--- kept manwhoring out, but it was close.

2. I am using brief descriptions. I basically can cut/paste a good deal of these out of my resume-- look into that for a good way to illustrate your experiences while making it short n sweet.

3. Uh, kinda. Keep it to your college days, if you can. Unless you did something crazy significant, like a mission or something to that effect; Model UN isnt gonna hack it, IMO.

 

[hamhamfan]

IMHO, struggling to fill all 15 slots is an exercise in futility. More is not better. They want quality, not quantity. Personally, I'd be annoyed if I had to read through trivial crap trying to figure out what makes a given applicant "tick".

Would various things like dean's list be of any use?

 

[TripleDegree]

I am sorry for the dumb question - but help me out here if you will.

I have worked 4 jobs since secondary. Do each of those count as post-secondary experience? Or are they looking for something that is purely extracurricular?

THANK YOU

 

[gaf]

I am sorry for the dumb question - but help me out here if you will.

I have worked 4 jobs since secondary. Do each of those count as post-secondary experience? Or are they looking for something that is purely extracurricular?

THANK YOU

Yes they count, but only if you want them to.

It's an opportunity for you to list the experiences that are important to your growth as an applicant. It's your opportunity to tell the committees about the experiences that you think they should know about.

You might want them to hear about the wonderful experience you had tutoring left-handed tuba players (extra-curricular activity: "Community Service/Volunteer-not medical/clinical"), your distinguished accomplishments as an ice-cream dipper (a job: Paid Employment-Not military), or the fact that you were working 40 hours a week as an iron worker and dancing at night to put yourself through school ( Flashdance: "Paid Employment-Not military").

Bottomline: if it contributes to an application that makes someone say "Wow, Tripledegree is really interesting, let's interview him/her," then you should include it.

 

[Scubadoc]

I'm still not sure about how to write these experiences down. Those of you who have done this before or have already put this in your app for this year, did you write them resume style with sentence fragments i.e. "Responsible for administrative duties..." etc?

 

[jtown]

I'm still not sure about how to write these experiences down. Those of you who have done this before or have already put this in your app for this year, did you write them resume style with sentence fragments i.e. "Responsible for administrative duties..." etc?

last year i virtually cut and pasted them in from a CV i had, but this year i have put more personal information in them (as much as 500 chars allows)...
such as:
an engineering job i had researching some really dry stuff (effects of crystal matrix dislocations on ultrasonic attenuation;; ;; a bunch of big words), i wrote about my role in the project (2 sentences), why i was interested in it/it was important (one sentence) and something like: "this was my first exposure to research science, making me feel all warm inside" (not exactly)...

then again, i aint a med student yet.

 

[Scubadoc]

bump bump

 

[TripleDegree]

Yes they count, but only if you want them to.

It's an opportunity for you to list the experiences that are important to your growth as an applicant. It's your opportunity to tell the committees about the experiences that you think they should know about.

You might want them to hear about the wonderful experience you had tutoring left-handed tuba players (extra-curricular activity: "Community Service/Volunteer-not medical/clinical"), your distinguished accomplishments as an ice-cream dipper (a job: Paid Employment-Not military), or the fact that you were working 40 hours a week as an iron worker and dancing at night to put yourself through school ( Flashdance: "Paid Employment-Not military").

Bottomline: if it contributes to an application that makes someone say "Wow, Tripledegree is really interesting, let's interview him/her," then you should include it.

Very entertaining and informative

You forgot to list an ex-navy SEAL working as a cook in a submarine

 

[microTAS]

Would various things like dean's list be of any use?

I didn't put that in my scholarship/fellowship list since it was on my transcript. But I titled my list "Scholarships/fellowships not on transcript"

 

[microTAS]

Wait a sec, I just realized they might not even get your original transcript! Is this true? If so, ignore what I said! I'll probably put "Dean Lists's (X times)"

 

[dutchmaster]

Putting the Dean's list on isn't a good use of your space. The schools can know if you're on the Dean's list from your transcript and GPA anyhow. I'd fill that slot in with something more meaningful.

 

[uclakid]

on the app, i wrote that i taught first aid/cpr jan 2003 to june 2005 (i will continue this). however I did not teach during our summer breaks (june 2003-sept 2003 and june 2004 to sept 2004). Will I need to include this in my description? Should I even care to mention this?

 

[DO it right]

the schools will NOT see the transcript that we send to AAMC. Therefore, it is to your benefit to list ALL the significant awards that you get, INCLUDING dean's list! The only transcript that the schools will get is the final transcript that you will send the school, so they know that you have passed the remaining classes with a c or better. Like other folks mentioned above, do mention dean's list (x times). It'll do nothing but help.

 

[Mistress S]

I am a little concerned about my post-secondary experiences and need some advice! I will only have ~8 post-secondary experiences to list--I didn't join any clubs or honor societies during college, mostly I just worked and went to school, and participated in EC's during summers or other breaks when I could devote a block of time to something without interrupting my schedule during the scool year. I think the EC's I have are decent--I have worked for 6+ years at a clinic serving low-income/uninsured patients, summer of research at the NIH, summer counselor at camp for kids with HIV/AIDS, week of medical observation in Ecuador, etc.--but it seems like everyone else here has done stuff like that and has 7 more such examples to put down.

I'm also concerned because I don't have a lot of recent EC's besides work. I am just now getting involved with a program tutoring homeless kids, but other than that my most recent non-work EC is from 2002! Will the "gap" in volunteering look bad? I just got too busy with MCAT prep, school, work, & personal stuff in 2003. I don't have any leadership EC's to put down either.

One other thing: I was planning to list "academic honors" (dean's list and the like) and "merit-based scholarships" as one entry each, rather than listing each honor and scholarship seperately. Is this a good idea, given the small # of PS experiences I have? It seemed to me that it would seem like obvious filler to list each one individually, but would it look better to have 12 slots filled?

 

[uclakid]

CAN SOMEONE HELP ME WITH THIS PLEASE?

on the app, i wrote that i taught first aid/cpr jan 2003 to june 2005 (i will continue this). however I did not teach during our summer breaks (june 2003-sept 2003 and june 2004 to sept 2004). Will I need to include this in my description? Should I even care to mention this?

 

[Mistress S]

bump- can anyone address some of the unanswered questions (see mine above) on this thread and help out us poor applicants? thanks