My Friend's AMCAS EC Concern.....A certain type of dance...Pole Dancing

Started by Sailor Senshi Dermystify
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Sailor Senshi Dermystify

Sailor Senshi Dermystify

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Hello SDN,

One of my friends is applying this cycle and she wanted to know if putting Pole-Dancing as a hobby is looked down upon. No, she's not a stripper but she takes pole dancing classes and is working really hard to join Pole Dancing competition. It is more of a sport than a hobby. I told her people still look down on pole dancing as being to sexual and not even a sport.

What do y'all think?
 
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You should ask the people who want to put "sex, drugs and rock & roll" as an EC or keep their dreads/not wear ties for interviews.
 
Simple answer: no. It's an EC that won't make her look good and can only hurt her app.
 
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Myuu said:
This has actually been done successfully here, but I forget what it was listed as...
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Hmmm ok it was used and do you know what the person put down as the activity.

So I guess the consensus is that she shouldn't then. What if ADCOMS ask do you have anything else you would like for us to know? She shouldn't say that she pole dance at all then.

And she says thanks to all of the responses 🙂
 
How about putting sexual intercourse as an "inter-curricular activity" !

Let her just put down "professional dancing" .. And she better be good if the adcom asked her to prove it!
 
Why wouldn't she just list it as dancing? Don't lie, just don't be specific. Dancing, she takes dance lessons, she is training for dance competitions. Sounds perfectly normal.
 
Why is it never the person who actually posts? It's always the, I have a friend whose a stripper how do they put that on their app? I have a friend whose a prostitute, is that a good life experience activity? I have a friend who is a pimp from oakland, how should he mention that as a hobby and do hours a week matter? What a waste of bandwidth.
 
oaklandguy said:
Why is it never the person who actually posts? It's always the, I have a friend whose a stripper how do they put that on their app? I have a friend whose a prostitute, is that a good life experience activity? I have a friend who is a pimp from oakland, how should he mention that as a hobby and do hours a week matter? What a waste of bandwidth.
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:laugh:

Because if she makes a SDN acct and asked this question with no previous SDN posts, she will be call a TROLL. Don't feed the troll and she genuinely wants to know 🙂
 
Forca Barca said:
How about putting sexual intercourse as an "inter-curricular activity" !

Let her just put down "professional dancing" .. And she better be good if the adcom asked her to prove it!
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I agree with this. If she's any good at pole dancing she'll have practiced some pretty standard regular dance moves that she could showcase if asked, although I really, really, really doubt they'll try to make her do an arabesque in a tight pencil skirt... and it's not like they could ask her to just take it off and do it. Maybe brush up a little bit on knowledge about other forms of dance? That way if the adcom is also really into dance they can talk about it without her completely blowing her cover.

I have been dying to get a pole but my landlord won't allow it 🙁

And let's be honest here, it's pretty obvious to tell dancers from regular people just from the body... I'm sure any actually knowledgeable adcom wouldn't have to actually test her
 
If she is that strapped for activities to where you would need to mention pole-dancing on your application to medical school then she should reconsider what she wants to do with her life. People don't mention recreational drinking, clubbing, or cigar smoking on their apps because there's certain personal hobbies that medical schools don't need to know. It's that simple. If it's not going to affect you as a physician or a med-student then it probably isn't going to be a vital part of your application.
 
dermocrat88 said:
cool that makes sense but wouldn't you ask what kind of dancing though?
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The application can't ask questions.

If you're concerned about interviews, then you probably won't be asked about it anyway, a lot of interviewers don't have your application.

If they do ask, then "your friend" could say that "she" does interpretive dance. This isn't really a lie. Or, if she is really charming and she was asked in an interview what kind of dance she does she could just say pole dancing and make a great conversation about how she wasn't sure how to list it on the application and how much she enjoys it and how people assume it's some slut activity but it really isn't blah blah blah. That's what I would do.
 
ponyo said:
I agree with this. If she's any good at pole dancing she'll have practiced some pretty standard regular dance moves that she could showcase if asked, although I really, really, really doubt they'll try to make her do an arabesque in a tight pencil skirt... and it's not like they could ask her to just take it off and do it. Maybe brush up a little bit on knowledge about other forms of dance? That way if the adcom is also really into dance they can talk about it without her completely blowing her cover.

I have been dying to get a pole but my landlord won't allow it 🙁

And let's be honest here, it's pretty obvious to tell dancers from regular people just from the body... I'm sure any actually knowledgeable adcom wouldn't have to actually test her
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👍 great advice and get the removable poles then if you really want one in your house. Or get a pole dance stage by platnium stages or something. My friend was looking into some poles as well. How long you've been pole dancing for?
 
dermocrat88 said:
Hmmm ok it was used and do you know what the person put down as the activity.

So I guess the consensus is that she shouldn't then. What if ADCOMS ask do you have anything else you would like for us to know? She shouldn't say that she pole dance at all then.

And she says thanks to all of the responses 🙂
Click to expand...

I could go ask her, if you want to know that badly...
 
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Nobody is perfect and non-academic personal "flaws" have potential of sounding very interesting to the adcoms. I am assuming interviewers get bored of the "My life is perfect!" people; So anything odd and out of the ordinary, has potential of leading to a "This person is actually quite well rounded".

Basically, anything can be a plus on your application. It might actually shows a great deal of honesty for standing up for yourself, which can tell a lot about your personality.
 
MeowMeowCAT said:
Nobody is perfect and non-academic personal "flaws" have potential of sounding very interesting to the adcoms. I am assuming interviewers get bored of the "My life is perfect!" people; So anything odd and out of the ordinary, has potential of leading to a "This person is actually quite well rounded".

Basically, anything can be a plus on your application. It might actually shows a great deal of honesty for standing up for yourself, which can tell a lot about your personality.
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Yeah, I'd go ahead and ignore this post in its entirety.
 
MeowMeowCAT said:
Nobody is perfect and non-academic personal "flaws" have potential of sounding very interesting to the adcoms. I am assuming interviewers get bored of the "My life is perfect!" people; So anything odd and out of the ordinary, has potential of leading to a "This person is actually quite well rounded".

Basically, anything can be a plus on your application. It might actually shows a great deal of honesty for standing up for yourself, which can tell a lot about your personality.
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Academic misconduct, always a plus. DUI, it's life experience.
 
MeowMeowCAT said:
Hey now...we should at least wait until LizzyM comments before calling me crazy. Adcoms are an odd bunch to begin with, who knows what qualifications are really such a negative. :laugh:
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They really aren't though. At least not from my experiences with them.
 
Donald Juan said:
The application can't ask questions.

If you're concerned about interviews, then you probably won't be asked about it anyway, a lot of interviewers don't have your application.

If they do ask, then "your friend" could say that "she" does interpretive dance. This isn't really a lie. Or, if she is really charming and she was asked in an interview what kind of dance she does she could just say pole dancing and make a great conversation about how she wasn't sure how to list it on the application and how much she enjoys it and how people assume it's some slut activity but it really isn't blah blah blah. That's what I would do.
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Why are you using quotation marks like " "? lol Ok, that's also a good way to put it but I think pole dancing is so taboo.
 
oaklandguy said:
If she is that strapped for activities to where you would need to mention pole-dancing on your application to medical school then she should reconsider what she wants to do with her life. People don't mention recreational drinking, clubbing, or cigar smoking on their apps because there's certain personal hobbies that medical schools don't need to know. It's that simple. If it's not going to affect you as a physician or a med-student then it probably isn't going to be a vital part of your application.
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I've been a dancer my entire life, and competitive cheer & dance was one of the only EC's listed on my pharmcas. Unless you've done it, or are close with someone who has, you probably have no idea how time consuming it can be. I also did the obligatory volunteer service and work experience, but for general EC's it was my only one.

OP- tell your friend to list dance as an activity. It is possible that they won't even ask unless she brings it up. Dancers are actually pretty common (at least in pharmacy school, I'm sure they are in medical school as well).

IF they do ask, she can just say she dances at a studio (which is not a lie), and if they ask what type, just have her say what kind of music she normally uses (hip hop, contemporary, pop, rock, classical, etc)... this would not be a lie either. They def won't ask questions if she says something like hip hop... there are no 'classically' trained hip hop dancers in the typical sense of the word, the moves aren't even really "named", so there's no chance she would get caught up if they asked her how her Fouettes were coming along/etc.
 
I would have to say putting pole dancing down is not the brightest idea. Putting down that he/she enjoys dancing as a hobby isn't a bad idea (wish I could dance...).

I've found myself in similar conundrums with some of my "hobbies". I'm a home brewer and have been since I took orgo/micro. I managed to get myself a nice lab setup in my basement where I started my own yeast bank and played with a lot of the organic chem and micro I learned in class. Simple things like temp control can completely chance they types of compounds you'll find in the beer. (Pasteur did a TON of work for the brewing industry, as did the chap who established the pH scale). I did not mention how I got into the dorky science of brewing mainly because of the negative stereotype of a young male getting drunk. If at an interview they ask me more about my hobbies, I would discuss it. On my primary app? No way.
 
DavidTheGreek said:
I would have to say putting pole dancing down is not the brightest idea. Putting down that he/she enjoys dancing as a hobby isn't a bad idea (wish I could dance...).

I've found myself in similar conundrums with some of my "hobbies". I'm a home brewer and have been since I took orgo/micro. I managed to get myself a nice lab setup in my basement where I started my own yeast bank and played with a lot of the organic chem and micro I learned in class. Simple things like temp control can completely chance they types of compounds you'll find in the beer. (Pasteur did a TON of work for the brewing industry, as did the chap who established the pH scale). I did not mention how I got into the dorky science of brewing mainly because of the negative stereotype of a young male getting drunk. If at an interview they ask me more about my hobbies, I would discuss it. On my primary app? No way.
Click to expand...

:laugh: That's funny though that you brew in your crib, lol

Dexter's Laboratory or in your case David's Laboratory, lol. That is pretty geeky though lol, no offense 🙂
 
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