Description

Fiddlergirl · May 4, 2007

I searched and found masses of information on the general subject, but no answer to my question. So now I ask all of you...
I'm putting in the description of activities and work on the AMCAS, and there is a lot more space than I had thought. My school had me put together basically a practice AMCAS and on that I put my descriptions in resume format. Should I stick with that or elaborate?

Example:
Fredericksburg Confederate Luminaria, Fredericksburg, Va. Organizer, 2002-2006. Organized annual Luminaria, which attracks over 1500 guests each year. Represented Luminaria to public and managed advertising. Managed live music, re-enactors, and volunteers.

chable · May 4, 2007

Does that say "attacks over 1500 guests each year"?

You can probably write in what your school told you to and add a few sentences describing your experience and what you got out of it and what kind of effect it had on you.

Fiddlergirl · May 4, 2007

It's supposed to say attracts. Guess I was typing too fast. Although, it would definitely be more exciting if we got to attack the guests instead of answering the same five questions over and over.

alwaysaangel · May 4, 2007

If you feel you can meaningful elaborate in a way that will benefit you then do so. Otherwise, don't. But mine were definitely not resume format, not even the short ones.

Mine varied from long sentences:

I made the Dean's Honor List my senior year while working 20 hours a week at the such and such. Furthermore, I acheived my overall GPA of blah blah while working at least 20 hours a week at various jobs all four years of college.

To really long descriptions because I didn't feel like I could fit it all into my PS:

I worked in the after school program, tutoring blahth graders in all of their subjects, as well as talking with them on a one-to-one basis as a mentor. I primarily taught them math and reading comprehension in groups or individually. I took them out after their homework time and tried to provide them with some supervised enjoyment while applying their schoolwork to daily life. I spent a lot of my free time with them as well, both in person and over the phone. This was my favorite job during college because of the direct affect I was having on young lives. Unfortunately after my sophomore year the program changed hands and they were no longer able to pay me. I volunteered three afternoons per week for half a semester, but the program had changed drastically because of the new management. I could no longer separate my girls to work with them, so they were constantly distracted, nor could I take them on excursions. Despite my efforts my girls eventually stopped attending because of the sudden stringent rules. I kept in contact with them for the rest of their 7th grade year but eventually lost touch.

I have no clue if this is the intent but it suited me very well. I really wouldn't recommend the resume format because then when you get to interviews they won't know very much about you. For that matter, you may never get to the interview because they had no idea what the activities you did in college were and what they meant to you. The way I did it allowed interviewers to already have specific questions about my activities and I ended up with a lot of very laid back conversational interviews. Write what you feel you need to but if its pretty self-explanatory avoid the fluff.

nick_carraway · May 4, 2007

alwaysaangel said:
If you feel you can meaningful elaborate in a way that will benefit you then do so. Otherwise, don't. But mine were definitely not resume format, not even the short ones.

One tangential comment that I'll add based on alwaysaangel's advice is that for people who are noticing that their PS is turning into a list of achievements in prose, write your activity descriptions first.

For a lot of your activities, you'll find that you can say everything you want to say in your 1500 character description and leave it out of your PS altogether.

kypdurron5 · May 4, 2007

My first year I was extremely brief and got a comment during an interview about how little information was in my application overall. My second year I wrote paragraph long descriptions for each activity about what I did, why it's relevant, and what I got out of it. I got one comment about how long it all was....but I say that's ok. It might make it more difficult on adcoms, but that's their job. If they decide not to read something then at least you did your part by putting it out there. Even if the length irritates them, they can't completely ignore what you're saying, so make it good and you should be fine.

As an aside...I generally make my non-medical activity descriptions shorter than my medically related ones. I assume you're going for leadership experience with that activity...so what you've listed is fine. Out of personal preference I don't like the resume format; I think it's a little too formal. I would reword it as below; it's just about as short, but a little easier to read (again, COMPLETELY in my opinion/preference).

"I was charged with organizing the annual Confederate Luminaria, which attracts over 1500 [spectators?] each year. I was the public liaison and also managed the live music, advertising, re-enactors, and volunteers."

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Fiddlergirl

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chable

A sphincter says, "what."

Fiddlergirl

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alwaysaangel

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nick_carraway

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kypdurron5

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