15 activities...

[foot2foot]

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Hey guys, I'm not sure if this has been answered or not but how important is it to fill out all 15 activity spots on your AMCAS application ?

 

[alpinism]

Adcoms focus on quality not quantity. At the same time, most successful applicants have at least 10 solid ECs listed. Having 15 is by no means necessary.

 

[foot2foot]

thanks

 

[bigdogrob4284]

Having 15 activities is not important at all. Some people even recommend combining similar things into the same activity block on the application. I think I used 8 on my application.

 

[sliceofbread136]

Not at all. As long as you have 5+ you're good numbers wise. After that what matters most is the impact factor.

 

[Geebeejay]

Hey guys, I'm not sure if this has been answered or not but how important is it to fill out all 15 activity spots on your AMCAS application ?

i filled out 7 and got accepted to 2 medical schools, waitlist at 2 other

 

[Eiot]

Having 15 activities is not important at all. Some people even recommend combining similar things into the same activity block on the application. I think I used 8 on my application.

Get an acceptance?

 

[chemsmith]

I think I had only 7 or 8

 

[bigdogrob4284]

get an acceptance?

5

 

[circulus vitios]

If you have more than 10 and you're a traditional 22 year old applicant, you're trying way too hard.

 

[Like]

If you have more than 10 and you're a traditional 22 year old applicant, you're trying way too hard.

Da

 

[sworzeh]

If you have more than 10 and you're a traditional 22 year old applicant, you're trying way too hard.

Neat, thanks! 👍

 

[yellowfish]

If you have more than 10 and you're a traditional 22 year old applicant, you're trying way too hard.

Just in case anyone took this seriously, there's absolutely nothing wrong with having more than 10 activities listed. Don't use filler activities to get to that range, but if you end up with that many, that does not mean you're "trying way too hard."

 

[Iso4ane]

Adcoms focus on quality not quantity. At the same time, most successful applicants have at least 10 solid ECs listed. Having 15 is by no means necessary.

10?! I was pulling at straws to get five-eight, and thats with two different academic honors awards included.

Don't believe me I had Lifeguarding, Research; Volunteering at Hospice; Shadowing and sad two academic awards. And I believe I did not have much else.

Then again I could talk anyone one of those first three for hours.

 

[alpinism]

Its not that hard.

For example:

2-academic honors/scholarships
1-part time job
2-research projects
1-leadership position
2-non clinical volunteer activities
1-clincial volunteer activity
1-shadowing experiences
2-hobbies

There's 12 right there.

 

[Greedo]

Its not that hard.

For example:

2-academic honors/scholarships
1-part time job
2-research projects
1-leadership position
2-non clinical volunteer activities
1-clincial volunteer activity
1-shadowing experiences
2-hobbies

There's 12 right there.

So just to clarify you didn't group things like "non clinical volunteering" together as one activity?

 

[occams_razor]

it seems that most traditional applicants do not have 15. it is more common to see 15 when the person is a non-trad and career changer. always remember, quality over quantity

 

[alpinism]

So just to clarify you didn't group things like "non clinical volunteering" together as one activity?

Nope.

It depends on how significant the activities were though. If we're talking 2 non clinical activities that were both under 25hrs, I'd prob condense them together. But, if each activity is unrelated and is over 50hrs, then I'd give each one their own entry. You don't need to start condensing things together until you hit 15. It also makes it much easier to read when each entry is organized with 1 activity.

(The numbers stated are just a rough estimate, not a rule)

 

[Geebeejay]

Its not that hard.

For example:

2-academic honors/scholarships
1-part time job
2-research projects
1-leadership position
2-non clinical volunteer activities
1-clincial volunteer activity
1-shadowing experiences
2-hobbies

There's 12 right there.

3 volunteering activities and 2 research projects on top of a part time job? Not simultaneously I hope?

Maybe my application was thinner because I didn't list anything that I did for under 6 months and the prominent volunteer spots I held were for years.

 

[BABSstudent]

If you have more than 10 and you're a traditional 22 year old applicant, you're trying way too hard.

It isn't that hard to come up with more than 10 things even as a 22 year old. I didn't even include two clubs I was in because I felt like I didn't do much in them other than attend meetings to get free food and to goof around with other pre-health kids.

Some might say I included fluff in my app but I don't think I did. I listed everything on my mdapps.

However, I definitely could have combined some things...

 

[beethousand]

Do you think it could potentially count against you by listing 15? I'm assuming if they are all relevant and or significant it wouldn't. Also is there a time on which the activities happened long ago enough that you probably shouldn't list them? I did some activities about 5 to 6 years ago, they were good activities but I'm wondering if that was too long ago..

 

[JohnFe]

Do you think it could potentially count against you by listing 15? I'm assuming if they are all relevant and or significant it wouldn't. Also is there a time on which the activities happened long ago enough that you probably shouldn't list them? I did some activities about 5 to 6 years ago, they were good activities but I'm wondering if that was too long ago..

It's what you get out of it. If it is significant, I can't see why not.

 

[Ismet]

If you have more than 10 and you're a traditional 22 year old applicant, you're trying way too hard.

No, not necessarily. I combined a lot of things under one heading and I came out with 15. I probably could have combined a couple more, but I was hitting max on most of my descriptions.

 

[SententialElf]

If someone has something like 5-6 leadership positions on campus, and 2-3 jobs, should they just do 1 spot for "Leadership Positions" and one spot for "Jobs"?

 

[alpinism]

Do you think it could potentially count against you by listing 15? I'm assuming if they are all relevant and or significant it wouldn't. Also is there a time on which the activities happened long ago enough that you probably shouldn't list them? I did some activities about 5 to 6 years ago, they were good activities but I'm wondering if that was too long ago..

No, there is nothing wrong with listing 15 activities.

Don't list anything from high school unless it's something really special. Other than that, anything you've done as an adult (18+) is fair game.

 

[beethousand]

No, there is nothing wrong with listing 15 activities.

Don't list anything from high school unless it's something really special. Other than that, anything you've done as an adult (18+) is fair game.

Awesome, thanks. None were in high school, I took a break after undergrad 🙂

 

[alpinism]

If someone has something like 5-6 leadership positions on campus, and 2-3 jobs, should they just do 1 spot for "Leadership PositionsS" and one spot for "Jobs"?

If you have the activity slots available, use them. There's isn't much room to write about each activity in a single slot, and it would be hard to combine 5 things into 1 small paragraph while still adequately describing each separate leadership position.

 

[alpinism]

3 volunteering activities and 2 research projects on top of a part time job? Not simultaneously I hope?

Maybe my application was thinner because I didn't list anything that I did for under 6 months and the prominent volunteer spots I held were for years.

Lol that was just a random example of some successful applications I've commonly seen.

I was an extreme non-trad applicant (although I was only 25 when I applied) so prob not the best example. I had about 25 significant activities when I applied that I had to squeeze into 15 spaces.

Mine looked more like:

1-multiple academic honors/scholarships
1-military experience
1-military citations and decorations
1-full time job (firefighter/medic) while taking post bacc courses
1-thermodynamics research
1-emergency med research
1-oncology research
1-clinical volunteering while deployed overseas
1-clincial volunteering at a cancer hospital in the US
1-multiple medical teaching positions
1-multiple non clinical volunteering projects
1-leadership position in another non clinical volunteer project
1-shadowing
1-hobby (competitive mountain climbing)
1-hobby (half marathons and marathons)

 

[quechua]

If someone has something like 5-6 leadership positions on campus, and 2-3 jobs, should they just do 1 spot for "Leadership Positions" and one spot for "Jobs"?

I agree with alpinism. That listing 5-6 jobs in one slot might be difficult to talk about. I received help in the work/activities thread last year. The thread is closed now... I'm not sure if the 2013-2014 thread is open yet. Below is the link showing how Catalystik helped me reorganize my ECs. I took her advice and my application was much better and more rounded.

http://mobile.studentdoctor.net/showpost.php?p=12950149

 

[Eiot]

5

Nice.

 

[OCDOCDOCD]

I thought you were supposed to condense activities into groups when they're essentially different instances of the same thing. So, for example, if you've presented three posters you would list each poster as its own activity, but just list "poster presentations" and then in the details list out each poster. If you have a bunch of academic awards/honors, you would just stuff all those into an "Academic Awards" activity and then list them all out in the details section. If you have two hobbies, you'd put those in "Hobbies" and then list them out in the details section. You get the idea.

Am I wrong in this assumption? I could easily see myself hitting 15 if I listed all my papers, posters, research projects, and awards separately (actually I'd still need to condense stuff if I did that). Meanwhile if I condense everything I'm probably looking at something more like 5-8 activities.

 

[Infarction]

I thought you were supposed to condense activities into groups when they're essentially different instances of the same thing. So, for example, if you've presented three posters you would list each poster as its own activity, but just list "poster presentations" and then in the details list out each poster. If you have a bunch of academic awards/honors, you would just stuff all those into an "Academic Awards" activity and then list them all out in the details section. If you have two hobbies, you'd put those in "Hobbies" and then list them out in the details section. You get the idea.

Am I wrong in this assumption? I could easily see myself hitting 15 if I listed all my papers, posters, research projects, and awards separately (actually I'd still need to condense stuff if I did that). Meanwhile if I condense everything I'm probably looking at something more like 5-8 activities.

Nope, you're correct. That's what I did. I put all of my research information (presentations and research info) together and my awards (scholarships, stipends, grants, etc.) together. So I had only one activity listed for Research and one for Awards. And even though I had 4 listed hobbies, I put them all down in the same activity under "Hobbies". For each description, I added the details (i.e. when, what, etc.).

I ended up with 9 activities in the end.

I will say though, that for volunteering, you might want to split them up if they're very distinct and you have a lot to say about each of them. I gave one of my volunteering activities its own slot and made it into one of my significant activities. Good luck.

 

[Jumoke]

I am a non-traditional student. Can i list my many century long non-clinical experience as a list of activities like i do on my resume? 😀

Also, what is "ECs"

 

[quechua]

I am a non-traditional student. Can i list my many century long of tech/engineering experience as a list of activities like i do on my resume? 😀

Also, what is "ECs"

Yes you should list your non-medically related experience as well.

ECs=extracurriculars