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

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Catalystik said:
They are not publications. One is submitted and the other papers are in progress, according to what you said. Working Title or something briefer, author number, and journal of planned or actual submission should be fine. These should be mentioned in the same space as the Research description. They don't get their own space yet. If you are short on space you can make the included information even briefer, if needbe, like "Third author paper submitted 4/12 to JNeuroSci on XXX." You can leave out the two that are not yet submitted (backtracking from my original statement, as you called them "publications", and I forgot the further details of 'not yet being submitted').
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LizzyM said:
If the papers haven't been accepted for publication, they aren't publications, IMHO.

Can you fit something like this in 700 characters: "I used [techniques] to study [description that would fit as a poster title], three papers describing our results are in process."
If you have enough room, you can add to the beginning of the sentence, "in the [name] lab..."
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Thank you, LizzyM and Catalystik!

I will do my best to fit it into the same research description and just say that 3 publications "pending" (though that may not be the correct word), where I am on the authors list, and which journal one was submitted to. If not, I may just split my research into two activities slots and combine two other activities.

On a slightly unrelated note, would it sound arrogant to say something along the lines of "I believe [an awareness or skill I have gained] will help me in [some aspect of the physician's job]"? In other words, relating what I have learned to how it will make me a better physician/help me when I am a physician.

Thank you!
 
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riddler said:
Thank you, LizzyM and Catalystik!

I will do my best to fit it into the same research description and just say that 3 publications "pending" (though that may not be the correct word), where I am on the authors list, and which journal one was submitted to. If not, I may just split my research into two activities slots and combine two other activities.

On a slightly unrelated note, would it sound arrogant to say something along the lines of "I believe [an awareness or skill I have gained] will help me in [some aspect of the physician's job]"? In other words, relating what I have learned to how it will make me a better physician/help me when I am a physician.

Thank you!
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It just seems like a waste of words. Isn't it obvious as long as you state that you have skill x. You can stick to "I learned that..." or "I developed my ability to ..." and imply that this is something that will be good to know going forward.
 
kryptonian said:
Thank you Catalystik for answering my questions. I have only 1 more question. For #1, one of the high school awards was based on a biology contest involved participation of half of my country's high schools and I got the highest score in that contest. Is that possibly impressive to adcom even though it's not internationally recognized ?
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There is no rule that you cannot list it but it will not mean much without an equally impressive achievement in more recent years. And you would have to explain in detail. If your mcat bs score is not amazing adcomms might wonder what happened.
 
DOCTAfoHIRE said:
Can you specify both weekly hours and total hours worked? I have been working at a job about six years and my committment has fluctuated quite a bit. I have written weekly hours to reflect the last 3-4 years rather than doing an overall average since that was the time that I was in college. Can i include an overall total at the end of my description to account for time worked during breaks and stuff like that?
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If you are using hours per week for the last three years then the date span in the header should be for that timeframe. You can explain other heats and hours fluctuations in the narrative. And an overall total for so many hours would look silly imo.
 
What should we put for the required contact information if we are using the sub-section method? (e.g. 'undergrad work experience', followed by multiple positions and all contacts provided in the descriptions).
 
DCSB6 said:
What should we put for the required contact information if we are using the sub-section method? (e.g. 'undergrad work experience', followed by multiple positions and all contacts provided in the descriptions).
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List the most recent job in the header with the info requested pertinent to that job alone and then list the rest in reverse chronological order with their own information. But use the name for the activity as you suggested.
 
Catalystik said:
1) Where you took on a supervisory role, Leadership is appropriate.
2) That is fine.
3) If you want to lump the two types together, use Teaching, but make the leadership for some of them evident in your description.
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Thanks for the help!
 
Catalystik said:
There is no rule that you cannot list it but it will not mean much without an equally impressive achievement in more recent years. And you would have to explain in detail. If your mcat bs score is not amazing adcomms might wonder what happened.
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I see. Thank you Catalystik !
 
Sorry if this has been asked, but i really need input: for "most meaningful" how recent are we talking here? I want to put one of my volunteering experiences that made me want to be a doctor, but it's from 2009 (started in '07.. so from 2 years and like 5 months ago). Is that okay, or should I put something more recent?
 
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Hey guys,

Is it necessary for your 3 most meaningful experiences to have a corresponding letter of rec? Does it look bad if one of my 3 doesn't have a recommendation letter with it?

Thanks in advance.
 
As someone who has multiple publications in national peer-reviewed papers (not first-author) and multiple national Science Conference posters, I hope to organize this information under 2 main extracurricular slots. One will be titled "Publications" and the other will be "Presentations".

I plan on grouping the relevant information under each heading. Do you think this is the best way to go in my situations? Or would you strongly recommend EACH publication get its own extracurricular slot? I know the OP discussed listing publications within a separate slot, but did not go into detail about what to do if one has multiple publications with a lot of other relevant extracurricular activities (meaning I need to be fairly stingy on space management).

In addition, I am working on 2 more 1st author publications- I know it has been mentioned that submitted papers carry no weight, but I think it is relevant to include under my "Research" (particularly since I have already shown that I am productive in terms of publications).
 
chiapet874 said:
As someone who has multiple publications in national peer-reviewed papers (not first-author) and multiple national Science Conference posters, I hope to organize this information under 2 main extracurricular slots. One will be titled "Publications" and the other will be "Presentations".

I plan on grouping the relevant information under each heading. Do you think this is the best way to go in my situations? Or would you strongly recommend EACH publication get its own extracurricular slot? I know the OP discussed listing publications within a separate slot, but did not go into detail about what to do if one has multiple publications with a lot of other relevant extracurricular activities (meaning I need to be fairly stingy on space management).

In addition, I am working on 2 more 1st author publications- I know it has been mentioned that submitted papers carry no weight, but I think it is relevant to include under my "Research" (particularly since I have already shown that I am productive in terms of publications).
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nice. what field are you in?
 
Hi everyone!

This is my first post here on SDN, though I just spent some hours reading posts, and I must say I am extremely impressed by all the hard work people put into helping each other here. This truly is a great resource.

Basically my question is... Should I list my Army Service (which had many aspects and levels of depth and positions) and my training and subsequent service as a Combat Medic in the army under seperate fields?

Thanks a bunch!
 
premedicine555 said:
Sorry if this has been asked, but i really need input: for "most meaningful" how recent are we talking here? I want to put one of my volunteering experiences that made me want to be a doctor, but it's from 2009 (started in '07.. so from 2 years and like 5 months ago). Is that okay, or should I put something more recent?
Click to expand...
That will be fine.
 
chiapet874 said:
As someone who has multiple publications in national peer-reviewed papers (not first-author) and multiple national Science Conference posters, I hope to organize this information under 2 main extracurricular slots. One will be titled "Publications" and the other will be "Presentations".

1) I plan on grouping the relevant information under each heading. Do you think this is the best way to go in my situations? Or would you strongly recommend EACH publication get its own extracurricular slot? I know the OP discussed listing publications within a separate slot, but did not go into detail about what to do if one has multiple publications with a lot of other relevant extracurricular activities (meaning I need to be fairly stingy on space management).

2) In addition, I am working on 2 more 1st author publications- I know it has been mentioned that submitted papers carry no weight, but I think it is relevant to include under my "Research" (particularly since I have already shown that I am productive in terms of publications).
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1) Yes, that is what is commonly done (as opposed to pruning out those articles that are less impressive).

2) If you have the space, you can mention papers in progress in the Research listing relevant to them. Since they are first author, I can see why you'd want to let adcomms know about them.
 
DHCopeland said:
Should I list my Army Service (which had many aspects and levels of depth and positions) and my training and subsequent service as a Combat Medic in the army under seperate fields?
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Ex-military often break their Experience down into multiple listings, including Leadership, Teaching, Community Service/Volunteer, and Employment-Military.
 
So I was wondering about grouping awards into one slot. I have a couple of scholarships that I want to include as "awards" but they come from different places and have different contacts. Should I just put down one of the contacts or should I put myself as the contact?

I really don't want to take up a lot of space with these, but they do seem to be important enough to include.
 
If you are using hours per week for the last three years then the date span in the header should be for that timeframe. You can explain other heats and hours fluctuations in the narrative. And an overall total for so many hours would look silly imo.
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Im sorry but can you clarify this a bit. I was saying the hours per week I am listing reflect the most recent commitment but the timeframe will include the whole commitment. So for example it will be 10 hours per week for the last few years at college. However my total hours worked is much higher than 10 hours per week over a six year period due to extensive time spent working full time during the summers. I just feel like doing an overall average is deceptive because i can put 20 hours per week but thats not really what it was during the last few years when I have had the most intense school work. The reason i wanted to include total hours is because my total is well over 5,000 and i think adcoms should know the full extent of my commitment without exaggerating it though average hours per week.
 
Is it required to enter the hours/wk that the activity or experience was done? For example, I'm entering a substitute teaching job that I've had for the past couple of years on my AMCAS under teaching. In the summary of the experience, I wrote that I only taught while on breaks from school since I go to school far away from the county I substitute teach in. Should I put 30hrs/wk as that is what I did, but only on christmas break, thanksgiving, spring break, etc. I don't want the 30hrs to come off as like no way he did that every week while in school.
 
I have held 4 different jobs at different times during undergrad. I was going to lump all these together, however, the job I currently have is as a Scribe. Considering that I want to mark scribing as a most meaningful experience, should I lump the other 3 jobs together and give Scribing its own category? Thanks
 
I came in to teach drawing in an elementary school for fun and due to restructuring and such it would be hard to get in contact with the teacher who was in charge of that classroom. This activity is grouped with several other hobby/art interests and I wish to list a faculty advisor/mentor as my contact who was not directly involved with these activities. Is this okay? Should i also include a sentence saying to contact myself for further clarification of these activities?
 
Can I list activity that was done only in one day?
for example, I volunteer as a judge for a science fair.
 
huihui said:
Can I list activity that was done only in one day?
for example, I volunteer as a judge for a science fair.
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Unless somehow this was a transformative experience I wouldn't. Why contaminate an otherwise good application with obvious filler? Group it with other stuff but it's not standalone.
 
How do you specifically fill out a Publication?
Experience Name: Name of Pub ? Journal ?
Organization Name: Place where you worked?
Experience Description: Citation ? and what else?
 
I feel like this question has been answered before, but...

How should I list my physician shadowing activity. I'm not sure what to put for the avg. hours/week because I chunked my shadowing into a few weeks or days at a time.
Also, is it appropriate to simply list the doctors' information and the dates of shadowing in the activity list?

Thank you!
 
Hi,

1) I'm have multiple leadership activities (VP and secretary of 2 clubs + founding member of my frat). I heard that you can list all of them under "Descriptions." But if I do, what should I do to on the contact info?

2) Should I mention my High School research experience? It basically sparked my interest for research and its why I did research in college.

3)Should I put all my awards/scholarships together in one slot?

Sorry if its repeated. I tried searching for it and my eyes went @.@...
 
Hey guys. I am working on my work/activities section but am having trouble with including an internship position.
It was an unpaid internship at psychotherapist's office (1 yr) where I did some literature research on attachment, wrote several book reviews for a small journal, and transcribed client interviews.
Should I categorize this as "research/lab," "volunteer exp: non-medical/clinical," or something else? Any recommendations?

Thanks in advance and good luck all!
 
How would you put in an extracurricular that you began freshman year then worked up the leadership ladder to become president? I am going to make this a meaningful experience of the three so should I put the dates (all four years) under leadership although only 2 of the 4 years was actually a leadership position? Then in the description give exact dates I was a member, then another executive member, then the president with descriptions and what I learned from each position? Thanks!
 
justaquickquest said:
So I was wondering about grouping awards into one slot. I have a couple of scholarships that I want to include as "awards" but they come from different places and have different contacts. Should I just put down one of the contacts or should I put myself as the contact?

I really don't want to take up a lot of space with these, but they do seem to be important enough to include.
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usually the college registrar has a record of all these things and would be a good choice for contact.
 
DOCTAfoHIRE said:
Im sorry but can you clarify this a bit. I was saying the hours per week I am listing reflect the most recent commitment but the timeframe will include the whole commitment. So for example it will be 10 hours per week for the last few years at college. However my total hours worked is much higher than 10 hours per week over a six year period due to extensive time spent working full time during the summers. I just feel like doing an overall average is deceptive because i can put 20 hours per week but thats not really what it was during the last few years when I have had the most intense school work. The reason i wanted to include total hours is because my total is well over 5,000 and i think adcoms should know the full extent of my commitment without exaggerating it though average hours per week.
Click to expand...
If you are specific about the more intense involvement during the precollege years in the activity description then adcomms will know about it beyond the timeframe mentioned in the header. But they will be most interested in your activity during the college years. You are free to list total hours if you wish. I am only giving you my perspective.
 
mwall003 said:
Is it required to enter the hours/wk that the activity or experience was done? For example, I'm entering a substitute teaching job that I've had for the past couple of years on my AMCAS under teaching. In the summary of the experience, I wrote that I only taught while on breaks from school since I go to school far away from the county I substitute teach in. Should I put 30hrs/wk as that is what I did, but only on christmas break, thanksgiving, spring break, etc. I don't want the 30hrs to come off as like no way he did that every week while in school.
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It is not necessary to enter hours per week in the header. Mention the intermittent nature of the job in your description and maybe weeks per year as well as hours per week.
 
JCTWP46 said:
I have held 4 different jobs at different times during undergrad. I was going to lump all these together, however, the job I currently have is as a Scribe. Considering that I want to mark scribing as a most meaningful experience, should I lump the other 3 jobs together and give Scribing its own category? Thanks
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Yes.
 
DOCTAfoHIRE said:
I came in to teach drawing in an elementary school for fun and due to restructuring and such it would be hard to get in contact with the teacher who was in charge of that classroom. This activity is grouped with several other hobby/art interests and I wish to list a faculty advisor/mentor as my contact who was not directly involved with these activities. Is this okay? Should i also include a sentence saying to contact myself for further clarification of these activities?
Click to expand...
Yes. I do not think you need to add a note about contacting you.
 
mdortho said:
How do you specifically fill out a Publication?
Experience Name: Name of Pub ? Journal ?_
Organization Name: Place where you worked?
Experience Description: Citation ? and what else?
Click to expand...
Name: Nature publication or First author publication
Organization: whoever publishes Nature
Contact: your PI
Date: when it was published or accepted for publication
Description: citation

Variations of the above are fine.
 
I've worked in clinical reasearch for nearly two years (paid, full time employment) so I will definitely list my work as most meaningful. On several projects, I've worked as a lead research coordinator-- the responsibilites, etc are quite different-- so would it be ok if I listed my lead research projects separately? Would that be too repetive? I would really like to highlight some of the projects I've worked on and there's just not enough space.
Thanks!
 
Some of you guys are crazy. How do you get pubs and not know how to cite them?

Give poor Cat a break -- or at least something fresh to work with.
 
I have 2 questions. Catalystik, I would love your advice if possible. Your responses in this forum have helped me tremendously.

1. I have an abstract that was published in the Supplement of a major journal that has an impact factor of over 18, but it is not PubMed-searchable. Can I still list it as a publication? I already have another paper that has been published in a journal with an impact factor of over 4, so should I just list only that paper under the Publications category, or can I group that paper with the abstract in the same entry? And if I should group them, since the abstract P.I. is different than the manuscript P.I., who should I list as my contact person?

2. I presented a poster of my lab research findings at my school's research symposium and won an award there. Should I list that separately as its own entry under Awards, or should I just mention it in my lab research entry?
 
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TheWeeIceMan said:
Is there a general consensus on listing/not listing senior design projects for engineering majors? My project was designing a laparoscopic surgery simulator, so it was at least somewhat relavent to medicine. I'm assuming if I did list it, it would be under "other"?
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I decided I'm going to list my design project, but I'm not sure what organization name to use. The university that I attended or the medical school that the project was done for?
 
Appoggiatura said:
I feel like this question has been answered before, but...

How should I list my physician shadowing activity. I'm not sure what to put for the avg. hours/week because I chunked my shadowing into a few weeks or days at a time.
Also, is it appropriate to simply list the doctors' information and the dates of shadowing in the activity list?

Thank you!
Click to expand...
Don't enter average hours per week in the header. One potential format:

**April 2012-Present: 15 hours, Jake Internist, MD, General Practice. [email protected] Able to observe a vaginal delivery.

**March 2012-Present: 20 hours, Lung Doc, MD, Pulmonology, Podunk, Alabama, Health Clinic, 555-555-5556 ext 45

**Spring 2012: 15 hours, John Surgery, DO, General Surgery, Meridian, Mississippi. [email protected] Observe a complete bowel resection and a pancreatic cancer resection.

** December 2011-Present: 35-40 hours, Sports Med, DO, Sports Medicine, Podunk, Alabama, Health Clinic, 555-555-5555, ext 34

Total hours=XX
 
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wind0angel said:
1) I'm have multiple leadership activities (VP and secretary of 2 clubs + founding member of my frat). I heard that you can list all of them under "Descriptions." But if I do, what should I do to on the contact info?

2) Should I mention my High School research experience? It basically sparked my interest for research and its why I did research in college.

3)Should I put all my awards/scholarships together in one slot?

Sorry if its repeated. I tried searching for it and my eyes went @.@...
Click to expand...
1) Enter the information in the header for your most important Leadership role, including the contact. In the narrative, list a contact for each of the others that you mention, as well as other similar information that you did for the header, like dates.

2) If you continued to do research in college, you can mention it. Alternatively, you could make it part of your Personal Statement instead.

3) Yes, unless one of them is very important and you have lots to say about it.
 
Is it better to list the works and activities in chronological order or list them according experience type (similar type put back to back)? Or just combine these two methods?
 
sil219 said:
Hey guys. I am working on my work/activities section but am having trouble with including an internship position.
It was an unpaid internship at psychotherapist's office (1 yr) where I did some literature research on attachment, wrote several book reviews for a small journal, and transcribed client interviews.
Should I categorize this as "research/lab," "volunteer exp: non-medical/clinical," or something else? Any recommendations?

Thanks in advance and good luck all!
Click to expand...
This does not sound like hypothesis-driven research which is meant for the Research designation, but more similar to the background research you'd do for a term paper or before designing a research study or a summary article. But I can only guess, since you weren't specific.

Consider entering the entire experience under Other, since it covers Volunteer-not medical (secretarial work) and Artistic Endeavor (writing the reviews), and it sounds like you maybe learned to use Pub Med (maybe doing background work for someone else's planned article).
 
When I'm writing activity hrs/week in the description because my time commitment varied as I took higher leadership roles through the years, does it suffice to say something like "Commitment: 0 to 10 hours/week"? Or should I specify that it varied by position and year?
 
0-10 seems really varied and when I saw, it lessened my view of your commitment. But that's just my bias. So maybe you're better of narrowing the range?
 
mwall003 said:
How would you put in an extracurricular that you began freshman year then worked up the leadership ladder to become president? I am going to make this a meaningful experience of the three so should I put the dates (all four years) under leadership although only 2 of the 4 years was actually a leadership position? Then in the description give exact dates I was a member, then another executive member, then the president with descriptions and what I learned from each position? Thanks!
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If you are going to put all inclusive dates and a designation of Leadership, then I suggest you name the activity "Membership and Officer Roles in XXXX Club" or somesuch. Then give exact dates of the varying roles in the description.

Alternatively, my preference: list the two year date span for the Leadership only in the header, title the activity Executive Officer and President of XXXX Club (or somesuch), then in the description give the dates as a general member for background, and how your role evolved over time.

Either approach would include what you learned, etc.
 
ChiveON said:
I've worked in clinical reasearch for nearly two years (paid, full time employment) so I will definitely list my work as most meaningful. On several projects, I've worked as a lead research coordinator-- the responsibilites, etc are quite different--
1) so would it be ok if I listed my lead research projects separately?
2) Would that be too repetive? I would really like to highlight some of the projects I've worked on and there's just not enough space.
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1) Yes.
2) I'm not clear on what you'd be repeating if you confine one project to one space, or all the lead projects to one space, but try not to be repetitive, or you'll lose your intended audience. Alternatively, you might consider discussing the Experience of being in a lead position (?under leadership) separate from the research itself.
 
If the organization I am in has an acronym that it goes by, and I list that acronym in parenthesis in the organization name box, do I need to spell out the organization again in the description, or can I just use the abbreviation?
 
Blais said:
Some of you guys are crazy. How do you get pubs and not know how to cite them?

Give poor Cat a break -- or at least something fresh to work with.
Click to expand...
Which reminds me: It would be nice if someone could link to a newbie guide to citing articles that's easier to dig through than the Harvard Method of Referencing.
 
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