*~*~*~*Tips for Entering your "Work and Activities" in AMCAS*~*~*~*

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ibelieve87 said:
What is the "oldest" experience that can (or should) be listed? I had two mentorships in high school where I got 100+ hours of shadowing experience as well as independent research. This was 6 years ago and I'm not sure if I should mention these as part of my shadowing experience. They helped me confirm my desire to continue in the direction of medicine when I first started as an undergrad...
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If an experience is "significant" you can include it. At issue is whether an adcomm will regard any activity from so long ago, unless the activity continued into the college years. So if you have recent formal shadowing, you can add the HS shadowing into the same space, giving the date span separately in the narrative and totaling the hours. With the research activity, it would go in its own space, if you feel it's important enough to bring up, but probably not if you have no more recent research activity.
 
docntrainin said:
1) I am definitely going to combine them under one experience name of "Hobbies." My question is, what should I do about contact info. I was thinking for my tae kwon do to put down the year I started (2005) and click until present and then list my grandmaster's contact information from high school.

2) I will probably put that in the main required contact info field and then include contact info. for my study abroad director in the description who can verify that I took a photography course while abroad. Thoughts?

3) Also, I am grouping together two shadowing experiences. I put one of the physician's contact info and the corresponding date in the required fields and listed this information in the description area for the other.
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1) That sounds fine.

2) If the photography class is on your transcript, you need not list additional contact information if space is scarse and you want more description room.

3) That is a good way to do it.
 
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for the explanations under work & activities, are we supposed to explain what we did (ex: transporting patients, cleaning beds), OR write about what we actually learned from each experience?

thanks
 
I am kind of confused getting started. My most valueable experience for medical school was my volunteering experience.

I have been volunteering for 7 years at the same place. In my activity description, I wrote where I worked, how I started out doing scut work but then was rewarded with higher tasks such as patients histories.

Is that right? Should I include something else? In the most memorable section I wrote on what I leanred (medicine as a team) and how it impacted me. Is that good? Should I include anything else?
 
raltima07 said:
I am kind of confused getting started. My most valueable experience for medical school was my volunteering experience.

I have been volunteering for 7 years at the same place. In my activity description, I wrote where I worked, how I started out doing scut work but then was rewarded with higher tasks such as patients histories.

Is that right? Should I include something else? In the most memorable section I wrote on what I leanred (medicine as a team) and how it impacted me. Is that good? Should I include anything else?
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That sounds fine.
 
Catalystik said:
Ideally, both, but succinctly.
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Hey Catalystik thanks for your reply. This may sound silly but around how many characters would be "succinctly"?

Also, can we get secondaries without our premed committee letter? I'm planning to submit my AMCAS in mid-June but my committee letter will not be completed until late August or so (btw is that late?)
 
I'm having trouble deciding what to include in my work/activities section. First, I did three independent research projects as part of my coursework. These were meaningful to me, but I did them as part of courses (and I mention one in my personal statement) Is it okay to include these in my work/activities? I already have three additional research experiences listed (two summer, one current full-time job).

Second, my personal statement focuses heavily on my shadowing experience. Is that sufficient, or should I also include that in my work/activities section? That one was also a course (well, a one month long winter class).

Third, if I combine activities, who should I list as the contact person? (sorry if this has already been answered).

Thanks!
 
I presented a poster at my undergraduate institutions research symposium, and I plan on putting this under the undergraduate research lab I volunteered in. However, my research was also published in a peer-reviewed journal called Molecular Vision and it can be found on PubMed.

Should I list the publication on its own or under my research experience? I ask because I am running out of room, but I rather write the publication on its own if it would be more appealing to adcoms...

Thanks for your help! sorry if I repeated a question as i have not had time to look through the thread.
 
I dont know if this was answered already, but who should I put as the contact information for my Awards/Honors/Recognitions section?
 
(1) I am thinking about delaying my primary app til mid of June, (June 15~20) because, I didn't do much during the last gap year besides volunteering (free clinic, church, hospice, and rehab) while improving my MCAT score.
But for this year, I would be spending half of my time doing clinical research in neurology and the other half would be working as a medical assistant in addition to volunteering work. I would be starting them by this mid of June, so should I delay the primary app?

(2) How should I describe my experience at OR? I observed ENT, thoracic, general surgeons, and anesthesiologists while operating, helped sedated patients to lay down on operating tables, and cleaned OR rooms after surgery. So does this count as shadowing as well? Should I describe the shadowing part in a separate "shadowing" section?

(3) the same goes for ER fast track. I shadowed 3rd year ER resident and volunteered by cleaning beds and bringing med equips and towels to patients.
 
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Accalia said:
1) I'm having trouble deciding what to include in my work/activities section. First, I did three independent research projects as part of my coursework. These were meaningful to me, but I did them as part of courses (and I mention one in my personal statement) Is it okay to include these in my work/activities? I already have three additional research experiences listed (two summer, one current full-time job).

2) Second, my personal statement focuses heavily on my shadowing experience. Is that sufficient, or should I also include that in my work/activities section? That one was also a course (well, a one month long winter class).

3) Third, if I combine activities, who should I list as the contact person? (sorry if this has already been answered).
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1) You may include them, possibly under a Research designation called "Class-Related Research Projects" or somesuch.

2) It should also be in the Activites section so it will be included in the "score" the first reader gives your application (as the same person won't necessarily read the PS too).

3) List the contact for the most important of the grouped activites in the header. List those for others in the narrative.
 
illegible said:
Hi! Just wanted to thank you guys for answering so many questions--reading through them has really helped me get a better grasp of what to do for my own activities! I'm not sure if a variation of my question has been asked so apologies if it's a repeat.

If we are part of a program similar to the following:
http://www.upenn.edu/lsm/
http://www.sas.upenn.edu/biochem/vspmls.html
http://huntsman.upenn.edu/index.html
where the coursework we took in college has been predetermined and rigorous, would it be appropriate to mention our program somewhere in our work/activities (not sure it falls under either)? The program doesn't show up on our transcript, except by the course selection we have taken.

The program will be mentioned in my committee letter and probably covered extensively by one of the recommendations that the program chair is writing for me. However, I'd really like to address my own thoughts on my program without wasting space in my personal statement where I'd prefer to emphasize another aspect of me. I still have several open entries.
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As inclusion in the program has meaning for you beyond the fact of involvement, it is appropriate to take a space to provide further narrative about the activity and appropriate reflections/impact on you, etc.
 
DrFLAGATORS said:
I presented a poster at my undergraduate institutions research symposium, and I plan on putting this under the undergraduate research lab I volunteered in. However, my research was also published in a peer-reviewed journal called Molecular Vision and it can be found on PubMed.

Should I list the publication on its own or under my research experience? I ask because I am running out of room, but I rather write the publication on its own if it would be more appealing to adcoms.
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I would say it is important to highlight this accomplishment by listing it in its own space. Leave mention of the poster you presented where you've already described, besides.
 
Hi Catalystic! I got a question for you. I completed a year and a half of medical triaining in my home country before moving to the US. This experience was one of the most meaninful ones, as in fact I was studying medicine at the time. As a medical student I got to participate in many dissections, autopsies, observed 3 surgeries, formed part of vaccination campaings, etc. I already stated in the application that I had attended a school for an MD degree as well as the classes that were transfered to my US institution. I would like, however, and I feel it is very important for me to list this experience under work/activities section and describe what I did and list it as one of the most meaningful experiences. I was thinking of listing it as "other". Any general advice?? Thanks!!!
 
libraryismyhome said:
(1) I am thinking about delaying my primary app til mid of June, (June 15~20) because, I didn't do much during the last gap year besides volunteering (free clinic, church, hospice, and rehab) while improving my MCAT score.
But for this year, I would be spending half of my time doing clinical research in neurology and the other half would be working as a medical assistant in addition to volunteering work. I would be starting them by this mid of June, so should I delay the primary app?

(2) How should I describe my experience at OR? I observed ENT, thoracic, general surgeons, and anesthesiologists while operating, helped sedated patients to lay down on operating tables, and cleaned OR rooms after surgery. So does this count as shadowing as well? Should I describe the shadowing part in a separate "shadowing" section?

(3) the same goes for ER fast track. I shadowed 3rd year ER resident and volunteered by cleaning beds and bringing med equips and towels to patients.
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1) If you don't already have a decent amount of research suitable for the mission of the schools you most want to attend, then wait until you've started the Research experience before you submit.

2) It sounds like shadowing. I would hope you have additional experiences watching docs interact with patients who are awake though. Ideally, you would split out the shadowing and list it on its own (with its own # of hours and not duplicating hours already listed) with your other formal shadowing, but you could also name the activity something like "OR Tech and Surgical Shadowing" (to be sure it's not missed), if space is short, estimating the amount of time that shadowing took place.

3) Same answer. But you'd name the activity something like "ER Volunteer and Emergency Physician Shadowing" giving a percentage of time that the activity was dedicated to the shadowing.
 
flakpilot said:
Hi Catalystic! I got a question for you. I completed a year and a half of medical triaining in my home country before moving to the US. This experience was one of the most meaninful ones, as in fact I was studying medicine at the time. As a medical student I got to participate in many dissections, autopsies, observed 3 surgeries, formed part of vaccination campaings, etc. I already stated in the application that I had attended a school for an MD degree as well as the classes that were transfered to my US institution. I would like, however, and I feel it is very important for me to list this experience under work/activities section and describe what I did and list it as one of the most meaningful experiences. I was thinking of listing it as "other". Any general advice?? Thanks!!!
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Hi flakpilot,

I think that listing it under "Other" and designating it as "Most Meaningful" is just fine. I expect that you have already explained the reason you left the previous med school as well.
 
Yes! I explained it thoroughly in my PS and mentioned it in the section about previous medical school matriculation. Thanks! 🙂
 
Catalystik said:
1) If you don't already have a decent amount of research suitable for the mission of the schools you most want to attend, then wait until you've started the Research experience before you submit.

2) It sounds like shadowing. I would hope you have additional experiences watching docs interact with patients who are awake though. Ideally, you would split out the shadowing and list it on its own (with its own # of hours and not duplicating hours already listed) with your other formal shadowing, but you could also name the activity something like "OR Tech and Surgical Shadowing" (to be sure it's not missed), if space is short, estimating the amount of time that shadowing took place.

3) Same answer. But you'd name the activity something like "ER Volunteer and Emergency Physician Shadowing" giving a percentage of time that the activity was dedicated to the shadowing.
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(1) oh ok, thank you so much!

(2) umm.. however, I included all of them as "XXX hospital volunteer" where I volunteered at Surgical Center, ER, ER Fast track, Radiology, OR, and Children's hospital during each semester. (bold ones are the shadowing/volunteering)
Should I take ER Fast track and OR out and make two separate categories like you suggested?
 
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libraryismyhome said:
umm.. however, I included all of them as "XXX hospital volunteer" where I volunteered at Surgical Center, ER, ER Fast track, Radiology, OR, and Children's hospital during each semester. (bold ones are the shadowing/volunteering)
Should I take ER Fast track and OR out and make two separate categories like you suggested?
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Thank you for providing a more complete context for the activity. Since you worked in many different departments in one institution, leave them grouped as you have them. Since you didn't shadow in all the departments, ideally, you would split out the shadowing hours and list them separately.
 
I marked one of my experiences as most meaningful, but I couldn't fit the description of why it was most meaningful in the character limit.

Is it acceptable to start my explanation in the regular summary box and continue into the box for meaningful experiences?
 
Catalystik said:
Thank you for providing a more complete context for the activity. Since you worked in many different departments in one institution, leave them grouped as you have them. Since you didn't shadow in all the departments, ideally, you would split out the shadowing hours and list them separately.
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so make it "Volunteering and Shadowing at XXX Hospital"? How does it sound?
 
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Flasheh said:
I marked one of my experiences as most meaningful, but I couldn't fit the description of why it was most meaningful in the character limit.

Is it acceptable to start my explanation in the regular summary box and continue into the box for meaningful experiences?
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Since the "Most Meaningful" designation is new this year, there is no prior experience about how to use the extra space and mesh the two narrative areas. I suggest either trying very hard to trim the description so it fits in the alloted space. Or else move some comments that might be appropriate to the initial listing also, even if they are no longer in as pleasing a sequence.
 
Should I include my 30 hours of hospital volunteering if it wasn't particularly meaningful? I pretty much sat at the nurses' station pn the OB floor and assembled charts. I sort of got to see how the floor was run, how the nurses and physicians interacted, etc. I also have 200+ hours working at the student health center, btw.
 
yttikyellow said:
i'm currently trying to finalize my app so i can submit tomorrow or the day after. i am planning to print out my application so i can read it on paper before submitting.

when i try to print my app in HTML format, the work/activities section description combines all my "bulleted" points into a huge paragraph...is this how adcomms will see it? i entered the points in and started a new line for each bullet point, but its not showing that on the printed version. if its going to look like this to adcomms, i figure i should just rewrite all the descriptions in narrative form (even though i personally don't like this format). thoughts?
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Hey, I was having the same problem. I called AMCAS and they said the pdf view is what med schools see.
 
I was awarded the President's call to service award (given to people who have done over 4000 hours of community service in their lifetimes). Does this warrant its own entry and would it have a significant impact on my application?
 
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Buttermellow said:
Should I include my 30 hours of hospital volunteering if it wasn't particularly meaningful? I pretty much sat at the nurses' station pn the OB floor and assembled charts. I sort of got to see how the floor was run, how the nurses and physicians interacted, etc. I also have 200+ hours working at the student health center, btw.
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It doesn't sound space-worthy. Could you work mention of it into another activity (eg, with the shadowing) or into the PS (like a one-liner)?
 
Wow, bomb thread. thanks alot OP and helpers!

For my question: I was really involved with a fellowship and church that I would like to put down as an activity... however, I'm not sure how to go about putting the average hours per week? Would it be better to leave the numbers blank or actually give an actual guestimate? It was alot of hours throughout the week... and I'm afraid I might come off a little ridiculous if I put a very high number of hours per week... idk kinda wondering what to do and would like your opinion? thanks! 🙂
 
urd0rkk said:
For my question: I was really involved with a fellowship and church that I would like to put down as an activity... however, I'm not sure how to go about putting the average hours per week? Would it be better to leave the numbers blank or actually give an actual guestimate? It was alot of hours throughout the week... and I'm afraid I might come off a little ridiculous if I put a very high number of hours per week... idk kinda wondering what to do and would like your opinion? thanks! 🙂
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You can skip the hours/week space (unless you want to average them out over the entire date span that you were involved) and instead put in the narrative that the hours varied from 2-60/week depending on the project/task or the time of year or whatever.

So for example, 2 hours per week during the school year and 60 hours per week in the summer would come out to 16 hours per week over an entire year.
 
What is the conferences attended category for? I think I saw an earlier post where someone asked about a poster presentation they made at a large national conference and was wondering whether to list this under poster/presentations or conferences attended. The reply was to put it under poster/presentations. If that doesn't fall under conferences attended, what would?
 
Catalystik said:
If an experience is "significant" you can include it. At issue is whether an adcomm will regard any activity from so long ago, unless the activity continued into the college years. So if you have recent formal shadowing, you can add the HS shadowing into the same space, giving the date span separately in the narrative and totaling the hours. With the research activity, it would go in its own space, if you feel it's important enough to bring up, but probably not if you have no more recent research activity.
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Thank you Catalystik-that's helpful. I'd love to pick your brain some more if I may...I have been working in a lab in the health psychology department for the last 2 years so I do have that research experience. I also have been shadowing experience that's much more recent and am now a scribe in the ED.
1. Is listing 10 experiences a bad idea? I was not a member of any groups/clubs as an undergraduate because I transferred more than once. I do have research, honors, employment, leadership, and both medical and non-medical volunteering but I'm having a hard time coming up with 15 things. What I do have are more long-term activities.
2. Can we list things that we are planning to do this coming school year? My professor asked me to TA but obviously I haven't done it yet. I also was awarded a stipend for research. Could I put these things on there? I feel they are significant and I will definitely be doing them.
Thanks for your help!
 
Slev said:
What is the conferences attended category for? I think I saw an earlier post where someone asked about a poster presentation they made at a large national conference and was wondering whether to list this under poster/presentations or conferences attended. The reply was to put it under poster/presentations. If that doesn't fall under conferences attended, what would?
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Certainly it would fall under "conferences attended" as well, but I would think the rationale there was that presenting one's work is seen as more valuable than merely attending a conference.
 
Question about how AMCAS determines the ordering of activities:


Does anyone know how the AMCAS decides where to place a specific activity?

I enter a new one and it seems to place it randomly, definitely not by number of hours or by alphabetical order, or even by experience type
 
a532 said:
Question about how AMCAS determines the ordering of activities:


Does anyone know how the AMCAS decides where to place a specific activity?

I enter a new one and it seems to place it randomly, definitely not by number of hours or by alphabetical order, or even by experience type
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Answer: Read the AMCAS Instruction Manual. It is written for applicants to read, not to skip. They highlighted the answer in red, but that doesn't stop someone from asking this question once per week
 
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sector9 said:
Answer: Read the AMCAS Instruction Manual. It is written for applicants to read, not to skip. They highlighted the answer in red, but that doesn't stop someone from asking this question once per week
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Hah sorry about the repetitive post. I must have missed that paragraph.
 
mauberley said:
Certainly it would fall under "conferences attended" as well, but I would think the rationale there was that presenting one's work is seen as more valuable than merely attending a conference.
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So if you presented posters at a national conference you'd just suggest listing the posters under posters/presentations and say that it was at such and such national conference in the description and just skip making an activity for conferences attended?

My specific situation is I attended a conference two years in a row and presented posters both years. I'm thinking I'll just create one activity for both posters, say the name of the conference in the description

Thanks!
 
I began working at an eye/ear infirmary in nyc last january. I started out as a volunteer in the PACU/Recovery, where kids/adults were taken directly after surgery. This included taking care of the kids after they woke up/changing sheets/helping RNs etc. After about a month I was inducted into the ophthalmology research internship program (still volunteering) but now completely focused in the glaucoma clinic where the study was taking place. (I'm not sure if I should split this up as I only worked in PACU for a month but I absolutely love kids so I highly enjoyed it and learned a lot.)

Internship Program- I was responsible for scanning all charts for medical histories/discussing the study with all patients in the clinic/and i was basically in the clinic all day (i watched 1st/2nd year residents speak with attendings about cases and had a lot of random clinical experiences just being in an nyc clinic). Once I had recruited patients I transported them to a different part of the hospital and sat in the waiting room with them, and then entered diagnostic imaging rooms. So here is my dilemma. The principal physician working on the study, was more of an academic physician i guess because he was only seeing research oriented patients. The thing was for every single recruited patient, (basically on average 2-3 per day that i interned) I was allowed in the room with the physician and the patient and he would talk me through what the images mean and simultaneously talk to the patient. After the imaging/tests we would kind of go through the results, he would explain to me some irregularities.

There was a lot of patient interaction and I could clearly see the Dr. interact with the patient. I'm just not sure how to exactly split this up since this shadowing/observing component was a main part of the study. I did about 300 hours of research and it resulted in 3 abstracts. My only other shadowing experiences are from high school, which I won't be listing, so I want to be kind of clear that it was physician/patient interaction.

Thanks again in advance. It means a lot.
 
Slev said:
So if you presented posters at a national conference you'd just suggest listing the posters under posters/presentations and say that it was at such and such national conference in the description and just skip making an activity for conferences attended?

My specific situation is I attended a conference two years in a row and presented posters both years. I'm thinking I'll just create one activity for both posters, say the name of the conference in the description

Thanks!
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Catalystik will probably strike me down from on high if I'm incorrect, but yes, that is what I would suggest.
 
Catalystic, would you consider being the Student Commencement Speaker at a big university an honor/award/recognition ? If so what should I discuss in the "experience"... about what I discussed in my speech?
 
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